Welcome to our Artist Spotlight series. Today, we're excited to introduce Dario Santos, a Portuguese-born artist and illustrator whose unique blend of psychedelia, surrealism, and neotraditional tattoo styling delights as much as it captivates. In this collaboration, Dario brings his visionary approach to life with a new t-shirt and cap collection featuring a striking 3D design that comes to life when viewed through the accompanying 3D glasses. Join us as we explore his journey, influences, and the creative process behind these stunning designs. Let’s dive in!
For those uninitiated, introduce us to Dario Santos and tell us how you became Dario Santos, the artist?
I am a Portuguese-born Artist and Illustrator, currently living in Swindon, UK. I have been drawing since I was a little kid – as my parents were also very into art - and have always been a creative person. As I grew up and to test my creative boundaries, I have worked on several artistic fields such as Tattoo, Animation and the Gaming Industry.
Throughout the years, I have worked to develop my own artistic style, influenced by neotraditional tattoo and the surrealistic and psychedelic movements, which has led me to where I am now. These three styles combine everything I love in art, and are the source of inspiration behind my ideas.
Your style blends psychedelia & surrealism with neotraditional tattoo stylings - what and who would you say have been the biggest influences on your work?
I have several people in my circle that have influenced my approach to art. My style has changed a lot throughout time, as with testing I was able to understand what I really liked to work on.
In the beginning of my art exploration, I was very inspired by Pedro Zamith, a Portuguese artist, who influenced my approach to the use of bold colours and lines for texturing and movement. Salvador Dali was my first introduction to surrealism and really led me to look at things differently and out of the box – focussing on storytelling, the imaginary of “dreams”, the nonsense making sense and the nature of the unnatural. Other prominent artists of influence from the surrealistic movement are Yves Tanguy, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst and René Magritte.
As for the psychedelic movement, which was more relevant in the 60’s and 70’s, this is for me the richest time in the modern era of art, with artists mixing fine art with music, movies, photography and with amazing references such as Stanley Kubrick, Roger Dean, H. R. Giger and Victor Moscoso.
Finally, Tattoo is something I loved to do but struggled with its permanence. Old School American traditional, the neotraditional and traditional Japanese styles are all influences but neotraditional is the biggest influence of all of them. Through tattooing I learned composition and colour application.
How has your work evolved over your career so far?
I believe that an artist’s evolution is constant. As artists we can easily get stuck doing a type of work we don’t really identify with as it may bring recognition and stability but this can also lead to burnout and create a fear of trying new things.
My main focus has been to work towards an art style that I would be able to evolve in and grow, that would represent me and my creative vision and would be recognisable to allow movement in different mediums and pathways. This approach has led me to different areas with tattoo, animation and murals.
When I left high school, I had a more cartoon focussed style, and I wanted to do comics and character design, and with time have evolved to more conceptual and storytelling work. In the past few years, I found a style that represents exactly what I am as a person and as an artist and now I am expanding the ways I can use to express my art, either via different materials e.g. canvas, paper, wood and applications such as 2D, 3D and mural art.
Tell us about your creative process & where do you draw inspiration for your work?
I work a bit differently. I do not sketch my ideas and do not keep a sketchbook. I usually write the concept idea and may do a small thumbnail of my idea, but most of the composition and ideation takes place in my mind. I spend some time thinking about the concept and what I would like to represent or how I would approach a clients idea. Once the final ideas are structured in my mind, I progress to a digital sketch and use a stencil to pass the design to paper which is then handpainted. I mainly use Posca and Molotow markers to paint, and all of the decisions on colour are also done in my mind.
For inspiration, music is always with me - my go to is Rock from the 60’s to 90’s – and I like to explore storytelling, whilst capturing nature and everyday elements of daily life.
Tell us about the genesis of this latest collection and the experience of working in 3D?
For this collaboration, I thought of doing something that I had not done before which is working with Anaglyph 3D art. I have always wanted to try and apply it to my work as I find it provides an extra dimension and engagement to artwork.
The design itself is entitled ‘Manipulation’, which oddly enough was the first thing that came to mind and influenced the design. As the Anaglyph effect provides a bit of movement, I wanted to create the effect of that ‘Manipulation’ into the artwork, represented by the central flower. This flower design is a natural element I use a lot in my work and which provides a good base for the idea.
It was a tricky but fun experience, as I had to ensure the colours and elements worked together for the Anaglyph effect to work.
What creative avenues, processes and styles do you want explore in your work that you have yet to try?
I want to start working with wood and turn my artwork into wooden 3D sculptures, mounting them together for depth. I also want to experiment with 3D printing and clay to turn my 2-dimensional designs into 3D pieces. This is definitely the next step in my artistic practice but that will take a little bit of time to structure.
How does it feel seeing people wearing your work in real world settings?
I feel really flattered to see people wearing designs I create. I am very grateful for all the people that have supported my work and hope to continue to provide art that continues to resonate with others.
Art is a full representation of an artist and every artist puts a bit of themselves into their work, and so it is really endearing that others identify with it and find it special as well.
Where can people go and find out more about you & your work?
People can find me on Instagram @dariosantos_art, where I post about my work. I also have a portfolio website www.dariosantosart.com and an online shop at www.etsy.com/shop/dariosantosart .
I am available for commercial and private work. Very happy to discuss any ideas.
Grab yourself a Darios Santos collab t-shirt and hat here :https://www.blindmaggot.co.uk/collections/dario-santos-collaboration
