Testing the limits of the humble pencil, Danny Ische’s illustrations are a mesmerising mismatch

When describing the work of the New-York-based illustrator Danny Ische, it really sounds like it shouldn’t work. Simple line-based illustrations of childhood TV characters, classic hyper realistic portrait drawings, and glitchy, pixelated sketches all come together on the same page. But this mismatch of styles culminates in something truly mesmerising – a selection of works that you can really spend a long time unpacking.

But one word Danny doesn’t view as appropriate in describing his work is “juxtaposition” – “because the elements all belong together to me,” he says. Certainly, Danny’s works are incredibly personal, focusing primarily on memories from his childhood, referring to game characters, clipart, cartoons and comics. “I take unserious things seriously – I hope that is shown from the detail I put into my work,” he expands. “That doesn't mean that I'm stone faced and angry when I'm drawing, it just means that the characters and references are important to me and I care about them.” Layered, informed and genre-defying; it’s safe to say that Danny’s is one of the most visually intriguing and dynamic portfolios we’ve come across recently.