Aaron Miller

Capturing the moment is the key to this American artist’s striking fantasy work, as Nick Carson discovers…

- Nick Carson

When asked what makes his style unique, Aaron B Miller takes his time formulating an answer. It’s not an easy one to pin down, but he believes it’s one of the most important things for an illustrator to consider.

“I’ve heard it’s my use of lighting. I think it’s the moments I choose to focus on,” he muses. “I aim for a realistic, but painterly style. I want my images to look painted, not like photos. It’s not about the details, but the marks and shapes that make us see more detail than is actually there.”

Figures, creatures and landscapes are Aaron’s subjects of choice, and he eschews complex, chaotic action scenes in favour of taking his time painting one fascinating character – under his trademark dramatic lighting scheme, naturally.

Although he concedes that digital art is faster and cheaper – and can achieve a similarly painterly feel – Aaron works in oils whenever he has the time, and brings his creatures to life with wonderfully tactile textures. “I tend to choose fur over scales,” he reveals. “And feathers, of course.”

His high school provided technical, illustration-focused art classes, and he went on to study at Chicago’s American Academy of Art. But he firmly believes in ongoing personal development, and still attends lifedrawing and sculpture classes to perfect his grasp of anatomy, as well as running his own Figurative Illustration workshops to help emerging illustrators hone their own technique by drawing costumed models.

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