RAY CAESAR (BORN OCTOBER 26, 1958) IS AN ENGLISH DIGITAL SURREAL ARTIST WHO LIVES AND WORKS IN TORONTO, CANADA.
Ray Caesar’s portraits frequently involve child like creatures with physical deformities and grotesque elements set against a fairy tale backdrop of darkness and sexual innuendos.
Ray Caesar describes his process as “I begin by automatic drawing which is basically just letting your hand do first what your mind hasn’t thought about. This evolves and I begin modelling in a 3D software called Maya pretty much the same way. I set the digital figure up for animation and I can move each finger and have a wide range of facial expressions, I do dynamic simulations of cloth and begin using curves to style hair. Lights and textures and 3D environments and referencing older models I built years ago come into the virtual space. I love that I can hide old letters and photographs in lockets and tuck them away into drawers that are closed. I know they are there and that seems important to me and I love that sometimes I forget they are there. In many ways working in a virtual environment is like being in a dissociative fugue or very deep daydream or in your very own playroom…you can get lost in there very easily. Somehow the piece just evolves into what it wants to be”.