I'm not familiar with John Pound's work. It is staggeringly good though. It's got the right level of cartooning, pleasing exaggeration, and sumptuous rendering. It's really the rendering of form that makes these images sing. They look like stills, or concept art, from the greatest unmade animated feature by a parallel universe evil-Disney studio. What really gets me is the sfumato, the atmospheric depth, he's able to create. I like that these images aren't trying to be photo-realistic, but rather ascribe to the cartoonish logic of their world, but still, have the physics of our reality. It's a world I wish I could spend some time in more than just these images can provide.
All artwork by John Pound