

Michael Kutsche is a character designer and concept artist working in the film industry. He was one of the character designers on Tim Burton’s recent film, Alice in Wonderland, and is currently working on the upcoming John Carter of Mars, directed by Andrew Stanton and slated for release in 2012.

Originally from Germany, Kutsche is a self-taught artist who credits the internet with establishing his career. Though he works in traditional media like oil and watercolor for his personal and gallery art, his professional work is primarily digital paintings, and it was from a portfolio on CGSociety, a community site devoted to digital art, that he first gained the notice of Sony Pictures Imageworks, a connection that led to his work on Alice.

Kutsche often works with his digital tools in a way that gives a feeling of painterly traditional brushwork. Though his original CGSociety portfolio does not seem to be active, there is a two page interview with him on the site, as well as a walk through of the creation of one of his pieces, The Boxer.

His website has a gallery of work from 2008 and 2009, and he has recently started a blog.

His work is included in the new book, Disney: Alice in Wonderland: A Visual Companion.