Rik Oostenbroek

Every Arcus is different and unique and was made during different phases in my creative career. This series was the start of my success as a freelance creative and has also inspired many younger artists to start pursuing a career as a creative.

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The so called "Rik Oostenbroek style".

The Arcus series took me about 5 years to create. Every Arcus is different and unique and was made during different phases in my creative career. This series was the start of my success as a freelance creative and has also inspired many younger artists to start pursuing a career as a creative.

Five years ago, was a huge turning point in my career. The reason why? I always start with a blank canvas every time i feel like creating and so my work is very intuitive. It was no different when I was creating my first Arcus. Since it reflected my personality and the phase of life I was in at that time, this project was a huge turning point for me.

Since the age of 13 I've been battling with heavy depressions and experienced some extreme highs and also extreme lows. I have always been fighting it and found it hard to find some acceptance. During the making of Arcus somehow the acceptance came slowly but steadily. I had to find a way to deal with it and to function no matter what. Around 2016 at the age of 27 I finally started to find some sort of acceptance in the way I am. I tried to mentally adapt to all the weaknesses I've been fighting and hating on for years. And instead of fighting it I started to put it into my work. Arcus is a reflection of that moment you find your unique individual place in the world and accept your unique features; how shitty they can be as a human being.

The response of my creative friends and client was simply mind-blowing. I felt I finally found the way to blend my abstract taste and vibes into the 3D realm.

But like Johan Cruyff often said: "Every upside has it's downside".

But as in the most things, there is also a downside to building something people really love. Some imitators posted stock images online which companies could buy and use. There were so many people messaging me because they thought it was my work when it wasn't. Since in all honesty it isn't the hardest style to achieve. But it's all about finding that balance. While stock websites still sell images for relatively cheap, taking some of my major goals and/or clients I wanted to work with, on the other hand it tends to inspire a new generation of creators as well. Actually, some awesome creatives made tutorials about how to do a "Oostenbroek" style.

Every single Arcus is unique and not generated or simply duplicated by any means. They are all 1:1's with a huge amount of work in them to find that balance that resonated with myself during the time every single one was created.
Like every human, every moment and every single emotion, every Arcus has its own DNA and energy. But the most important thing is to accept our own strengths and weaknesses otherwise we can never function at 100%. Arcus managed to give me the highest highs in my career but also the lowest lows. Arcus was the first thing that made companies started to embrace my abstract work. Some of the biggest companies wanted to work with me because of this series. Clients I had the privilege to work with for this particular style through the past years were: Porsche, Truist, HP, Apple, Asus, Buff, Adobe, Xiaomi, OPPO and Puma.

To this day people still tag me on Instagram or twitter and show me the work they made based on my arcus series, which is simply amazing.

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Since some awesome creatives made tutorials about how to do a "Oostenbroek" style people could learn and see how to create these magical color changing forms.

Example below made by the amazing Roger Kilimanjaro.

Some client work examples.

Every single Arcus is unique and not generated or simply duplicated by any means. They are all 1:1's with a huge amount of work in them to find that balance that resonated with myself during the time every single one was created.
Like every human, every moment and every single emotion, every Arcus has it's own DNA and energy. But the most important thing is to accept our own strengths and weaknesses otherwise we can never function at 100%. Arcus managed to give me the highest highs in my career but also the lowest lows. Arcus was the first thing that made companies started to embrace my abstract work, so I hope you understand how personal this project is to me.

THE GENESIS 2015.
- December 15 2015 14:34-

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Looking back this moment changed everything for me. It was the most critical moment in my life as a creator. After picking up 3D for about 3 years I still couldn't bridge my love for abstract art into 3D. I had my signature styles going on in my 2D style but never could reflect my love for abstract art in a unique 3D approach.

As always I was my work started from nothing and when there is a free moment in the day I can only do one thing: create create create.
The first arcus were created based on past images I created. I simply stretched the pixels to have a Rik color palette immediately and took those into 3D to drive the movement, colors and texture.

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To me this is the most memorable creation I ever made and I'm still building upon this moment.
Feeling lost at the time, no clue what to do. Insecure about my future as a creator, barely any jobs in and my mental disbalance.
Without this moment in time I might have not been able to find my language in my work so you can almost say that this moment made me the creative I am now.

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ORIGINS 2016.

The origin series is the first time I pushed online a series of work with a similar style. An exploration based upon a action I did on the Genesis. This series went quite viral and I'm sure millions and millions of people have seen those. Which is rare for a abstract digital project. I started to push my knowledge as photoshop artist even more while working on these. I still feel the photoshop ( 2D ) part is as important as the 3D part in this style.

When uploading this origins series my life changed forever. I could finally stop grinding for weird photomanipulation jobs, briefs that didn't fit or stroke with my ideals. This was going to be my language.

Abstract colorful shit.

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PERSEQUI 2017-2018.

As I evolved as a person and a creative I felt that it was time to keep continuing what became known as the "Rik Oostenbroek" style. I noticed there was still wiggle room to explore and push this style into some new directions while still staying true to the original arcus vibe.

During those years I was hired a load for projects related to arcus so the frequetion I did these became lower, but the action of doing it was still a forfilling one to me. As you noticed my material choises and color choises differ a slight bit from the Origins series.

The thing that really helped me mentally was feeling I made the right choise for following my gut and passion, being a creative and being able to survive from just doing that.

Keeping doing arcus was still a meditive process for me personally and I kept posting these on instagram every now and then.

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VARIATIONES - 2021

During 2019 I didn't do any arcus since I was looking to explore new territories and was done with doing them for a while since clients kept on hiring me for the same sort of action.

Due to the fact that people kept reminding me of arcus by tagging me on Instagram in their personal take on arcus I decided to pick it up again being inspired and fueled by the artist community and pushed for some variety in arcus in ways I didn't do yet.

As you notice below my taste in art, colors and moods heavily changed from super neon and vibrant towards a more ambient feel.
After all arcus is a reflection of how balanced I feel as a person and you can noticed these look a bit more grown up with some sort of calmness over them. It's funny reflecting back how my work evolved from heavy color overdoses in a more balanced vibe.

"I feel more myself than ever, but the journey doesn't end here."

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PRAEMIUM - 2021

These are the ones I made to thank the collectors who believed in me as an artists before I had 10k followers or before barely anyone knew about me in the NFT space. I'm beyond thankful for their support, the conversations we had, the way we could educate each other and what not. Those guys deserved a special spot in this collection. So that's why I can proudly show you the custom arcus I did for my day 1 collectors.