Niklas Mäckle, who goes by "knos" online, lives near Stuttgart, Germany. He's been working with MagicaVoxel for only about a year, but man can he can work it!
He considers himself a hobbyist, since most of his projects have been personal and he is still a student. However, he has done some commission work and would like to do game design professionally.
Meg Wehrlen's "Neon City" was Mäckle's first introduction to voxel art. What attracted him to the medium was how naturally he was able to learn to use the tools and the endless possibilities they give to create. He also uses a few other tools like Blender, but his renders come straight out of MagicaVoxel.
Frequently posting beautiful architecture pieces with surprisingly lifelike trees, Mäckle is usually drawn to work from whatever is on his mind at the time. He finds inspiration in the incredible artwork of Paul Riehle, who also specializes in realistic renders of architecture and landscapes.
Mäckle is humble about his work, but even he can't argue with over a thousand people expressing their love. "The huge amount of feedback I received for 'The Victorian House' showed me that I might have actual talent at what I'm doing."
For any aspiring voxel artists, he recommends keeping references handy, which has helped improve the realism of his renders.
Mäckle follows a lot of talented people, but one of his favorites is John Kearney - got to admit he's one of my favorites too!
If you'd like to check out more of Mäckle's artwork, visit his Twitter, Instagram, or support him by grabbing some prints.