| THE DIRTY DOZEN! |
[Dec. 15th, 2009|12:52 pm] |
My studio teamed up with the ComicsAlliance blog to create and showcase artwork representing the 12 Days of Christmas (a la the traditional Christmas carol of the same name). So far, studio associate Ben Bates has drawn a nifty partridge in a pear tree, and intern Andreas Shuster has drawn two turtle doves.
Tune in for each day's offerings... mine will be Day 8: Eight Maids A-milking. |
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| Revamp |
[Dec. 14th, 2009|03:43 pm] |
I was dissatisfied with this panel I drew (above), especially the woman's wonky face, so I decided to re-draw it.
I like the new version better, but somehow the panel still doesn't work for me. Too static; not sure how to fix it.
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| And now for something completely different. |
[Nov. 20th, 2009|07:01 pm] |
A recent drawing of my sister and her boyfriend:
She requested a realistic portrait. I think she should have requested some sweet Alpha Flight pix instead, but it was her birthday.... |
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| Depth. |
[Oct. 9th, 2009|09:37 am] |
I just love this panel by John Romita*, from Our Love Story #1. The depth he achieves is amazing. I can feel the space in that fence-enclosed yard beyond the lovers. I feel like I can lob a rock over their heads into that yard.
I need to experiment more with shadows like that.
*The page's owner claims that John Buscema pencilled it, but I have a hard time seeing that. |
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| The bad, the good, and the ugly. |
[Oct. 7th, 2009|11:47 am] |
What you don't want to hear workers shout while they chainsaw the power pole outside your home:
"I'VE NEVER SEEN THAT HAPPEN BEFORE!"
In other news, this charmed me to pieces. In a nutshell: an 82-year-old caricaturist quick-sketched a burglar who invaded his yard, resulting in the burglar's arrest.
Notice that his drawing has a big grin. I can't decide whether this is because the burglar was grinning, or if it's because caricaturists must add grins to their drawings as a matter of course. I only wish the burglar's head were attached to a tiny body hefting a sack of loot. |
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| Boilerplate cometh! |
[Sep. 28th, 2009|04:50 am] |
My friend and studiomate Paul Guinan and his wife Anina are releasing an amazing coffee tale book this month: BOILERPLATE, History's Mechanical Marvel. It's the culmination of their years of research into an obscure robotic oddity of the 19th Century. I've seen advance copies and I must say, the book looks fantastic. Next time you find yourself in a major bookstore, do seek out BOILERPLATE, for at least a thumb-through. Worth it!
Here's a rousing trailer for the book (and more sample images linked along the left):
http://www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/book.html
Paul will also be promoting the book here in Portland this week:
October 1, 6:00–9:00 pm
First Thursday reception
PCPA ArtBar, 1111 SW Broadway (at Main St.)
Through the month of November, artwork from Boilerplate is on public display in the Portland Center for the Performing Arts ArtBar. The October 1st reception will feature a book signing, hors d’oeuvres, and libations.
October 2, 7:30 pm
Boilerplate reading and signing
Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside
If you can attend only one event, please turn out for our first appearance at Powell’s on Burnside. Our reading will include letters from Boilerplate’s inventor and historical images of the robot. A life-sized Boilerplate image, suitable for photographic opportunities, will also be present. |
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| R.I.P. Bernie Fuchs |
[Sep. 20th, 2009|10:43 am] |
Arguably the greatest living illustrator (he could even make golf look exciting!), Bernie Fuchs died of cancer on Thursday.
His paintings are luminescent, beautifully arranged, and full of the thrilling majesty of vast, open spaces.
The Washington Post has a good obit, describing Fuchs's career and his influence, but I'm sorry to report that there is STILL NO BOOK COLLECTION OF HIS WORK. A travesty which I hope will be remedied before long. |
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| Animal Man |
[Sep. 20th, 2009|08:30 am] |
Another commish:
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| G. K. Chesterton, on the flaws of the lowbrow and the highbrow: |
[Sep. 15th, 2009|07:38 am] |
"The sensational story-teller does indeed create uninteresting characters, and then try to make them interesting by killing them.
"But the intellectual novelist yet more sadly wastes his talents, for he creates interesting characters, and then does not kill them.
Were Chesterton alive today, he would probably be posting the above at some comics message board.
While we're at it, he would also be posting this at a LOST message board:
"The first and fundamental principle is that the aim of a mystery story, as of every other story and every other mystery, is not darkness but light. The story is written for the moment when the reader does understand, not merely for the many preliminary moments when he does not understand. The misunderstanding is only meant as a dark outline of cloud to bring out the brightness of that instant of intelligibility; and most bad detective stories are bad because they fail upon this point. The writers have a strange notion that it is their business to baffle the reader; and that so long as they baffle him it does not matter if they disappoint him. But it is not only necessary to hide a secret, it is also necessary to have a secret; and to have a secret worth hiding. |
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| These guys' skills will knock you over. |
[Aug. 27th, 2009|09:03 am] |
Any fan of Toth, Thorne, Breccia, or Zaffino ought to check out this archive* of old Italian comics, scanned from the pages of magazine anthologies.
Of particular note is this Sergio Zaniboni story, and this superb Toppi story.
Other standouts there include:
Uggeri
Di Gennaro
De Luca
D'Antonio
Battaglia
Micheluzzi
Pratt
A shame this stuff has remained unavailable here for decades.
*Be warned: the scans on each page are large and numerous. Also, many of the images are divided into six pieces, so if you want to click and save you'll have to click them as you would a vertical six-cube ice tray -- corners and middles. |
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| Rough cover redesign. |
[Aug. 17th, 2009|11:58 am] |
I'm redesigning several old covers for fun. Here's my rough of Classic X-Men #7, with the X-Men busting through a metal wall.
My idea was that the wall would pose no problem for the X-Men, so they'd be nonchalant about it. However, this version lacks dynamism, and there's dead space in the lower left. I followed up with a more action-packed version, but that looked conventional. So, I pushed it further, but our heroes ended up looking too frantic, like they had rabies. I guess my next approach will be to keep their frantic poses, but make their faces look grim instead of crazy.
Who knew drawing a cover would be so complicated? |
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| The Six Percent Principle |
[Aug. 15th, 2009|04:52 am] |
94% of any work of art is irrelevant to the work's success. The other 6% is crucial.
This is why flawed, hurried, poorly funded works by inexperienced creators may achieve greatness, and why well funded, carefully planned, mostly impeccable works by experienced masters may fall flat. The question is always whether the crucial 6% was handled well.
This also explains the difference between a "popular favorite" and an "artists' artist." An artist who is respected by other artists, but not by the public, is one who excels at the irrelevant 94%, but botches the crucial 6%. An artist who is loved by the public, but not the cognoscenti, is one who botches the 94% but nails the crucial 6%.
Most works succeed in some measure in both categories, and a rare few excel in both categories, but either way, success among casual consumers is only reckoned by the 6%. So the artist's challenge is to determine what tiny fraction of the piece contains most of its appeal, and focus mainly on making that portion work. If the rest also works, it's gravy. |
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