tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46307618041735793762024-03-28T10:34:14.879-05:00ArtventureThis is a personal journal documenting my studies in art - mainly just a place to keep notes and to organize my thoughts better than I could in a handwritten journal (you can't do a search in a paper journal, or post live links). My ultimate goal is oil painting, but I want to start with developing my grasp of the basics in drawing. Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.comBlogger637125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-58556446367292074592024-03-28T10:33:00.002-05:002024-03-28T10:33:14.978-05:00More Arm Stuff<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="405" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/afwCBilxqxs" width="653" youtube-src-id="afwCBilxqxs"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>I need to do a bunch of these draw-overs, they seem incredibly helpful. </p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-6384980219734602722024-03-26T14:36:00.004-05:002024-03-26T14:38:03.854-05:00Note to Self<p> Don't let Google 'find' the video by inputting the title—even the exact title cut and pasted in. For some reason it can't do that. What do you think it is, a powerful search engine or something? Sheesh! You need to paste in the URL—and not the one from the top bar. It can't find it with that either. You need to right-click on the video and use that shortened URL. Wish there was something that explained that somewhere, you just need to fumble aorund until you figure it out. </p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-44093793720505881552024-03-26T13:46:00.010-05:002024-03-26T14:13:37.302-05:00Simplifying the Arm with Emilio Dekure<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="403" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M8f4K7RERJI" width="671" youtube-src-id="M8f4K7RERJI"></iframe></div><br /><div>This video shows the arm's equivalent of the Sartorial line, which connects together all the forms of the leg along one elegant line and makes it much easier to figure out how to place each muscle-form. </div>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-88782570375948801872024-03-25T12:33:00.009-05:002024-03-27T05:16:31.638-05:00Exploring Edges with Lane Brown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="397" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gJTjYRVoym4" width="691" youtube-src-id="gJTjYRVoym4"></iframe></div><br /><div>Around the middle of the video it gets to the part where Lane's art started to become more about edges than anything else. I've just started to really explore edges, and it really makes the work pop. This is an excellent discussion with some very important information I want to log here. </div>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-61709690986736025442023-06-12T07:06:00.004-05:002023-06-12T07:10:56.628-05:00Shape Language for drawings<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="375" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rPWa5kSwVGE" width="651" youtube-src-id="rPWa5kSwVGE"></iframe></div><br /> This almost seems like David Finch giving away the secret of why his drawings look the way they do. I remember when I was revisiting a particular Fafhrd painting a while back it bothered me that the simple curves everywhere made it look feminine and soft, so I squared it all up, which helped. I found a sort of compromise between the harder straight lines and the softer curves, but this is a much more advanced approach. Definitely worth playing around with. <div><br /><div>He pays tribute to the drawings of Jeffrey Watts at one point. Proko did the same in a recent video too. Makes sense—Jeff is an amazing draftsman and teacher. </div><div><br /></div><div>In places Finch's "Line of beauty" becomes Bridgman's "Line with a hook on it."</div></div>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-46728346162292427552023-06-04T02:36:00.001-05:002023-06-04T02:37:41.766-05:00Another excellent pelvis construction method<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="408" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ymXn15rrKFM" width="649" youtube-src-id="ymXn15rrKFM"></iframe></div><br /> Ran across this one recently and wanted to post it here so I don't lose track of it.<p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-90053772147309152502023-05-15T01:00:00.002-05:002023-05-15T02:07:46.383-05:00Tentatively finished, but needs a lot of detailing work and a few fixes<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR_xn4_YEYa-uV0XP1uxRxe4bl4WFv43FtzmaIuymrllLHH6s2hEJhUGU04gSI996U-XRnS24J_2F-QqCFjiBMY-J2aWYML6TFTX_u8bSPhN_wxOaxVgIgEw7q0BK1YAUKRV1s7g-iw-ihGIpYavXvF2wLhRRTnuVlmwnIpuU2T2Wsq6ouwznu8El1/s1002/Original-Fafhrd-1.3.9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="761" height="828" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR_xn4_YEYa-uV0XP1uxRxe4bl4WFv43FtzmaIuymrllLHH6s2hEJhUGU04gSI996U-XRnS24J_2F-QqCFjiBMY-J2aWYML6TFTX_u8bSPhN_wxOaxVgIgEw7q0BK1YAUKRV1s7g-iw-ihGIpYavXvF2wLhRRTnuVlmwnIpuU2T2Wsq6ouwznu8El1/w629-h828/Original-Fafhrd-1.3.9.jpg" width="629" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It isn't really done, but I'm not sure what to do to it at this point. I need to make some decisions. So I'm posting it now as "Tentatively done." At some point I might go in and try to fix some of the problems, but for now I'm ready to move on. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>There's a lot I like about the way it looks. I lightened it up so much because Fafhrd is supposed to be really pale, but in comparison to it most of my earlier paintings now look ridiculously dark. There's always been something weird about the colors I use, but it seems I pick better ones when I'm coloring a line drawing. The lighting doesn't really make any sense—I need to decide where the sun is and then place shadows accordingly. That shadow running down the center of his face says the sun is in one place, and the rest says it's somewhere else. <br /> <p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-18356846414184991272023-05-12T04:51:00.003-05:002023-05-12T04:59:47.802-05:00I need to learn some serious hand anatomy<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH4y460k8CG6z8kQS4UuUYqUzILe99iqZr5MvJQBfbVdl7pVHG6WRjWrYqTz10Av1cxiUfKvJ3m50ZIXMLJ7vDiItjoJbtX5yn5OcoLvlAcUWqODcIy7YVDjFLiuT-Rfj86bDq2aK6-ahfxr14bXj0oxZOBLbzRd-gOAGKkfjgHw5oeuXfjDIXQ8WE/s2240/P1050110.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1479" data-original-width="2240" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH4y460k8CG6z8kQS4UuUYqUzILe99iqZr5MvJQBfbVdl7pVHG6WRjWrYqTz10Av1cxiUfKvJ3m50ZIXMLJ7vDiItjoJbtX5yn5OcoLvlAcUWqODcIy7YVDjFLiuT-Rfj86bDq2aK6-ahfxr14bXj0oxZOBLbzRd-gOAGKkfjgHw5oeuXfjDIXQ8WE/w640-h422/P1050110.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwZn8V2XQiRSVzZuR5Ui9zHbeKItUs-DRz9OVfGFDx3RDffNFRU9pRdSXurBqsdXez5s3CkDZUF18QoVdRcJh9BclTlpdg5Ot0xNcPiUUIiEOH-Dtp9Iu1idfkrc1lJEmaV5xxYcjQb7E0WzyOX_VteaUbrZ3_EzTonstDtLhlK0Wu46ELb_c2wC3q/s2240/P1050109.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="2240" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwZn8V2XQiRSVzZuR5Ui9zHbeKItUs-DRz9OVfGFDx3RDffNFRU9pRdSXurBqsdXez5s3CkDZUF18QoVdRcJh9BclTlpdg5Ot0xNcPiUUIiEOH-Dtp9Iu1idfkrc1lJEmaV5xxYcjQb7E0WzyOX_VteaUbrZ3_EzTonstDtLhlK0Wu46ELb_c2wC3q/w640-h206/P1050109.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Above are some examples of competently done but uninspired hands. They're drawn with hard lines and very squared-off. What I mean will become apparent in the video below. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_3xgSdtCG-SYOhw1qTubODpC8wMYunGxnXSF22b81vPEbgGveT4uZUHs7wu1Yx6KwhBcSiQygU0pUifMm0j_robPzPuwDb0ADZUqsP1m3SvWPj4YPQRs5ph-MgoWva7bJNw6GPsp-Ih1hxVh9Eqe72C-KB8A8LQKsHiHzrEiPk217TYrWQAHUP_F2/s2240/P1050111.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="2240" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_3xgSdtCG-SYOhw1qTubODpC8wMYunGxnXSF22b81vPEbgGveT4uZUHs7wu1Yx6KwhBcSiQygU0pUifMm0j_robPzPuwDb0ADZUqsP1m3SvWPj4YPQRs5ph-MgoWva7bJNw6GPsp-Ih1hxVh9Eqe72C-KB8A8LQKsHiHzrEiPk217TYrWQAHUP_F2/w640-h292/P1050111.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">These are drawn by Mark Texeira. Much more fluid and graceful in terms of gesture, and they show a solid grasp of the anatomy underlying the surface. This is not surprising considering Texeira spent some time in his early days working at Continuity Comics, spearheaded by Neal Adams, and apparently got some good tips and pointers from him. I just watched an interview with Mark, where he said for his paintings he does an inital rough-in, and when that gets greenlit he'll hire models and take lots of pics for reference. I'll bet he does that for some of his comics work as well. It would explain a lot. Richard Corben, who I talked about recently, also took lots of pictures of models to work from. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieUhJI37I3EW-YHkQH87LeeaPtv1GW93yAwJGmm1xe664uqWMH8_SzZtU6vABXbdtbSlmo5gAVepOI1tRDDOA-tshZ8tiXJWncHmqPbqlTbyPCwaMxvpAI4wOjq3aMmcmakscm0BIaRIiZ5NgLvDbon78EX4GenB1qUUG4CosT6YP7SW1AYDsaXcUZ/s1809/P1050106.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1809" data-original-width="1386" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieUhJI37I3EW-YHkQH87LeeaPtv1GW93yAwJGmm1xe664uqWMH8_SzZtU6vABXbdtbSlmo5gAVepOI1tRDDOA-tshZ8tiXJWncHmqPbqlTbyPCwaMxvpAI4wOjq3aMmcmakscm0BIaRIiZ5NgLvDbon78EX4GenB1qUUG4CosT6YP7SW1AYDsaXcUZ/w490-h640/P1050106.jpg" width="490" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Jae Lee. Frequently his panels are little more than extreme hands and grimacing faces. Those alone can tell the story, or much of it. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZRYJME0aThfAk0a134b3deEK-9HfXGWuZejtpu74gE0d3afWCug0Z8ehhNfkiijarJZin5nTi9D-FmGGqMikrgwzN2U1I-EChGTl3xzo3y6mEexP6RGgYYqbH9NGB10erKqeAHx9gK1TokP5t70qJ4fPZUlLtkKdMM5TvQbddbyWgMj10rZrIMeB/s2240/P1050107.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1367" data-original-width="2240" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZRYJME0aThfAk0a134b3deEK-9HfXGWuZejtpu74gE0d3afWCug0Z8ehhNfkiijarJZin5nTi9D-FmGGqMikrgwzN2U1I-EChGTl3xzo3y6mEexP6RGgYYqbH9NGB10erKqeAHx9gK1TokP5t70qJ4fPZUlLtkKdMM5TvQbddbyWgMj10rZrIMeB/w640-h390/P1050107.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcq9onknK59OvTwJXLRkv2dFPYC_Sext0ofvPggQULj-lrGKUsC_tFuAdX7TdMpi1_6eLsVRHuX_bjWYJKjiJrLjUAFIxOm-LGmMa0z7XwjABaAtgBaGDAm45Zd_XdZa7vlndDJWau48OfoSDdoA8Auk2DN-dlpfwlL7A9NcT0Tan6KYMTEl_7Fw1c/s2240/P1050108.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="1328" data-original-width="2240" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcq9onknK59OvTwJXLRkv2dFPYC_Sext0ofvPggQULj-lrGKUsC_tFuAdX7TdMpi1_6eLsVRHuX_bjWYJKjiJrLjUAFIxOm-LGmMa0z7XwjABaAtgBaGDAm45Zd_XdZa7vlndDJWau48OfoSDdoA8Auk2DN-dlpfwlL7A9NcT0Tan6KYMTEl_7Fw1c/w640-h380/P1050108.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's how Jae Lee did hands back in his crazy 90s extreme comics style. The best comic book artists really show what they're made of if you look at the way they draw hands. As bizarre and extremely distorted as these all are, they show a deep knowledge of skeletal structure and hand gesture. Which is not the same thing as 'hand gestures'. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I plan to go to two main sources for hand anatomy—Bridgman (always go there first) and David Finch (who definitely studied Bridgman). You can also go to Frazetta. Guess what, he studied Bridgman and used that stuff all throughout his work. The reason Bridgman is the go-to for comic book and heroic fantasy artists is because he spent a lot of time immersed in a deep study of Michelangelo's art and ferreted out some of his secrets. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ok, David Finch video:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="369" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YcM5PHft0EQ" width="622" youtube-src-id="YcM5PHft0EQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Since I don't plan to be a comic book artist, I won't need to exaggerate as much as he does, but I think it's good to know about it. I always want to aim high, meaning to learn a bit more than I need. If you learn how to exaggerate farther than you need to, then you can always pull back a bit, but if you only learn realistic drawing, then how will you be able to exaggerate at all? He puts so much dynamism into everything he draws. One of the best pieces of advice in the video is to look at your own hands for ideas on poses. I think the guy who's art I posted in the first two images above could have done himself a big favor if he had checked for how people hold telephones and guns. </div><p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-1806097756755901882023-05-08T02:50:00.005-05:002023-05-08T02:53:04.349-05:00Impromptu Chalk Brush and Decent Digital Drawing<p> No more Fafhrd updates til he's done, I don't want to spoil the surprize. It's going well, if slowly. I'm finally done constructing the axe and the hands, and back to actually painting on the figure again. </p><p>I've figured out a couple of important things that will really help me work on this kind of hybrid drawing/painting in the future, and I want to record them here so I don't forget. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Chalk Brush</h3><p style="text-align: left;">First, there doesn't seem to be a chalk brush anymore in <b>Elements</b>. It was one of my favorites. But I've found a way to chalk up whatever brush you're using—just <b>open Brush Settings and raise the scatter</b>. Simple. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Drawing decent lines digitally</h3><p>Second, a way to make lines that match the pencil lines, and also this allows me to draw much more accurately with the stylus. You don't just make a sinlge line and leave it, you <b>go back and forth between cutting in and cutting out</b>. meaning <b>make the line, but make it thick and chunky, and then come in with background color and cut in along the edges to shape it</b>. You do this a few times each way and you can make a decent facsimile of my type of pencil drawing with the built-up thick linework. I use a blend of both soft and hard round brushes for it. </p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-38420104215201407782023-05-04T08:46:00.002-05:002023-05-04T09:33:19.589-05:00Getting hands on<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMTJLIAnXHZobOe7Oe4kcPmIjvVprOUHmzY07_YrgGDgR8g6Kraeua3B5NgNn56eQCrw3NWoWcv0mNF8--RzU2DMk3isoA5_boncFwnv8qtEJ4jRicmzlCgEE9xWM8D1FlViGb7uXrOqdjhK8gSov0Akg-zrICTBmCZv394RmGFv3_vvFo5Qr22trZ/s1002/Original-Fafhrd-1.2.4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="761" height="801" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMTJLIAnXHZobOe7Oe4kcPmIjvVprOUHmzY07_YrgGDgR8g6Kraeua3B5NgNn56eQCrw3NWoWcv0mNF8--RzU2DMk3isoA5_boncFwnv8qtEJ4jRicmzlCgEE9xWM8D1FlViGb7uXrOqdjhK8gSov0Akg-zrICTBmCZv394RmGFv3_vvFo5Qr22trZ/w608-h801/Original-Fafhrd-1.2.4.jpg" width="608" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Finally putting some hands on him. I knew I'd never be able to draw them digitally as well as I can draw in pencil, so I cheated. I looked up pictures of men holding axes, lopped off hands in just about the right positions, and Frankensteined them on. I had to do a lot of finagling and adjusting. Luckily the lighting was just about right for his right hand, but as you can see, for the left hand it's backwards. I need to reverse it, so there's light where there's currently shadow, and vice versa. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Right now I have the photo hands pasted on, but I'm painting over them so nothing will remain of the original photo elements. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This torturous experience has made me tell myself over and over that I need to start with a fully developed pencil drawing, where all mistakes have been corrected already and everything is in there, nothing left to invent in photoshop. I've never done that yet. And I suppose I could fix a few things digitally before I start coloring, but it needs to be all done before I start adding color. I need to have that pencil drawing as a layer on top so all coloring is done underneath it. Once you get them stuck together it gets crazy. </div><p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-82809950976884141332023-04-23T16:32:00.008-05:002023-04-23T22:18:28.372-05:00The Spotlight Effect<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwbB77ugVt0-vZfLf3kjyKiZbR9qWgCsWKKW3HXiR3Hxom61SSHd5g3duOfpPHHGGu82T_Y5v4Yf_2lStjvzc8zBN7WBHDRJ0SfTKzEN-66kP0c74N2t_NzT2JBYzut8Y7s7MqZl_tp-WN1qfQwgOENdZu-uQ9lMUaIrSuaNAhVrkTm1Y56vWplKx8/s800/comp012-finished-02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="800" height="570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwbB77ugVt0-vZfLf3kjyKiZbR9qWgCsWKKW3HXiR3Hxom61SSHd5g3duOfpPHHGGu82T_Y5v4Yf_2lStjvzc8zBN7WBHDRJ0SfTKzEN-66kP0c74N2t_NzT2JBYzut8Y7s7MqZl_tp-WN1qfQwgOENdZu-uQ9lMUaIrSuaNAhVrkTm1Y56vWplKx8/w702-h570/comp012-finished-02.jpg" width="702" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Another of my master studies from 2014. This is I believe the third one where I noticed the <b><i>spotlight effect</i></b>, where the artist uses creative lighting to accent certain parts of the picture. Here it's the warrior's arms and chest, the strain as he pulls back that bow. It also falls on his raised knee and on the backside of the girl. It's on his face too, but the face is tilted back to minimise it, so the real attention is on his strength and straining, and on what he's protecting. As I mentioned before I think of the head and face as the personality and thinking in a painting, and the chest as visceral strength or carnality. And because the figure grouping of the lizard and the two people is triangular, it gives an effect similar to a sunset on the top of a mountian. There are a couple of dimmer areas of light—the lizard's mouth mainly, as secondary focal areas, and below that a scattering of even dimmer ones to emphasize the triangular shape, which is the strongest shape structurally. A strong classical composition.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIY_Vxp_fu3_SEFP0p5IHI8T7aankrtMs09CxbetoOEskIwjbBimlP_WBpIR6fhc-heSUxNWK-EW0tC-TB-XYJiiMv5BNtIGKprQrTIqYjQHUH60VAQ-lzFDOGKmMzLScxGiLkzpd_3zoFIFXLewQkF-sS4sq_2i5HTmUJZluWg3F8SWtMj59FBJrJ/s800/Comp1-2hr.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="800" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIY_Vxp_fu3_SEFP0p5IHI8T7aankrtMs09CxbetoOEskIwjbBimlP_WBpIR6fhc-heSUxNWK-EW0tC-TB-XYJiiMv5BNtIGKprQrTIqYjQHUH60VAQ-lzFDOGKmMzLScxGiLkzpd_3zoFIFXLewQkF-sS4sq_2i5HTmUJZluWg3F8SWtMj59FBJrJ/w640-h412/Comp1-2hr.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This was the first time I encountered it, in my first composition study. A <b><i>Tiepolo</i></b>. Oh, how little I realized what I was walking into! His paintings are deceptively complex, with almost every form (even fingers!) using the <i>bounce light/core shadow</i> approach. Not only that, but for my first attempt I chose one with three figures! <i>Foolishness!</i> I did a really rough job (hence why this one isn't at the top of the page), but I definitely noticed the strange unrealistic lighting. The chest of each figure is strongly emphasized, plus the face of the mother and her child. Her chest and shoulder most strongly I think. These areas of dappled light give a shimmering effect across the canvas, complex and pleasing to the eye. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmjTlN7YLLFjM9qDvlw2Qvv9WrDnu4Oo0XXU27gjbGVk2GZmvHTW3TIwh11bbM-MwKlCwkPHi2EYUl91e14hQozCqqgF5jIL3p8rPKE5LFLVT72-ChikO8ubtoDcljK4oevS-EKxhv4c2JBcjgWoItue4S0Y3jcPk5Z7ezVoCT1YXiQYqEdkWEb8Ud/s800/Comp008-7.5hr.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="800" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmjTlN7YLLFjM9qDvlw2Qvv9WrDnu4Oo0XXU27gjbGVk2GZmvHTW3TIwh11bbM-MwKlCwkPHi2EYUl91e14hQozCqqgF5jIL3p8rPKE5LFLVT72-ChikO8ubtoDcljK4oevS-EKxhv4c2JBcjgWoItue4S0Y3jcPk5Z7ezVoCT1YXiQYqEdkWEb8Ud/w640-h404/Comp008-7.5hr.gif" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My second Tiepolo, my second encounter with the spotlight effect. This time it's clearly the saint's chest, arm and upper thigh that are emphasized—his face is pulled back and falls off into semi-darkness. It isn't his personality or his appearance or thought the artist wanted to bring attention to, but I believe his passion and spiritual love of Christ, and maybe the vulnerability of his bare flesh also. The beating heart underneath that flesh, with the dark knife poised so close. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm posting this as a followup to my past one, which deals with the same basic idea. Simplify your lighting and use it to direct the viewer's attention to where you want it. Decide what you want to say with the piece, and think about how you can use lighting to say it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/2896/14199858767_f869dbe385_w.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="246" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/2896/14199858767_f869dbe385_w.jpg" width="394" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Another <b><i>Frazetta</i></b> study I did that features creative control over lighting. Again the face is lit, but again it's tilted back so you only see a sliver of it and the emphasis goes to the chest and raised arm. The legs drop off into darkness. Following are a few more poaintings where I used this lighting strategy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/2932/14225913362_5274b7f6be_c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="799" data-original-width="707" height="400" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/2932/14225913362_5274b7f6be_c.jpg" width="354" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/2865/34066700645_5f84898e01_c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="651" height="400" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/2865/34066700645_5f84898e01_c.jpg" width="326" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/2849/33224501414_cd47e00598_c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="501" height="640" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/2849/33224501414_cd47e00598_c.jpg" width="401" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51441020002_1d57d6e61b_c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="664" height="400" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51441020002_1d57d6e61b_c.jpg" width="332" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Now I want to look at how <b><i>Richard Corben</i></b> specifically uses the spotlight effect in his work. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLQ6lPRCaX0nQmh3Zb46u2b6CR30fgQKvoj30M3V6s86iZcioip3b4SMxdLmIAsoV2lGGrhIESNiVlr8MzmpD1nYC5_VV_N2Jz9SZ4K71kxc8PfCRTpPw8Qdxoj5ujR6shhTB74AflGlaNoVZGf9gb_iy3kJKW3mfd8QmlRGwy-6lJTL2IBeV4vAUW/s1658/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-23%20at%204.10.26%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1658" data-original-width="1022" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLQ6lPRCaX0nQmh3Zb46u2b6CR30fgQKvoj30M3V6s86iZcioip3b4SMxdLmIAsoV2lGGrhIESNiVlr8MzmpD1nYC5_VV_N2Jz9SZ4K71kxc8PfCRTpPw8Qdxoj5ujR6shhTB74AflGlaNoVZGf9gb_iy3kJKW3mfd8QmlRGwy-6lJTL2IBeV4vAUW/w246-h400/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-23%20at%204.10.26%20PM.png" width="246" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's the poor dumb character from <b>Mutant World</b> trying to think. The posture and facial expression emphasize the struggle too. But notice he brings something else to it—<i>color saturation</i>. Not only are the head and upper shoulders brighter than everything else, but the colors there are far more intense too. Down below everything is dimmed into cool greens and dull purples. So he's also using color temprature. A triple-pronged attack. There's also a very strong <i>color contrast</i> between the head and that bright green background.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGMRpOA-4gWeKFqwg5jIrsIZqeHRYNvDS4wsELrxw3forG3gNjIBWROEz7JZufUysxC8vtx3ZOdmSbPKOOsMp03k5xSQqa1_BOO7OP0dlBZsS4cqz6htjwHPK7cmtAa9UDwLUAr_8zNEuoJRYtXeRvDQdzTYdLbM1-y7ObRWoxptlCXQdbOOIQ5CS0/s1362/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-23%20at%204.25.28%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1120" data-original-width="1362" height="329" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGMRpOA-4gWeKFqwg5jIrsIZqeHRYNvDS4wsELrxw3forG3gNjIBWROEz7JZufUysxC8vtx3ZOdmSbPKOOsMp03k5xSQqa1_BOO7OP0dlBZsS4cqz6htjwHPK7cmtAa9UDwLUAr_8zNEuoJRYtXeRvDQdzTYdLbM1-y7ObRWoxptlCXQdbOOIQ5CS0/w400-h329/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-23%20at%204.25.28%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6yh0DnkCWZgc-lOhx6ADyEvFW4LEBGJ2_r3Y0wG3YACQa7neEr8PkQq9OuotyJs5NQIvKXngD1dWIe7FYliZgwLqhz1oVrrr9lI96lbCQWZh2g89lS6LGSwDckThvjuz8r9pyLiRWt8c9L4hhBXXE0FjMHvFG1CpTASUrJTnf9OxDyahMaQzOXQEe/s1634/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-23%20at%2010.17.19%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1340" data-original-width="1634" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6yh0DnkCWZgc-lOhx6ADyEvFW4LEBGJ2_r3Y0wG3YACQa7neEr8PkQq9OuotyJs5NQIvKXngD1dWIe7FYliZgwLqhz1oVrrr9lI96lbCQWZh2g89lS6LGSwDckThvjuz8r9pyLiRWt8c9L4hhBXXE0FjMHvFG1CpTASUrJTnf9OxDyahMaQzOXQEe/w400-h328/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-23%20at%2010.17.19%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Spotlight on her head, upper back, down-hanging boob, and that other hand clutching the tree in front of her face. It looks like he put a gray filter over everything else to bring the color and light level down. This one is a bit unusual in that the background is brighter than the spotlight effect, but then it's the sun that's creating that effect, so it would make sense. Usually the background is darker, to make the spotlighted area stand out more. But Corben is a genius, he can make things like this work. He did the same in the one above it. I don't know if trees were really blue in prehistoric days, but it looks really cool. Hah! Literally—blue is the coolest of colors. </div><p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-84346480423189373112023-04-21T12:26:00.010-05:002023-04-21T22:42:05.864-05:00Simplify lighting<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="404" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RiGfBc8ZkCs" width="593" youtube-src-id="RiGfBc8ZkCs"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is a concept I've started to see in looking at all this art, especially the <b><i>Corben</i></b>. He filters everything through that claymation aesthetic I mentioned, and he simplifies the lighting scheme. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This goes hand in hand with a principle I learned from the <b><i>Robert Beverly Hale</i></b> <b>Old</b> <b>Master</b> series of books—the idea is that <i>first you light the big forms of the body</i> (the torso, the arms, the legs, the head), and then, <i>within that large and simple lighting scheme</i>, you work out your details. But make sure you don't overcomplicate things. The large masses need to predominate. Shading of details like the abdominal muscles or the serratus can really destroy your larger lighting scheme and break up the form. Shading of secondary forms and tertiary forms must be sublimated to the shading of the primary forms. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The video does a great job of explaining it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I just remembered, I did a post about it back in my guide to constructive figure drawing: </div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://aartventure.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-learning-guide-to-figure-drawing-part_28.html"><span>A brief guide to constructive figure drawing - part 3 - big and simple</span></a></li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div>I already knew this, but since I've been learning anatomy and concentrating on the muscles, I think I've gotten a bit lost in shading individual muscles and lost the big pattern. </div><div><br /></div><div>The artist who did the video also used the <b>spotlight effect</b>. He made the lighting brightest on the left side of the torso and the upper arm, and faded it on the face and the leg, all of which in the original photo were equally bright. But he wanted to draw attention to the big body forms rather than the small details of the face, or pull it down to the thigh. </div><div><br /></div><div>I discovered the spotlight effect when I was doing those black and white master copies I posted recently—artists tend to use it to pull attention where they want it. In <b><i>Frazetta</i></b> and <b><i>Tiepolo</i></b> I found it's generally on the torso—the chest usually, which denotes strength and vitality. Many artists put the spotlight on the face, which is the personality and intelligence. </div><br /> <p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-40325326889631179432023-04-21T01:08:00.012-05:002023-04-21T12:53:06.749-05:00Jose Gonzales Vampirella Art Edition—this thing is gigantic!<p style="text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="411" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZA9Ltgcb9mk" width="670" youtube-src-id="ZA9Ltgcb9mk"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">The book came in today in a gigantic box. I was confused about what it could be, until I realized it must be the Vampirella book. I knew it was big, but this was ridiculous!! Inside the box was a somewhat smaller box packed in with crumpled paper, and inside that the book. It's way bigger than I imagined!! I'm posting </span><b style="text-align: left;"><i>Earl Grey's</i></b><span style="text-align: left;"> video about it at the top partly so people (if anybody ever stumbles across this page again) can see what a massive tome it is. </span></div><p>It's a real logistics problem figuring out how to look at it. I settled on supporting it on my thighs and holding it upright with both hands. I have to lean back a bit to be able to take in the full spread. But damn, this thing is gorgeous!! It didn't feel like I was holding a book on my lap, but like I was <i>inside</i> it, and it might close and crush me at any moment. </p><p>The intro tells the story about that fateful day when a certain Spaniard named <b><i>Josep Toutain</i></b> walked into <b><i>Jim Warren's</i></b> office carrying a large portfolio loaded with the work of the artists of his agency, called <b>Selecciones Illustradas</b> (usually just abbreviated <b>SI</b>).</p><p>To set the stage, Warren publishing had been struggling for a while. I believe it was the end of the 60's or the early 70s, and times were tough. They were reduced to publishing mostly reprints of older material rather than commissioning new stories. Jim and his friend <b><i>Forest Ackerman</i></b>, who had created <b>Famous Monsters of Filmland</b> for him, their first magazine, had recently seen the movie <b>Barbarella</b>, and they decided it would be a good idea to create a new magazine and a new host for it, a sexy and beautiful vampire named <b><i>Vampirella</i></b>. They had already published a couple of issues, but there were problems. Ackerman had written I believe the first issue, and an artist named Tom Sutton had drawn the lead story. It wasn't quite what Warren had in mind, it was too campy and silly, and the art was comical. He wanted something much more elegant and dark, with a sort of Hammer Horror feel to it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://p2.liveauctioneers.com/930/18669/6321402_7_l.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="503" height="754" src="https://p2.liveauctioneers.com/930/18669/6321402_7_l.jpg" width="503" /></a></div><p>Well, exactly what he was looking for had just come in the door, but he didn't know it. Jim was hungry and about to leave the office for lunch when this brash Spaniard walked in clutching his portfolio and announced himself. Jim almost brushed him off, but the guy was a good talker, and in moments had captured his attention with his story. </p><p>Toutain was the creator of the agency, and had a number of incredible Spanish artists working for him. He was already selling their work to publications in France and the UK, but wanted to expand into America. He had already tried <b>Marvel</b> and <b>DC</b> comics. Jim asked it either had shown any interest, and Toutain cannily said they hadn't decided yet, but he had high hopes. Then he opened the portfolio. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://aeindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Jose-Gonzalezs-Vampirella-Art-Edition-interior-26.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="800" height="486" src="https://aeindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Jose-Gonzalezs-Vampirella-Art-Edition-interior-26.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Apparently the first artist represented was Jose Gonzales, and he was exactly the illustrator Warren needed for Vampirella. He knew it immediately. And as he looked through the other artists, he began to realize these guys were all perfect for large format black and white horror comics. It was as if they had been born for it. </p><p>At the time the artists were mostly if not all American, and not very well suited to drawing horror comics. Several of them were really cartoonists, and the rest were mostly superhero artists. But here was a group of amazing artists (illustrators really) with that undeniable European elegance and style that he needed. Jim forgot about lunch and started making plans. He essentially replaced all his artists with the Spaniards whose work was in that portfolio. They all remained in Spain, working at the SI office, and shipped their work by air mail. </p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-77508165786253193952023-04-20T19:43:00.006-05:002023-04-21T12:55:19.003-05:00Richard Corben—dinosaurs, rounded forms and a claymation aesthetic<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyTzlF9VJ8COzRhwKomJG38atdaR94LiMyyVFrVGa4XVEfnDm_MZS8o-psjgIdYVU2B3RGRC8YAqlN6e8s6o05CxA2bBAgV-kZ06YMHdPGvAnlqIY2psD1Xy1kwsxVLdabIZKc9dE92iYxZW9V6F-JcV0W0hQyP14giLczygHtDcYMY7Bb88HIeczi/s1600/eerie-077.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1191" height="825" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyTzlF9VJ8COzRhwKomJG38atdaR94LiMyyVFrVGa4XVEfnDm_MZS8o-psjgIdYVU2B3RGRC8YAqlN6e8s6o05CxA2bBAgV-kZ06YMHdPGvAnlqIY2psD1Xy1kwsxVLdabIZKc9dE92iYxZW9V6F-JcV0W0hQyP14giLczygHtDcYMY7Bb88HIeczi/w614-h825/eerie-077.jpg" width="614" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">This image shows all the factors I mentioned in the title that make Corben's work great. I left one thing out though (many actually)—his amazing use of color. He was a pioneer when it came to color in comic books in the 70s. He came up with some kind of crazy way of using fax machines (I think?) to create 3-color separation plates so he could get amazing never-before-seen color work in his stories, like the cover above. He basically drew the art in black and white and then created the color separation plates by hand, and he had no way to see what the results were going to look like until it was printed. But he had such an amazing art sensibility he knew how to do it. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDdfIGwx8MDAd_8alzZM4-AhWHxmGViQ-5wIKFZOFv_xgaTQAo85HrE9Bleufc7XmWE1dlLvxnMzhbqt_rQcai29Cb84Kl-7tLHtmziwrvqVlOSVkZONeLJR_E83MPQEZDabS0OzjZjx30DHlbIvrtEWpNzHijtY0MOBwnGOEmxgdALFnyr48SriCs/s3205/a142de0d4584e6835399f1abd99190cb.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3205" data-original-width="2446" height="830" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDdfIGwx8MDAd_8alzZM4-AhWHxmGViQ-5wIKFZOFv_xgaTQAo85HrE9Bleufc7XmWE1dlLvxnMzhbqt_rQcai29Cb84Kl-7tLHtmziwrvqVlOSVkZONeLJR_E83MPQEZDabS0OzjZjx30DHlbIvrtEWpNzHijtY0MOBwnGOEmxgdALFnyr48SriCs/w632-h830/a142de0d4584e6835399f1abd99190cb.jpg" width="632" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here again you see one of his favorite juxtapositions—smooth beautiful female flesh against the rugged hide and sharp teeth of a dinosaur. Sometimes it was a different kind of monster, or a rotting zombie, but always the counterpoint of youth, flawless beauty and vulnerability against something rough and terrible or putrid and corrupted. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP1DDaDCnhQFbEez58m7iKabii1Ipcqr8QFmfYg4RJB4lL_ujIsfaVVHD9X8FUQs_yHE3_4B28e1U0XDdeWOqWfX7ncRygPIutx3t3cPsImM6dSlmpb9IeT67_2F--ug7OWyoc1I2mJnDFHei35NzFLX6ffrePqEYzbni3W-lMgJ3r9zD8tn9P0IgW/s1205/mil31.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="679" data-original-width="1205" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP1DDaDCnhQFbEez58m7iKabii1Ipcqr8QFmfYg4RJB4lL_ujIsfaVVHD9X8FUQs_yHE3_4B28e1U0XDdeWOqWfX7ncRygPIutx3t3cPsImM6dSlmpb9IeT67_2F--ug7OWyoc1I2mJnDFHei35NzFLX6ffrePqEYzbni3W-lMgJ3r9zD8tn9P0IgW/w640-h360/mil31.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">He was definitely influenced by those <b><i>Ray Harryhausen</i></b> movies of the 50s 60s and 70s with whipping reptilian tails and scaly hides and swaying serpentine necks. He loved stopmotion animation, and I believe especially claymation, or at least a certain kind of visual aesthetic you often see in clay animation, with bright colors and bulging rounded forms. But he also loved the scaly hides and other textures, things you can't do in a claymation film because the moment you grab the puppet to animate, you'd mash out all the textures and details. But in his drawings he could have all of it together at once. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ZELyG-mZu60BAVApHrp6ifmSEF5PMkK-v7rKePM1j0vCnNfKqDVPhxIk1YqY83H4r1F4Aysbzz7qzzw66tRfNkFRaH91f7xQCV1q3vduthVNM4gn4-OBtjaiBXtylTLZBany8TcLSdrBAFfGGmrLq6CcGxIZaWv0pC75u0kMU-rCwoGvaR5i6W4V/s750/WithinYouWithoutYouP01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="578" height="822" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ZELyG-mZu60BAVApHrp6ifmSEF5PMkK-v7rKePM1j0vCnNfKqDVPhxIk1YqY83H4r1F4Aysbzz7qzzw66tRfNkFRaH91f7xQCV1q3vduthVNM4gn4-OBtjaiBXtylTLZBany8TcLSdrBAFfGGmrLq6CcGxIZaWv0pC75u0kMU-rCwoGvaR5i6W4V/w634-h822/WithinYouWithoutYouP01.jpg" width="634" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There's almost always a cartoonish, caricatured thing going on, no matter how horrific or heroic the story is, and he mastered all of it, though often it seemed like he drew some panels hastily and let things go all wonky. We forgave him, because when he got to the big important ones, he was totally zoned in and able to create those colorful, sexy artistic monstrer dreams on paper that got us through a few decades. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8faip207H0JCSOwN62ffxEPWlmp8XOgSSMYJ4am2-TitgdZCxwS5vfcPl_K3IS_nrMtx2su8v0bJUOWzhp7Vko7lH26WViMbVJ1mCFq4EELA_8RgtFpVPYjoIFcgCM5eqPDwjrlhauhwPrV-7uhV--h1ToIP_piLM8ooLIyQ6b3Tt6DLtrV_qsr5i/s750/YearsMindForeverP01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="578" height="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8faip207H0JCSOwN62ffxEPWlmp8XOgSSMYJ4am2-TitgdZCxwS5vfcPl_K3IS_nrMtx2su8v0bJUOWzhp7Vko7lH26WViMbVJ1mCFq4EELA_8RgtFpVPYjoIFcgCM5eqPDwjrlhauhwPrV-7uhV--h1ToIP_piLM8ooLIyQ6b3Tt6DLtrV_qsr5i/w618-h800/YearsMindForeverP01.jpg" width="618" /></a></div>Here you can see that his tendency toward bulging rounded forms covers just about everything, from muscles and certain female body parts, to hair. He would hire models to pose for photographs and then draw from the pictures, and he always tried to choose models, both male and female, with these kinds of haircuts. If not he'd <i>draw</i> it that way. Many of his male characters were bald, and so were a few of the females. He also had a very 70's thing for military uniforms worn casually. He also sometimes made sculptures of the heads of his main characters that he'd hold in his left hand under a light to get shading, and draw with his right hand. He often did shading in a combination of either ink and charocal or ink and pencil. I believe this one was done with ink and pencil. <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2231DxU5D2tD708fSnxLQn6kzXmbpIN7XzsE-W_R9wrkzpCOq_0LZv72myxutOxC4f29JwNV1ACGjZgcbHFjgI74NTJEay3AJmc4tf9W8jro5TwX6BBWES_78tCwp74BMTU9vOru_xGUEd6_f59X_D4bkKCMyC5sD0YgcqXNsYi35_PLIeBvjkO6t/s1116/09.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1116" data-original-width="800" height="878" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2231DxU5D2tD708fSnxLQn6kzXmbpIN7XzsE-W_R9wrkzpCOq_0LZv72myxutOxC4f29JwNV1ACGjZgcbHFjgI74NTJEay3AJmc4tf9W8jro5TwX6BBWES_78tCwp74BMTU9vOru_xGUEd6_f59X_D4bkKCMyC5sD0YgcqXNsYi35_PLIeBvjkO6t/w629-h878/09.jpg" width="629" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2lgqcTSbm56yEnLn7L3AgWcfL4n49ERB-uqqKSN9BEZVV7R88Xv49mKhSMGC7wRZJj9ir88U4WboquXniA1rZBxUggUTOWovdFZjBOy6Du3Y5YVFcn6jI4VzozREdRnroiuE4OwDJsUnyi0RTMUHWAdlVZIWXTFgBYr4cv5fN8P8q3AKmnobT29Mq/s939/04.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="939" data-original-width="700" height="872" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2lgqcTSbm56yEnLn7L3AgWcfL4n49ERB-uqqKSN9BEZVV7R88Xv49mKhSMGC7wRZJj9ir88U4WboquXniA1rZBxUggUTOWovdFZjBOy6Du3Y5YVFcn6jI4VzozREdRnroiuE4OwDJsUnyi0RTMUHWAdlVZIWXTFgBYr4cv5fN8P8q3AKmnobT29Mq/w650-h872/04.jpg" width="650" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Bloodstone</b>, in black & white and in color. Another great thing about his comics work is the cinematic qualities. His sense of timing and camera movement is impeccable. </div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgliBkKtlsUVvgO1zK5x-oCJyHve87r3NetF6UG8tZMUYhFRV-KvdJaea88apCmJBR-vSK3_Sag-QKf-QM04WG5oq0YMzwljQ1y5rg0TAScSAFhRudxmP0mQI9Iir8OBdnGW0Cu_sy83sEdsAMy8IdkEDcbOG961WOd1Mn45XoVlMhXiMR7Gp9AmK5F/s1020/Mutantworld%2001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="759" height="875" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgliBkKtlsUVvgO1zK5x-oCJyHve87r3NetF6UG8tZMUYhFRV-KvdJaea88apCmJBR-vSK3_Sag-QKf-QM04WG5oq0YMzwljQ1y5rg0TAScSAFhRudxmP0mQI9Iir8OBdnGW0Cu_sy83sEdsAMy8IdkEDcbOG961WOd1Mn45XoVlMhXiMR7Gp9AmK5F/w650-h875/Mutantworld%2001.jpg" width="650" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyhZ322845xIn0omuE7ZAEL3XGGQFS78bjhpuop4TZMb20MPxOlb_n_PiXOS6baPwDC4EoMlfHPoZ_v0quKMXqwBVs3e0HAQ1LU2-2Xm0MQ9-Subofr-KopyzYspkO3d1-B54QtUNBg8wQtIiwawdv3bPTAZM6KpKC-jIII61FLahnZojNJJp33k4q/s1020/Mutantworld%2002.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="759" height="873" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyhZ322845xIn0omuE7ZAEL3XGGQFS78bjhpuop4TZMb20MPxOlb_n_PiXOS6baPwDC4EoMlfHPoZ_v0quKMXqwBVs3e0HAQ1LU2-2Xm0MQ9-Subofr-KopyzYspkO3d1-B54QtUNBg8wQtIiwawdv3bPTAZM6KpKC-jIII61FLahnZojNJJp33k4q/w649-h873/Mutantworld%2002.jpg" width="649" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">One of my favorites was his story <b>Mutant World</b>, serialized in the Warren magazine <b>1984</b>. It was, like many of his, the only color story in an otherwise black & white magazine. When Corben did color, it was a major event. In fact, at one point, Warren had him doing color for many of their best artists who normally drew in black & white. It was a glorious time. It reminds me of Technicolor, which was more beautiful than the standard color film stocks when they came out in the 60's (and still to this day). It was difficult to do, required massive amounts of light, and also required a Technicolor specialist to be on set all the time to make sure everything was being done just right, but the results were aesthetically beautiful in a way that normal color film stock just never allowed. Very much liike Corben's strange beautiful comic art.</div><p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-44720120827077073282023-04-20T01:55:00.002-05:002023-04-20T01:55:53.044-05:00Refined Axe<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH4piaJJMuEbgqO7BIArWubjq2eljaCPA61Wy5Qqn2IGTMlGL_3E9FreRJ1sU-I3aCuQt-qtP0YbBCjtUO9nu1C_KmKujcaD3uSR3WKA0hMQeBj_PioD7Jo5v1NW8gd494NjP0yKKpAHmJJVO6d3h3ZnZuByElSVGeLp8KbVefSsPYYEc4SpJ6aayk/s1002/Original-Fafhrd-1.1.9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="761" height="826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH4piaJJMuEbgqO7BIArWubjq2eljaCPA61Wy5Qqn2IGTMlGL_3E9FreRJ1sU-I3aCuQt-qtP0YbBCjtUO9nu1C_KmKujcaD3uSR3WKA0hMQeBj_PioD7Jo5v1NW8gd494NjP0yKKpAHmJJVO6d3h3ZnZuByElSVGeLp8KbVefSsPYYEc4SpJ6aayk/w628-h826/Original-Fafhrd-1.1.9.jpg" width="628" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Had a hell of a time with that axe, and I'm still not sure I'm going to keep it. It looks so different from everything else in the picture. Tried several variations on it, and so far this is my favorite. Man, I'll be so glad to stop working on that fiddly axe and get back on the figure and the background! Every time I do one like this it reminds me I really need to start with a finished drawing where I already worked out all the problems. Fixing it in post is a terrible option that involves endless struggling and half-assed measures. </div><br /> <p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-43608190037319417732023-04-18T06:32:00.002-05:002023-04-18T15:04:17.085-05:00Axe<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCaok1B-1MyEHOhpdb47_JKY2DKehuVTAzpjVec711eEZLhGLpY1zK5nbwO5OtOSMzNgxD6Ype1vXk9qG3Jf0WnDqhcj5-nwtC8GWv3fHRqdMjwYbu250igHv_2maVqm9Pcx152XhbE5vMubIiTS8eiVWDGDnPY1oxSE4EzAthDrLaaCUnb_Ciip99/s1002/Original-Fafhrd-1.1.3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="761" height="824" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCaok1B-1MyEHOhpdb47_JKY2DKehuVTAzpjVec711eEZLhGLpY1zK5nbwO5OtOSMzNgxD6Ype1vXk9qG3Jf0WnDqhcj5-nwtC8GWv3fHRqdMjwYbu250igHv_2maVqm9Pcx152XhbE5vMubIiTS8eiVWDGDnPY1oxSE4EzAthDrLaaCUnb_Ciip99/w626-h824/Original-Fafhrd-1.1.3.jpg" width="626" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Roughed in a very tentative axe and some hand-blobs. Needs lots of refining or deleting. Also <i>em-<b>small</b>-ified</i> the Fafhrd logo so it fits in better. It was getting really hemmed in right up against everything. Needed some breathing space. </div><br /> <p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-23184277456423063052023-04-17T23:51:00.014-05:002023-04-18T01:38:46.315-05:00Warren Horror Magazines and the Spanish Invasion<p> I've mentioned my love of the 70's <b>Warren</b> horror comics a few times and posted just a few teaser images. I think it's time to go into some more detail and post some nice eye-watering images. (<i>Eye-watering?</i> Is that even a thing? Sounds painful rather than a visual version of mouth-watering, which is what I was going for, but then that's actually pretty appropriate.) There were many more artists involved in the so-called <b>Spanish Invasion</b> of the late 70s—I'm only presenting the work here of my three favorites. I might show a few more at another time, and I'll definitely show some of the great cover paintings.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaaEzY-9WEGGjdZ1lA-_rIUTEhh4McG932g0HYBe3om_wUQXsOCADtwrpuQRpeXIdOxOKYuss97gWmAfHkWTzQhNHrpskMe0ce2lSiULEKy9ZkxVqBi3APbJEoBqgeiGZsxObTTtWxI9v50Su-dWe8BnLp9yTLXtKwrTVuMA8_F2dz1or4gy2JApyo/s2032/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.01.35%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2032" data-original-width="1424" height="807" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaaEzY-9WEGGjdZ1lA-_rIUTEhh4McG932g0HYBe3om_wUQXsOCADtwrpuQRpeXIdOxOKYuss97gWmAfHkWTzQhNHrpskMe0ce2lSiULEKy9ZkxVqBi3APbJEoBqgeiGZsxObTTtWxI9v50Su-dWe8BnLp9yTLXtKwrTVuMA8_F2dz1or4gy2JApyo/w565-h807/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.01.35%20PM.png" width="565" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd2gzO5Gld2BZKlfVu3usgC_My-7Lw5XphRIz6CT0Imfb6BX89RxMwlHCIDfoHgSUMv68IFip6MJAHLglxXPtX7eY0SDnVvBSKWd2KRws2vK0egh3IYYwz6xMOPfA_yES5fFSAYgmFi1sxXfY_zfr1OEUV_ACsrmUUwfXcsuEkJWop_fPTPZ2EMzci/s2032/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.03.44%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2032" data-original-width="1424" height="817" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd2gzO5Gld2BZKlfVu3usgC_My-7Lw5XphRIz6CT0Imfb6BX89RxMwlHCIDfoHgSUMv68IFip6MJAHLglxXPtX7eY0SDnVvBSKWd2KRws2vK0egh3IYYwz6xMOPfA_yES5fFSAYgmFi1sxXfY_zfr1OEUV_ACsrmUUwfXcsuEkJWop_fPTPZ2EMzci/w572-h817/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.03.44%20PM.png" width="572" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Meet <b><i>Jose Ortiz</i></b>, one of the best for my money. Such a master of the black-and-white ink work. His compositions are always innovative and perfect, and he just has a perfect knack of exactly where and how to put down the big hefty brush marks and the various types of finer lines that always served double duty. They described form or texture or energy, and were beautiful decorative marks at the same time. I think of his people as looking a bit scruffy, because he always uses those curved lines that make them look a little unkempt or rumpled. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiznShUAVFNrTcnIObyiDRg7ktN6myD8nn1L8oGAfkvrsOoSx9ZPFAy8twFH6ToV9lKxs9F38F32z26q3E0QrFCplefHmYWakvMAXa15SsGYAUHJp2sSvOEIOctdTt1YA2Dyqc8D_Q3KR8EgRC2IP0U4XiGKxYQzg_nYj1J8FMsgFFx-ejgsTEH_mat/s2032/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.03.54%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2032" data-original-width="1424" height="818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiznShUAVFNrTcnIObyiDRg7ktN6myD8nn1L8oGAfkvrsOoSx9ZPFAy8twFH6ToV9lKxs9F38F32z26q3E0QrFCplefHmYWakvMAXa15SsGYAUHJp2sSvOEIOctdTt1YA2Dyqc8D_Q3KR8EgRC2IP0U4XiGKxYQzg_nYj1J8FMsgFFx-ejgsTEH_mat/w573-h818/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.03.54%20PM.png" width="573" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmK7ZsN9o38wC-Q0W8qq4zBEXGVoLZH_nYVC7RyyaBF8X6-5gD5i99DldJPccAAhH8y7Qt2eueS80MZ4twURpDuXB7bPhq2X2g-N4A_LN8RtLoeejgJTPogKXHc_9-HdGlFQx8Oxst-BzTf6H2FhuebVb2as1WkrQqjnrYKbCABd5xN5Z7I0DmQjfe/s2032/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.10.58%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2032" data-original-width="1424" height="816" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmK7ZsN9o38wC-Q0W8qq4zBEXGVoLZH_nYVC7RyyaBF8X6-5gD5i99DldJPccAAhH8y7Qt2eueS80MZ4twURpDuXB7bPhq2X2g-N4A_LN8RtLoeejgJTPogKXHc_9-HdGlFQx8Oxst-BzTf6H2FhuebVb2as1WkrQqjnrYKbCABd5xN5Z7I0DmQjfe/w571-h816/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.10.58%20PM.png" width="571" /></a></div><div><br /></div>And then we have <b><i>Luis Bermejo</i></b>. He was whats known as a chameleon artist, he could draw any style he wanted to and make them all look amazing. But he was the regular artist on a strip called <b>The Rook</b>, which was my personal favorite. He developed a very appealing drawing style for The Rook<div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVW3ZIxwHjkUTU5j-oXakGio3C7C3kUwf_eplxheB9V-sWt2HiNOUVV9D5EEHdkk4Bj1Yf4bObbgWgy0roWP3q5naEKTzVRqNafaXfY9i9tKxfbQIsWFibolOO7bHHp1pPvGWaABdQM3CGOZKZxbuo2MyorsVZu93kkb2PY93p0FSxfeIkTBaQFe7R/s2032/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.11.13%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2032" data-original-width="1424" height="808" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVW3ZIxwHjkUTU5j-oXakGio3C7C3kUwf_eplxheB9V-sWt2HiNOUVV9D5EEHdkk4Bj1Yf4bObbgWgy0roWP3q5naEKTzVRqNafaXfY9i9tKxfbQIsWFibolOO7bHHp1pPvGWaABdQM3CGOZKZxbuo2MyorsVZu93kkb2PY93p0FSxfeIkTBaQFe7R/w566-h808/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.11.13%20PM.png" width="566" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisQ400HzcwaEQYMqtpr6SwUsQBNxdqqPmyl_7B1fYNe0zvyOsIgSBsCcJDCyQx6uQJG1Tyfs9MsRQMTZSX29I87VVUC4FL4MJLed1d0LaoZt1rvVUxQyu_gGPqHEC_pR-8ysp2CStGzlM4gKR7LLwmDFCPZsYhRTGPMGWiqBhfw04aoTafFC7tG1nQ/s2032/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.13.04%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2032" data-original-width="1424" height="808" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisQ400HzcwaEQYMqtpr6SwUsQBNxdqqPmyl_7B1fYNe0zvyOsIgSBsCcJDCyQx6uQJG1Tyfs9MsRQMTZSX29I87VVUC4FL4MJLed1d0LaoZt1rvVUxQyu_gGPqHEC_pR-8ysp2CStGzlM4gKR7LLwmDFCPZsYhRTGPMGWiqBhfw04aoTafFC7tG1nQ/w566-h808/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.13.04%20PM.png" width="566" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQaR5xZY05ikgihCdjsl_YqU6B0WchglILIN0tpVTKM67D6_E8AG7dpeBwDuSrAdb7nuQUuHfAYhUvVqJbsHGiIr9nqQf3B8Xfpcz146fAdo4ZMhd8KLm1VWg1sL-fs6boT97qj0K0t7gVLZjIljDdR7yBeOuigIR4EI4CtE4DE-8Ktf-YlqjAVwFS/s2032/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.13.24%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2032" data-original-width="1424" height="805" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQaR5xZY05ikgihCdjsl_YqU6B0WchglILIN0tpVTKM67D6_E8AG7dpeBwDuSrAdb7nuQUuHfAYhUvVqJbsHGiIr9nqQf3B8Xfpcz146fAdo4ZMhd8KLm1VWg1sL-fs6boT97qj0K0t7gVLZjIljDdR7yBeOuigIR4EI4CtE4DE-8Ktf-YlqjAVwFS/w563-h805/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.13.24%20PM.png" width="563" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMS8KZSdc4urHptdXb_zDlXBSqRdTBlMmSCuWZSuchQzBYhoWQDyv33cwRK_Vegz50MmROvRX4i7RrULUt0wfdoGmcL9Yz9KQCq7QGFQpvIMUvl3XNJPB1SC3kzgxBMwSusHo62lQG20iQudHBgbn4rFRG0vC0N3V7gxBQl7yDOwMi7zDSMB6Y5fcP/s2070/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.15.04%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2070" data-original-width="1516" height="810" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMS8KZSdc4urHptdXb_zDlXBSqRdTBlMmSCuWZSuchQzBYhoWQDyv33cwRK_Vegz50MmROvRX4i7RrULUt0wfdoGmcL9Yz9KQCq7QGFQpvIMUvl3XNJPB1SC3kzgxBMwSusHo62lQG20iQudHBgbn4rFRG0vC0N3V7gxBQl7yDOwMi7zDSMB6Y5fcP/w592-h810/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.15.04%20PM.png" width="592" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwdtk0ED62xwgr4haWqguKwdk3hwV9NAFvJbuYQKjVj5_noCvARjahCwsBvopvP-xVHltvNYudh_aJO4D63krNtOi1E6VA0vNWKGcSFIjtAZLinrWLvYar6bjyeCBxx3nwg1dXKyDyFNUqgCwXYhfsY2_ZxAZ6IWVYN2hCLdpyXeZ3_BCANUOqZUp/s2070/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.15.20%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2070" data-original-width="1516" height="811" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwdtk0ED62xwgr4haWqguKwdk3hwV9NAFvJbuYQKjVj5_noCvARjahCwsBvopvP-xVHltvNYudh_aJO4D63krNtOi1E6VA0vNWKGcSFIjtAZLinrWLvYar6bjyeCBxx3nwg1dXKyDyFNUqgCwXYhfsY2_ZxAZ6IWVYN2hCLdpyXeZ3_BCANUOqZUp/w593-h811/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.15.20%20PM.png" width="593" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjCqoL4b8ZnvWm13lh8Iyv4ZfJM8yZVWPHveGfCRfFSveFKjmGC7u6Yv0rLot3hGOSg9MjpD4bbvciwJjiBdZnUeSv_N4fiJAiuX7t8O9Rviv9252M5svpMC7ZUZlPZaNJuW2fuVwPZ8RMW6OcPsEk5hiSESEIVG5piQOenn4VsLRyH5p2q4xcFJy/s2070/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.15.28%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2070" data-original-width="1516" height="814" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjCqoL4b8ZnvWm13lh8Iyv4ZfJM8yZVWPHveGfCRfFSveFKjmGC7u6Yv0rLot3hGOSg9MjpD4bbvciwJjiBdZnUeSv_N4fiJAiuX7t8O9Rviv9252M5svpMC7ZUZlPZaNJuW2fuVwPZ8RMW6OcPsEk5hiSESEIVG5piQOenn4VsLRyH5p2q4xcFJy/w595-h814/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-17%20at%209.15.28%20PM.png" width="595" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">And then there's </span><b style="text-align: left;"><i>Jose Gonzales</i></b><span style="text-align: left;">, also known as </span><b style="text-align: left;"><i>Pepe</i></b><span style="text-align: left;">, who was the main interior artist on the </span><b style="text-align: left;">Vampirella</b><span style="text-align: left;"> stories. </span></div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.budsartbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/product_j_g_jgvaeh_3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="400" height="841" src="https://www.budsartbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/product_j_g_jgvaeh_3.jpg" width="580" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/16/29/5a/16295a1d9f4b46919245b2c5ff317369.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="508" height="919" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/16/29/5a/16295a1d9f4b46919245b2c5ff317369.jpg" width="584" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This is one of his pencil frontispieces that would grace the inside of the front cover. </div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">He was often more like a fine illustrator than a comic book artist. In fact he did a lot of illustration work. All of these guys did. Really they were illustrators working in horror comics. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e7/37/2f/e7372f1d51537b8cfbc2965e7ddb530e.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="559" height="887" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e7/37/2f/e7372f1d51537b8cfbc2965e7ddb530e.jpg" width="620" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/9d/51/d09d51081dcbe000d9306642b8b536bd.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="654" height="768" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/9d/51/d09d51081dcbe000d9306642b8b536bd.jpg" width="628" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://aeindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Jose-Gonzalezs-Vampirella-Art-Edition-interior-14.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="800" height="490" src="https://aeindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Jose-Gonzalezs-Vampirella-Art-Edition-interior-14.jpg" width="648" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm not sure what's going on here, it seems to be a jam between several different artists. Or it could be Gonzales showing off his insane talents and playing with different styles? Not sure. This must be a spread from the <b>Jose Gonzales Vampirella Artist's Edition</b> I didn't know existed until I started searching for images to post here. I now have one winging its way to me. It's massive—22 inches tall! They make these things as close as possible to the actual size they were drawn at, on a paper as close as possible to the kind the artist drew it on, so it's the next best thing to having the original art at a fraction of the price. You can see all the markings on the page that would be cleaned up before printing, and areas where he used white-out or pasted in a new panel on top of a failed attempt. Though I don't think Gonzales ever messed up a panel. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I've noticed the same dynamics going on with these three artist as I have with beautiful women. From time to time I say one or another is my favorite, but then as soon as I'm looking at another one, that one becomes my favorite. Beyond a certain level (and all of these artists are way above it) they're all favorites, it just depends which one you're looking at. The physical presence of one exerts a powerful gravitational attraction that makes you forget about all the others. Here's some more Gonzales to feast your eyes on:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://greggoldsteincomicartgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Gonzalez_Vampirella_12_splash-1066x1536.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="555" height="930" src="https://greggoldsteincomicartgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Gonzalez_Vampirella_12_splash-1066x1536.jpg" width="645" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here he's using some of the special drawing techniques these guys used to create atmosphere and texture and just make everything look incredible. Looks like up in the left hand corner he put down a blob of ink and blew it around with a straw to make a tree. Maybe. And I can't tell if he scraped lines in with a razor blade or scumbled some white ink over the drawing to get those semi-horizontal effects. More on that stuff in a bit, by somebody who was there in the studio with these guys (in Spain) and watched them work. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://aeindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Jose-Gonzalezs-Vampirella-Art-Edition-interior-18-1536x1162.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="800" height="484" src="https://aeindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Jose-Gonzalezs-Vampirella-Art-Edition-interior-18-1536x1162.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Here he's cycling through some of his many styles and techniques, showing off again.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm going to drop in some words from a guy named <b><i>Diego Cordoba</i></b>, who commented under a few issues of the <b>Creepy</b>, <b>Eerie</b> and <b>Vampirella Archive Editions</b> several years ago, when they were being printed. I had long been a fan of these legendary comics, and always wanted to know more about the mysterious artists who created them, but the info was impossible to come by, until I ran across these comments. Enlightenment began to dawn.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /></div></div><b>Eerie, the monster serials & the Spanish artists</b>, December 13, 2012<div>—<b><i>Diego Cordoba</i></b>, from a comment under <b>Eerie Archives Volume 11</b> (Hardcover)</div><div><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div>"Many American fans then and now, wondered why Warren had opted to have all those Spanish artists. The first answer that came to mind, was that they were actually Mexicans from south of the border who were getting paid minimum wage rates to slave for Warren. But truth of the matter was that Warren actually paid the highest rates at the time, no matter where the artists came from (a practice both DC and Marvel didn't apply to the Filipino artists who were getting a third of what the Americans were paid). Warren's reasoning was quite simple: the Spanish artists were good! But what made these Spanish artists so good? What many people don't know is that most of these guys started working pretty young, mostly in their teens. And as they worked among already seasoned professionals, by the time they reached their early twenties, they were already seasoned professionals as well, something most of their American contemporaries weren't because they had only just started working in the business. You can see this in some of the earlier Warren archive volumes, were the artwork done by some young American artists is quite mediocre by comparison. And even if most of the Spaniards were only in their mid-twenties to early thirties when they started working for Warren, they already had more than a dozen years of experience, which made them seem so much better that their American counterparts.</div></div><div><div><br /></div></div><div><div>"The Spaniards also had a very peculiar way of drawing or inking their comics, that didn't resemble anything done in America at the time. They were also masters of working in black and white, and this was due to the fact that they worked mostly for British magazines that were only printed in B&W. They also got their peculiar style of inking from some Italian magazine of the 60's called Linus. That magazine, which got its name from a Peanuts character, featured the art of two masters of b&w inking and drawing; the Italian Dino Battaglia and the Argentine (though born in Uruguay) Alberto Breccia. Both Breccia and Battaglia had worked for the same editor in Argentina, who also happened to be the best comic book writer of all time: Hector German Oesterheld. Oesterheld got into comic books by accident, and would be among the first writers who would write specifically for an artist (pretty much like Kurtzman and Feldstein would do in EC), and a practice that the Warren writers would also follow. You can imagine the Warren writers fighting to get Maroto or Luis Garcia to draw their stories... </div></div><div><div><br /></div></div><div><div>"Alberto Breccia, the argentine artist who would inspire so many of the Spanish artists in the late 60's/early 70's, would develop his very peculiar style of inking pretty much through trial and error, and a part of genius as well. Cutting himself one morning while shaving, he pulled the razor blade out and when he was about to leave it on the sink, he noticed it left behind a series of trails pretty much like the lines he obtained while inking with a pen. This gave him the idea to use a razor blade not only to ink, but to scratch the board and so obtain different effects on his inking. This wouldn't go unnoticed among the Spaniards, who began scratching their boards with a razor blade to extreme effects (look at Auraleon's artwork to see what I mean). Breccia's extreme use of shading and shadows, leaving only slits of white on the board to give more depth to his drawings, would also be of a great inspiration to the Spaniards. Most of them discovered Breccia's work either from the same British weeklies they were all working for, or from the afore-mentioned Italian magazine. Frequent Vampirella contributor Fernando Fernandez had also lived for a couple of years in Argentina, and when he came back to Spain, he showed all his friends at SI Artists (the art studio they all worked for in Barcelona), some of the astonishing art he had found in Argentina: artists like Breccia, Jose Luis Salinas (who drew the Cisco Kid newspaper strip, and perhaps the best artist of all time along with Hal Foster), Roume and countless other Argentine artists that would inspire the Spaniards as well.</div></div><div><div><br /></div></div><div><div>"Dino Battaglia, the other source of inspiration for the Spaniards, was an Italian comic book artist who in the early 50's worked for another Italian publisher who had moved to Argentina along with such Italian luminaries as Hugo Pratt and Alberto Ongaro. He used a very peculiar way of inking, working not only in heavy blacks, but with grays he obtained with a "souffle-au-cul", a sort of metal tube divided in two sections; one part went inside the ink pot, and through the other you would blow as through a peashooter. Blowing through one of the metal tubes, would cause the ink to rise through the other tube, thus obtaining an ink splattering on the surface you blew onto. This splattering, similar to what an airbrush does, but much more coarser, and depending on the force with which you blew, would appear almost gray in print. This method of graying was very much appreciated by the Spaniards, who didn't know how Battaglia obtained this effect. However, they soon discovered that by dipping a used toothbrush in ink, and then rubbing the bristles with a ruler onto their art boards, they could obtain a splattering effect. Another trick was using an old sock dipped in ink, and then applying it onto the paper. You would obtain a splatter-like effect as well. As soon as this was discovered, all the Spanish artists were either dipping their toothbrushes, socks, or any clothing with a coarse weaving, into their ink pots and applying/or rubbing them onto their art boards. These effects are used by almost the totality of the Spaniards in the late 60's/early 70's, and you can pretty much see it in all the stories they did for Warren. Add to that some scratching with a razor blade over the splatter you obtained with your socks, toothbrushes, etc., and you've got all the shading needed for a Spanish-like inking for a Warren story.</div></div><div><div><br /></div></div><div><div>"Though inspired by both Battaglia and Breccia, the Spaniards came up with a hybrid-style all their own, which however wouldn't last beyond the decade of the 70's, as nobody works that way anymore.</div></div><div><div><br /></div></div><div><div>"Nevertheless, back in the day, the importance of the Spanish artists didn't go unnoticed among the other artists working for Warren, as many of the non-Spanish artists were trying to emulate them too. You can see this with Paul Neary's work on "Hunter," where he tries to copy Maroto's style, and even with some stories drawn by Tom Sutton. Of special note is also Gonzalo Mayo's work, who many believe is Spanish, but is among the only two Peruvian comic artist to ever make it in America (the other one being Pablo Marcos). Mayo's work is very similar to Esteban Maroto's. And Maroto, whether you like him or not, has left an indelible mark on comic books, with his neo-classic, Mucha-influenced style of drawing.</div></div><div><div><br /></div></div><div><div>"Maroto's series "Dax the warrior", by the way, was meant for Vampirella (see my review for Vampirella Archives volume 5 for further info)."</div></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><b>New characters, new changes</b>, December 9, 2012</div><div>—<b><i>Diego Cordoba</i></b>, from a comment under <b>Vampirella Archives Volume 5</b> HC (Hardcover)</div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">Vampirella had the chance of finding its most iconic artist as soon as the Spanish artists took over, in the person of Pepe Gonzalez. Gonzalez was an anomaly among comic book artists because he had never wanted to be one in the first place, and as a kid had never read comic books, and only got to do them by a fortuitous accident. Being a very able artist, he was hired at age fifteen to draw comic books by a fresh and newly formed art agency in Barcelona. Like most of the other artists in the studio, they worked for the European, and mostly for the British market, drawing anything from war, spy and western stories for various publishers. It wasn't until Gonzalez, or Pepe, as everyone in the agency called him, was given a western story featuring some can can dancers to draw, that they discovered he could actually draw very beautiful girls. It got to the point where every other artist in the agency would copy Pepe's girls, as he seemed to have the knack to draw them very pretty and appealing. Shortly after, he was given the assignment of drawing romance stories instead for the british market, something he preferred anyway to drawing cowboys. So it wasn't surprising that Pepe was given the chance to draw Vampirella, before any of the other artists from the Barcelona art agency. And this he did extremely well, so much that it's difficult to this day to think of another artist who better defined the look of Vampi. </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"> </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">The problem with Pepe was that he cared very little for comic books, preferring instead to do illustrations in pencil (something he would eventually do for Warren as well, and his pencil drawings of Vampirella are breath-taking). He hardly ever pencilled his pages, the only pencilling he'd do were a series of circles to know where he would place the characters, and then he'd draw the pictures directly with a sharpie. This method however had the drawback of leaving many disproportions in the bodies he drew. Also, for someone who claimed to be a homosexual, he seemed more interested in drawing beautiful girls than men; his male characters rendered quite hastily most of the time, and almost as an afterthought. Pepe also suffered from what's known in the business as being a "lazy artist". He was a really talented person, and not only as an comic book artist, but as a singer, a showman, an immitator, etc. The problem was that he never cared much for anything and didn't really apply himself to his work. Maybe because all this came so natural to him, he never thought of working hard at anything, and just picked the easy way out. Though among his many talents the one he said he could easily desist of, was drawing comic books. Strange, as he made a living from drawing comic books. After his stint on Vampirella, with which he pretty much stuck with until the very end of the company, he would create a couple of other series, always featuring a female lead character. He sadly passed away in 2009, having lived most of his life in the company of his mother and grandmother.</div></blockquote><p>There's one more thing I want to post here, besides a collection of the amazing Warren cover paintings, and that's a brief account of how these mostly Spanish artists came to work for an American company and basically replaced all the American artists who had been illustrating the magazines. I'll dig up the info aand get it ready for when I make that post. </p><p> </p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-41850912156842990032023-04-17T03:26:00.006-05:002023-04-17T03:38:52.796-05:00Getting There<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFgFJ02QVYVx6e7tejV-k4ROx4-cJRZsT_Ikg5f6cPAf3BYfmt6rhI8xAeCtLZ72TsQxeDNfQyPev7et6RV1j1tRd6nfTdBN7C5tIvyrXmUdqrmKPol-sFPDOpjsiznS0PON1V6rYDCJ16Ja95xLn8gZp7rkumZI0NqYAbM3itFvLws6uH9L4tmE0n/s1002/Original-Fafhrd-1.0.9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="761" height="766" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFgFJ02QVYVx6e7tejV-k4ROx4-cJRZsT_Ikg5f6cPAf3BYfmt6rhI8xAeCtLZ72TsQxeDNfQyPev7et6RV1j1tRd6nfTdBN7C5tIvyrXmUdqrmKPol-sFPDOpjsiznS0PON1V6rYDCJ16Ja95xLn8gZp7rkumZI0NqYAbM3itFvLws6uH9L4tmE0n/w582-h766/Original-Fafhrd-1.0.9.jpg" width="582" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-75211564327211163722023-04-15T05:00:00.005-05:002023-04-15T12:28:21.355-05:00Back At It!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOD4Z-4jecY5BFC5X6i5cvvOllbdc_rfksQy829Sm13Xm_CLff-AL8GX9hPTq52eXIvyJgldHqdfoGa_kb5SmmD2q-UMAORqVB7hOnt4P2OJ9RCvhhw8cMU95_RwtIB9CF-0kizLptR2E0JXqFzGf0mSl_5iHOyP66XrHitSGP63FZZ3YZ9-GfRlRF/s1002/Original-Fafhrd-1.0.3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1002" data-original-width="761" height="761" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOD4Z-4jecY5BFC5X6i5cvvOllbdc_rfksQy829Sm13Xm_CLff-AL8GX9hPTq52eXIvyJgldHqdfoGa_kb5SmmD2q-UMAORqVB7hOnt4P2OJ9RCvhhw8cMU95_RwtIB9CF-0kizLptR2E0JXqFzGf0mSl_5iHOyP66XrHitSGP63FZZ3YZ9-GfRlRF/w578-h761/Original-Fafhrd-1.0.3.jpg" width="578" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I decided to color this one in photoshop. In progress. Lol I have no idea what I'm going to do about the hands. Anything complicated like that needs to be part of the pencil drawing, and done right, before I import it. No way can I draw hands in photoshop. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Important information I don't want to forget—I made a color palette for the flesh tones. Mainly it was some earth tones plus a little blue, and I used a semi-transparent brush (like 20 percent opacity) to put down swatches up in the corner of the picture, on a layer underneath the top layer so it wouldn't show (I covered the area with some solid white on the topmost layer). Wish I had a picture that includes the palette, but by the time I made my first save I had already flattened it all. I'm using a vartiation on flat comic book coloring technique, which emphasizes the drawing rather than fighting with it. And I'm keeping all the colors very desaturated and earth-toney (though I'm making some blues and purples etc that match it). And yes, there's blue and purple and yelllow and pink etc in the flesh tone, all blended in so I break away from the over-simplicity of colors coming straight from the color picker. I should have used the palette for all my colors, but I only used it for the flesh. I forgot my limited palette philosophy of coloring. Well, from here I'll use the painting itself as a palette. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The whole thing is flattened now (as I said), so I no longer have the drawing on top to keep dropping over all the colors layers. That was a big problem from the very beginning anyway, because the drawing wasn't pure line, it included all the shading. Always an issue with my pencils. I have no perfect solution for that, just have to wing it every time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And below are the handful of things I've drawn over the last couple of years that are worth posting. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhquVuFT2375p4WCKwBEhrD6X8-qF-PpXxR1wH3JFFFS0peVcxZZONdka2R4n_WpwbmLWjOavzlo0oNRuaT1kj8cUMnGYDylbyqysj4OVUqCvnKG7jZhIBqAxfmFMptwSZauwhMWEcAvki1ZlRfaGsxAEXDcKzuUdkGPfOfJgYlZ3_O1CNHELqqYAIB/s2240/P1050101.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1761" data-original-width="2240" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhquVuFT2375p4WCKwBEhrD6X8-qF-PpXxR1wH3JFFFS0peVcxZZONdka2R4n_WpwbmLWjOavzlo0oNRuaT1kj8cUMnGYDylbyqysj4OVUqCvnKG7jZhIBqAxfmFMptwSZauwhMWEcAvki1ZlRfaGsxAEXDcKzuUdkGPfOfJgYlZ3_O1CNHELqqYAIB/w640-h504/P1050101.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCBcvBDpb_A8iOVooDonsEMqIfhbWslf_eTe570dNI6XkGlxXxDT3teuKXuiCB4PS3Q-FE_4Z1x2bztWBd6JpBifYMoOZWaWZjAYKAFgUp7oTPjXeL3AIqAFXcQAor5Yz7OfoZCNWczYLrPv6bzIDlLGb6MvWZkYAMzXFr8Lwrjist3hr8Q1Jc3K3e/s2170/P1050102.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2170" data-original-width="1693" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCBcvBDpb_A8iOVooDonsEMqIfhbWslf_eTe570dNI6XkGlxXxDT3teuKXuiCB4PS3Q-FE_4Z1x2bztWBd6JpBifYMoOZWaWZjAYKAFgUp7oTPjXeL3AIqAFXcQAor5Yz7OfoZCNWczYLrPv6bzIDlLGb6MvWZkYAMzXFr8Lwrjist3hr8Q1Jc3K3e/w500-h640/P1050102.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_PQaB-6Ecc48p3XL6-bxx60uMD1rE5OTu9a_5ZOmrzENRLFb4Rz500-bnCneXv9_BdM7YwKKdx3TIBGFCW2f3s9K84HCNNyN6eiE7PFUAarObvt5nmZ3KV9sZqBiJkKxormC_KdUkNiLYz9Us0vi9mUAyOa8Rbz1iwGG3nBBofDe_UQlEs7gdyv-/s2153/P1050103.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2153" data-original-width="1742" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_PQaB-6Ecc48p3XL6-bxx60uMD1rE5OTu9a_5ZOmrzENRLFb4Rz500-bnCneXv9_BdM7YwKKdx3TIBGFCW2f3s9K84HCNNyN6eiE7PFUAarObvt5nmZ3KV9sZqBiJkKxormC_KdUkNiLYz9Us0vi9mUAyOa8Rbz1iwGG3nBBofDe_UQlEs7gdyv-/w518-h640/P1050103.jpg" width="518" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLKg6bs-GTfFI6kVeliy7OhsEzdwiW7p7f02J7aWv_N2O72enTjS0GFrvh8ThztTm2SmNy6pmw0-3SeqEAh0RH4_JpsEFp62HceeNQUtppmYPtOzvlklvqoIp9whuY1Nn3QEinXABNTbaiCZhTzPS69YbQL37yF-TMobEm6GYPmWYu5lxITx1vqACG/s2238/P1050104.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2238" data-original-width="2072" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLKg6bs-GTfFI6kVeliy7OhsEzdwiW7p7f02J7aWv_N2O72enTjS0GFrvh8ThztTm2SmNy6pmw0-3SeqEAh0RH4_JpsEFp62HceeNQUtppmYPtOzvlklvqoIp9whuY1Nn3QEinXABNTbaiCZhTzPS69YbQL37yF-TMobEm6GYPmWYu5lxITx1vqACG/w592-h640/P1050104.jpg" width="592" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-58840657276459873832023-04-13T15:21:00.004-05:002023-04-13T15:24:48.812-05:00Some thoughts on recent posts and what I'm doing<p> It's starting to hit me, what I'm doing here. I've been talking about this group of artists who were active starting in the 60s, when I was a kid, up through the 90s, when I stopped being interested in comic books. And I'm comparing and contrasting them with each other and with my own art, ferreting out the influences they've had on each other and on me. </p><p>It's somewhat like doing master studies, where you pick an artist and copy a piece of his work. I've done a bunch of them for the Level Up course when I was on ConceptArt. Seems like a lifetime ago, it was about a decade I guess. Here's a few I did:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5mf-XehPR_bFQ-MiGaSvu2suQ-zD6Kqqk8LSTcn68AFcmWj97aZjSUSkyZSXai-AWHHos3sn4_XVNRblIIliXxiv34bvM7vq_SMHLeHT1dfIfF8DpyloUI2BmGcCkaDcKuP85zPui3_9gqWA9Mf1eu4mgLZ26JF2o9IVByYDOVUeyZAKL95_Qzlj/s800/Comp006-2hrs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="800" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5mf-XehPR_bFQ-MiGaSvu2suQ-zD6Kqqk8LSTcn68AFcmWj97aZjSUSkyZSXai-AWHHos3sn4_XVNRblIIliXxiv34bvM7vq_SMHLeHT1dfIfF8DpyloUI2BmGcCkaDcKuP85zPui3_9gqWA9Mf1eu4mgLZ26JF2o9IVByYDOVUeyZAKL95_Qzlj/w640-h444/Comp006-2hrs.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip3ilMH9MsmnbX0Z292SKq7JAoJodenwt1xRqkCV28sI0MWlAHnSISlbhIc4vPEYe-1vwz_v1cLt4AHi3tCeHO_tm_grPVdl_VW9fEjsrPAp_C5oPbHqs0xXrvxX2EYrl-I3N99D7n-hWYgiCtuZHqdo9XxWCyQl3vEirIeiRtUH4wmKSRDH0GTfP0/s800/Comp011-finitoid.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="800" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip3ilMH9MsmnbX0Z292SKq7JAoJodenwt1xRqkCV28sI0MWlAHnSISlbhIc4vPEYe-1vwz_v1cLt4AHi3tCeHO_tm_grPVdl_VW9fEjsrPAp_C5oPbHqs0xXrvxX2EYrl-I3N99D7n-hWYgiCtuZHqdo9XxWCyQl3vEirIeiRtUH4wmKSRDH0GTfP0/w640-h466/Comp011-finitoid.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7NK-KtjM0uYcVBsx41ASjmH8U1eMH5YRoG8jgnWEAdl8-cmmCGFrSmRPb6WOrkjQAq7nLX579XFRWdjxKhG6_uTxbrBMru3ufLlWr7XalpLBa3R1WgZF2u-Otkk7ntLK2Qf4evMqS4Fmk0zcOFqDKhdTHmDbTT4tseryUOP_yCEHYCVkbbPjfH6n/s2040/Comp04-2up-2hrs.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1533" data-original-width="2040" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7NK-KtjM0uYcVBsx41ASjmH8U1eMH5YRoG8jgnWEAdl8-cmmCGFrSmRPb6WOrkjQAq7nLX579XFRWdjxKhG6_uTxbrBMru3ufLlWr7XalpLBa3R1WgZF2u-Otkk7ntLK2Qf4evMqS4Fmk0zcOFqDKhdTHmDbTT4tseryUOP_yCEHYCVkbbPjfH6n/w640-h480/Comp04-2up-2hrs.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFsFENQjxVuSfwps7nTWEis3ZWTaOh50j4V8fH0qWTL1LDr8BEhyjADYN_xQTd69t9eyKI_MtvxGyFF-irHzQF2SsTdQWunbv0xP-Wm7ukv70WGm21cC_dbI3F-XHGo3vEFAOWLhK5LUx-iGhQN7jlbygBubQO6jE4ZaMh9vVfvPgLn2VAqs-lmMAu/s800/Comp008-7.5hr.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="800" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFsFENQjxVuSfwps7nTWEis3ZWTaOh50j4V8fH0qWTL1LDr8BEhyjADYN_xQTd69t9eyKI_MtvxGyFF-irHzQF2SsTdQWunbv0xP-Wm7ukv70WGm21cC_dbI3F-XHGo3vEFAOWLhK5LUx-iGhQN7jlbygBubQO6jE4ZaMh9vVfvPgLn2VAqs-lmMAu/w640-h404/Comp008-7.5hr.gif" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In each case the original is on the left with the artist's name under it, and my copy on the right. The goal was to do these fast. Jason said a really good artist would be able to do it in about half an hour, but of course we were struggling students, so we took longer. The Tiepolos I did were incredibly humbling! </div><p>But what I'm doing now is much more focused. I'm looking specifically at this group of artists who so profoundly affected my own ideas about art as I was growing up. That's formative stuff! These guys plus a few more were it for me, well in the comics world. Then there were more of course. Right now I'm specifically looking at my comic influences. Not really sure why, it's an intuitive thing. I'm really drawn to it, and I suspect it's because they offer what I'm most missing in my work, those powerful shapes and colors and textures to bring some toughness aqnd personality to it. To pull my work out of blandsville and turbocharge it. Well, that plus of course I moved to comic figures to propel my anatomy studies. </p><p>By looking at all of their work rather than just examining the work of one artist, and generally it's one who lived a century ago or more (not always), this gives me a very deep and broad understanding of certain things. I see the diffferences in how they approach things, and the similarities. That helps you to guage things to a much finer degree, to see things you would otherwise have missed. Simply because I looked at a bunch of Texeira and then a bunch of Jae Lee, and before both of them I did a stint on Bisley. Grabbing images and video to post made me begin to notice these similarities and differences, and drew my eye to trends that were developing or being refined in ther work as it evolved across the decades and through all of them and several other artists who were peripheral to their group (not that it was really a group, I just group them together as stylistic influences on each other). </p><p>One thing I notice about all of them—They combine two things that don't frequently go together. Ultra-juvenile musclebound superhero fantasy with bulging biceps and sexy women, alongside some really sophisticated art techniques. It's always there, if you defocus on the bulging muscles and grimacing faces and sweat. Each one of them is a master in several techniques that most of their peers just didn't even come close to. Compared to the normal run of the mill comics artists, each of these guys were truly great artists. There's a solid character and personality in their figure work that's mostly lacking in the work of the general comics artist. I could do a post of a series of them comparing them with some of the weak-sauce artists of their time, but that seems counterproductive. And it would be a lot of mudslinging, what's the point of that? Oh, there were definitely some other great artists at the time, for sure! In very different ways from these powerful stylists I'm focused on. They were the superstar artists, and then you've got the lower-tier, the workmanlike artists who drew stiff figures that never really seemed solidly grounded in the scene, or just didn't have graceful gesture to them. </p><p>Some of these guys have the same problems actually, but their style is so powerful and they're so bold in their choices that it doesn't matter. It's when the artist is also tentative or too timid in his choices that you notice those issues. </p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-64847440660207301482023-04-13T03:04:00.000-05:002023-04-13T03:04:15.528-05:00Design—strong vs weak shapes (and colors and TEXtures too)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj8gX6OlEyyuJz8HXDnaFc681aBJMgi9qS6duO9UwHA2m4W2PncE_e1OQmb53EaD43zS4rcDHy6urCr9HUe1jOGfb676A5i2E_93L4E3AwBKNirGM3fzxNNmso0hopdCNPdJnAL2umXtetHjmjhWxcxq7sWqfpVpdJdHZDe96Tb7z_CHqgdLKcucHy/s3136/Fafhrd%E2%80%94Chapel.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1978" data-original-width="3136" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj8gX6OlEyyuJz8HXDnaFc681aBJMgi9qS6duO9UwHA2m4W2PncE_e1OQmb53EaD43zS4rcDHy6urCr9HUe1jOGfb676A5i2E_93L4E3AwBKNirGM3fzxNNmso0hopdCNPdJnAL2umXtetHjmjhWxcxq7sWqfpVpdJdHZDe96Tb7z_CHqgdLKcucHy/w640-h404/Fafhrd%E2%80%94Chapel.png" width="640" /></a></div><p> Scrolling down my blog after finishing the most recent post, I noticed some things. One of the biggest differences between my drawings/paintings and those of the powerful artists I've been blogging about is the shapes they use. They're powerful and expressive, whereas mine are weak and smooth. Soft and gentle. </p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Self-critique:</h2><p>Not only the shapes, but the colors and textures are far more powerful and eye-catching in the Jae Lee piece. Of course it's not a perfect comparison—his is intended to be mega-powerful and badass, while mine was an anatomy learning piece and I wasn't going for anything of the sort. But in general my drawings do tend to be bland and gentle. I don't want them to be as crazy or savage as that one, but I do want to move in that direction, if just for learning purposes for a while, to overcome what I see as some of the weaknesses of my drawing. It can be very helpful to try out different approaches, techniques and styles, even if they aren't necessarily the way you plan to end up working. It all contributes to the gestalt of your art. </p><p>I can see that more jagged shapes, rugged and chunky lines, and moving away from pink for a flesh tone would make my dude look a lot tougher. In fact next to Chapel he looks downright feminine. </p><p>To crit the other way, mine looks more realistic. But then I can guarantee I put a hell of a lot more time in too. Because I was in a learning phase and struggling, and he was way beyond that. He had his techniques down pat. And was practically copying a Bisley piece. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK-HXB3tkLavo9aTj_9EMlszp2XjFwcb5_7Baf883sON_Y6Vwu1gNWF1Cw-9KKE86D1ejCy-pLelBEUhgRToyUbIL-vkWu2ozBv5hgHUVq57lkztnofKOwUFnQGFAzfSVvolnxvGGC56m526dnv4DSgQ856lNkf0u6yPs3ThwVfvVawG8Pratfu8Gg/s800/Fafhrd%20sketch.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="587" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK-HXB3tkLavo9aTj_9EMlszp2XjFwcb5_7Baf883sON_Y6Vwu1gNWF1Cw-9KKE86D1ejCy-pLelBEUhgRToyUbIL-vkWu2ozBv5hgHUVq57lkztnofKOwUFnQGFAzfSVvolnxvGGC56m526dnv4DSgQ856lNkf0u6yPs3ThwVfvVawG8Pratfu8Gg/w470-h640/Fafhrd%20sketch.jpg" width="470" /></a></div><div><br /></div>By contrast, this Fafhrd sketch is a lot stronger than the painting I posted above (mine I mean). The shapes are exaggerated in a nice way, and the thick lines are strong. His stance looks pretty cool. Even that thick jagged mountain edge behind him is strong and eye-catching. I also like the Fafhrd logo I drew down in the corner. It all looks good. I wasn't struggling to learn anything or try anything brand new. Well, I was actually—I had never done such exaggerated anatomy, and really I didn't know anatomy very well. Mostly I just faked it. Though come to think of it I did work through a few anatomy books prior to this, including several by <b><i>Burne Hogarth</i></b> and <b><i>Robert Beverly Hale</i></b>. In some ways I think I knew anatomy better than I do now, and I was able to make it look cooler, unlike now when everything looks smooth and rounded off. I need to bring some of that back. It's weird how you can forget you used to know things like that. It was about three decades ago, and I totally stopped drawing for a good solid decade, during which all my knowledge evaporated. It didn't start to resurrect until I decided to get back to drawing in pencil a couple of years ago, and even then it took a good long time. I basically had to re-develop it, it didn't really <i>come back</i>. <br /><p>But I do see the importance of the way I've learned to lay out the anatomy now, as opposed to back then. Now I understand how the muscles wrap around the body (in places) and fit into and against each other. Back then I didn't grasp those things. As soon as I can bring some of that method back and fit it together with the way I draw now, this is gonna get good!</p><p>And suddenly I get it—diagram the muscles out the way I've been doing, with smooth simple curved lines, and then on top do another pass, drawing in the muscles more chunky and with cool shapes. Man, I was really starting to feel bad about blogging about nothing but other artists, when it's supposed to be about my art (at least sometimes), but this is really getting good now. I'm developing my ideas on how to proceed, rather than just drawing the same stuff over and over without making any progress. </p><p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p><p>I just scrolled down my <b>Drawings</b> gallery on <b>Flickr</b>, and I see it isn't <i>all</i> my drawings or paintings that are smooth and simple like that top drawing. It's only the learning pieces where I was drawing <i>form</i>, as opposed to putting a surface on it. Like these:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHN03jyNKf7D_mlKRS-AiSsNxLX_bLDdb47nM3BllGWVJ-iUdgMDiJcq4hEprX-f9fFoCIYPg94mypFa0ChyYyHMNqtMd_6pjDFOnRkvR470pDIPLvxXRhzK1n16uNEUhj4V-d2RuPX4yQPUulZ9ms3OdWyjuzUk1g0mSW7g3CFZEHBT8OPbk_8Qs/s2958/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-13%20at%201.47.40%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="2958" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHN03jyNKf7D_mlKRS-AiSsNxLX_bLDdb47nM3BllGWVJ-iUdgMDiJcq4hEprX-f9fFoCIYPg94mypFa0ChyYyHMNqtMd_6pjDFOnRkvR470pDIPLvxXRhzK1n16uNEUhj4V-d2RuPX4yQPUulZ9ms3OdWyjuzUk1g0mSW7g3CFZEHBT8OPbk_8Qs/w400-h191/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-13%20at%201.47.40%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPoEGFwbJQNBbed0-S9I8VbeP4JHCWz5u6xACcKk-ASriEOKQ_qAAj0BzB6IpVr9A-xZmk8QF7NhVr56zhGMSdP2BFmZbXi_ifC0unhYOePSV07toY-TmiP6ZCnPGklnoDzGmYtBJnSi8K7y4SJLJIFiAoKWn7AiLcASRvqd3gbARhrG706aFoffD8/s2062/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-13%20at%201.50.33%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="2062" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPoEGFwbJQNBbed0-S9I8VbeP4JHCWz5u6xACcKk-ASriEOKQ_qAAj0BzB6IpVr9A-xZmk8QF7NhVr56zhGMSdP2BFmZbXi_ifC0unhYOePSV07toY-TmiP6ZCnPGklnoDzGmYtBJnSi8K7y4SJLJIFiAoKWn7AiLcASRvqd3gbARhrG706aFoffD8/w400-h274/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-13%20at%201.50.33%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">On other ones I didn't do it that way:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidl54aRV9iQ8-n0RBU-e5pR7nVYodI-bwyAtk-rUSmHk9QqKDLrNPOyftKAQzOhAMDNOCgCqmo7nV94NnsAYqXEYZ4C0gaSLef0ZPVEreqiaLWkMVCGXEugDNEI4_z4gnfnakmlfFKQZ9ShO8ThH7ZQQZIMtuj8NQnvlN3PGgJt1a8YUb_ofIXpSVN/s1598/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-13%20at%201.52.01%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1598" data-original-width="1280" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidl54aRV9iQ8-n0RBU-e5pR7nVYodI-bwyAtk-rUSmHk9QqKDLrNPOyftKAQzOhAMDNOCgCqmo7nV94NnsAYqXEYZ4C0gaSLef0ZPVEreqiaLWkMVCGXEugDNEI4_z4gnfnakmlfFKQZ9ShO8ThH7ZQQZIMtuj8NQnvlN3PGgJt1a8YUb_ofIXpSVN/w320-h400/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-13%20at%201.52.01%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6qmD57B9Dr61BOVby_lY4sgL18Y_zVaFDMNaGlr4dEQa0fZB6tkbjsHfrRpv9iBgNTP-a8bFPmyxC0ebZdY9PO9tLH7pgWOmI9wpLT44lTag-bzUDbeyjkYAefxcnCNyhmiix3LsOFihKzxqvW_keoRGr5VmzU-CnN551d2uuDw0gF_BZgeXIfpXJ/s1598/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-13%20at%201.53.21%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1598" data-original-width="1230" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6qmD57B9Dr61BOVby_lY4sgL18Y_zVaFDMNaGlr4dEQa0fZB6tkbjsHfrRpv9iBgNTP-a8bFPmyxC0ebZdY9PO9tLH7pgWOmI9wpLT44lTag-bzUDbeyjkYAefxcnCNyhmiix3LsOFihKzxqvW_keoRGr5VmzU-CnN551d2uuDw0gF_BZgeXIfpXJ/w308-h400/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-13%20at%201.53.21%20AM.png" width="308" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This one does look rounded and smooth, and yet he's so big and strong it doesn't make him look at all feminine. And there is a subtle sense of more sophisticated form in the muscles, it just isn't as pronounced as in the top Fafhrd piece or the pencil Thor above him. There are interesting shapes there, partly in the negative spaces where the plain gray background shows through. The pointed shapes of his hair and the wings on the helmet, and the rectangle of the hammer etc all move it away from 'Simple, smooth and rounded.'And if I had worked on it some more I quite likely would have developed the outlines a bit more and put some shadows in places on the arms etc. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I really like the way I drew the pencil Thor just above it. I should draw like that more. It's really got some power and toughness to it. That was before I had learned how to lay out the muscles on the body, I was winging it. By the time I did the color Thor I had learned it, at least for the 'Show muscles' (front of torso, arms, front of thighs and calves I guess). I still need to develop my understanding of the back and the rear thighs and a few details here and there. But it can wait, I'm ready to take what I know now and just draw for fun. To BE an artist, rather than all this endless striving to BECOME one—that ancient and eternal philosophical conundrum. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-81138132054213834242023-04-12T23:43:00.003-05:002023-04-13T00:08:38.269-05:00Influence Tree<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiROGQbqC3-8GEMXFzJKfOB5LHp6Ug27W8VayRhs0NNDwnG2wINLU-sUCbq8nPzOjp-kJ-EAAhOqo4E_XVAUH3zuY9mPgoMxCC_12L2QHqESJPQ1jbXA7X5QKk_y01VbN8c5ODqm1gOSc2kkB1cKSs5QUK9GaB_N4KBvizMuFOpo0T_R_udbmuEgxE6/s2946/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.41.10%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1798" data-original-width="2946" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiROGQbqC3-8GEMXFzJKfOB5LHp6Ug27W8VayRhs0NNDwnG2wINLU-sUCbq8nPzOjp-kJ-EAAhOqo4E_XVAUH3zuY9mPgoMxCC_12L2QHqESJPQ1jbXA7X5QKk_y01VbN8c5ODqm1gOSc2kkB1cKSs5QUK9GaB_N4KBvizMuFOpo0T_R_udbmuEgxE6/w640-h390/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.41.10%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The roots are deep in the 60s and 70s. You start with <b><i>Frank Frazetta</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljcPlldeEkrghnNpVrsBji61e1ULxRBwJf6ktDqtr0ZA51QxCwkoPSyL29YgoGJQXG6Zc5796pAtZ5nHT-UyC_3qXlJCU5LR1hND9B53X7EiCAzuiphcclkx2TN7cffQKalWoDjeZXBGjUeiOEzyyRXOUsLno5-NG6gLQ6levd8OsrZ6nDsxrR9y5/s2876/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.43.59%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1840" data-original-width="2876" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhljcPlldeEkrghnNpVrsBji61e1ULxRBwJf6ktDqtr0ZA51QxCwkoPSyL29YgoGJQXG6Zc5796pAtZ5nHT-UyC_3qXlJCU5LR1hND9B53X7EiCAzuiphcclkx2TN7cffQKalWoDjeZXBGjUeiOEzyyRXOUsLno5-NG6gLQ6levd8OsrZ6nDsxrR9y5/w640-h410/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.43.59%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBv2njaukhFIVJuXkbBEm7SEWppM9op6J9LYTZIxEMgCXi_JmeE9UDbS8Z_CngSMpDnkCpT_uYx5jdt6rOlyQfOemJReJu4Xp7qOKUfgEwEsC6jrgH4xGA8mY_hc6k8hCRSEzz4WeXp98x_XpFzm1Oe2tzCvVJ4rVsyOM_Ha9A8IktTXZyHvbw5z4g/s2496/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.46.11%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2496" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBv2njaukhFIVJuXkbBEm7SEWppM9op6J9LYTZIxEMgCXi_JmeE9UDbS8Z_CngSMpDnkCpT_uYx5jdt6rOlyQfOemJReJu4Xp7qOKUfgEwEsC6jrgH4xGA8mY_hc6k8hCRSEzz4WeXp98x_XpFzm1Oe2tzCvVJ4rVsyOM_Ha9A8IktTXZyHvbw5z4g/w512-h640/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.46.11%20PM.png" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">And </span><b style="text-align: left;"><i>Richard Corben</i></b><span style="text-align: left;">. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-EXr-BF8z3LpQaVy1N2YTlJ9a51TgWrVmgQ4x91nmwiJUINdV8-skDXhajAFLBdmVXaSRVpG-ercRGUBuFiLtFmd-wKXKxoMzNwfioHcXIPpVJs1dGe0M99rcso7n0f78rB6QwWi2_a6Jk_WhbzH0_pIrxnWjPo3TntkDdGMUIDX4JC2WNEQcxED/s2564/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.55.42%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2564" data-original-width="1960" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-EXr-BF8z3LpQaVy1N2YTlJ9a51TgWrVmgQ4x91nmwiJUINdV8-skDXhajAFLBdmVXaSRVpG-ercRGUBuFiLtFmd-wKXKxoMzNwfioHcXIPpVJs1dGe0M99rcso7n0f78rB6QwWi2_a6Jk_WhbzH0_pIrxnWjPo3TntkDdGMUIDX4JC2WNEQcxED/w490-h640/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.55.42%20PM.png" width="490" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Advance to the 80s and add in a cutting of </span><b style="text-align: left;"><i>Frank Miller</i></b><span style="text-align: left;">.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6i_ovrrBmBSxVCLcT39Org9e4hvzfAvLDKk8tkBHhm_rGUo7Yq9e02fzmeYz_zGfZMVyNN5yL5hGMnFr3ExSU7uWpHWRHNwBrK-U-bdqfbB_1V2uCT1g_kIgZhBQliVU_AZk5kfUf5GbstypDFisrGtmnfvyjFi3rkkGVUopUuakApVl68vWLv1i/s2598/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.50.04%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2598" data-original-width="2054" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6i_ovrrBmBSxVCLcT39Org9e4hvzfAvLDKk8tkBHhm_rGUo7Yq9e02fzmeYz_zGfZMVyNN5yL5hGMnFr3ExSU7uWpHWRHNwBrK-U-bdqfbB_1V2uCT1g_kIgZhBQliVU_AZk5kfUf5GbstypDFisrGtmnfvyjFi3rkkGVUopUuakApVl68vWLv1i/w506-h640/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.50.04%20PM.png" width="506" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Combine all these influences together and you get <b><i>Simon Bisley</i></b>. Ok, I'm actually not sure if Miller's <b>Sin City</b> came before or after—probably after. But I guarantee Miller'</span><span style="text-align: left;">s art was a strong influence. Actually when he did Sin City he was probably being influenced in turn by Bisley, These trees twist and turn sometimes. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIbuOZMoNXEjZO26tGMOZgyA51e9wqtFr-DlB-ElszockHgWDjElQ3gXkP1uAjot6z3YiMBwGq1lYCEvsGxBOkWyBi74Ebj6JH5WXKLZdXl7b-l0oX31SjAvUT79IjrKvbg51jH40efKb5YMCc9qyawpHNFb39Tbha_rk7_UYavzMPOZPcamp8RTVA/s2598/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.50.55%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2598" data-original-width="1998" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIbuOZMoNXEjZO26tGMOZgyA51e9wqtFr-DlB-ElszockHgWDjElQ3gXkP1uAjot6z3YiMBwGq1lYCEvsGxBOkWyBi74Ebj6JH5WXKLZdXl7b-l0oX31SjAvUT79IjrKvbg51jH40efKb5YMCc9qyawpHNFb39Tbha_rk7_UYavzMPOZPcamp8RTVA/w492-h640/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.50.55%20PM.png" width="492" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">One key feature to pay attention to is the way they use blacks. They all do it extensively and powerfully. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVap6seTh3srW9h3caKDSqImj5rvh5de5A9tFMYhedVID3wXt2EvVUe8bEx1Qj4IIu7oFJkW80E8E_eL2WendD0uO9nkEPkT1Nd14-gNmhND5I8Cx5zOTHDAr3Pew3nGPy0uibiPRMZnMrQbfrk2ZzRHi4zL1gworbEtG3cuxKyNee6vIcuF-xqC6V/s2598/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.51.48%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2598" data-original-width="1998" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVap6seTh3srW9h3caKDSqImj5rvh5de5A9tFMYhedVID3wXt2EvVUe8bEx1Qj4IIu7oFJkW80E8E_eL2WendD0uO9nkEPkT1Nd14-gNmhND5I8Cx5zOTHDAr3Pew3nGPy0uibiPRMZnMrQbfrk2ZzRHi4zL1gworbEtG3cuxKyNee6vIcuF-xqC6V/w492-h640/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%209.51.48%20PM.png" width="492" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The one above is still by Bisley. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f0/f5/b4/f0f5b4c1830c408a83d317824c739aaa.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="644" height="800" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f0/f5/b4/f0f5b4c1830c408a83d317824c739aaa.jpg" width="644" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This one is by Jae Lee in the 90s. A bit of influence maybe? </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh13qZi4xNzn-G90q6c4USePvs1V2pxq3t_6GKS0jn6zc8JZVnv9USaIZVKs0nhjE52qu2feBLLf0QQXbIjp4gf3o-FwO5Y5kZP34L5ArofkfFOn_ysPHEic0D97e0cMy_zn2nCnDLFmCMbXRLTIMH2cCem_uSUf8o1CPM0mmmYv7tPRp1SFlFM7D98/s2852/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%2010.22.01%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2208" data-original-width="2852" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh13qZi4xNzn-G90q6c4USePvs1V2pxq3t_6GKS0jn6zc8JZVnv9USaIZVKs0nhjE52qu2feBLLf0QQXbIjp4gf3o-FwO5Y5kZP34L5ArofkfFOn_ysPHEic0D97e0cMy_zn2nCnDLFmCMbXRLTIMH2cCem_uSUf8o1CPM0mmmYv7tPRp1SFlFM7D98/w640-h496/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-12%20at%2010.22.01%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">More Jae Lee. Less strong of an influence (he practically cribbed the other image from Bisley), and there are a few other influences as well I can point out. One of the strongest being <b style="font-style: italic;">Bill Sienkiewicz</b>. I don't want to litter this post up with too many influences, it's getting a bit complicated already. Scroll down a bit and I've got some images by Sieniewicz posted, along with a pronunciation guide for his name. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WCWT7MMUf_pKivi1WjsWHLhhzx6jfkkcVQOKJzp_OtSH-lHsxMTqnCBXQqGytd2aCiaEzFcFMDrZX7I3OFCYjFPLDZTe-Px-1l61ohqai4HqjEjNXYNe_ESX-Gdupi35YLzWbO9h6fJpwYQdh4Bwna2T-IJGkeFOJuQ4yMNFidJ9r3CzGVC19VR0/s2177/P1050096.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2116" data-original-width="2177" height="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WCWT7MMUf_pKivi1WjsWHLhhzx6jfkkcVQOKJzp_OtSH-lHsxMTqnCBXQqGytd2aCiaEzFcFMDrZX7I3OFCYjFPLDZTe-Px-1l61ohqai4HqjEjNXYNe_ESX-Gdupi35YLzWbO9h6fJpwYQdh4Bwna2T-IJGkeFOJuQ4yMNFidJ9r3CzGVC19VR0/w640-h622/P1050096.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And here we have <b><i>Mark Texeira</i></b>. Looking at these together like this, I can see he undoubtedly took some influence from Jae Lee. Or was it the other way around? They were working at the same time. The influence tree gets really tangled, doesn't it? But you can definitely feel the influence, even if you can't tell which way it went. Note the heavy use of spatter and scraping with a razor blade through black ink, or overpainting with white to create those really powerful expressionist shapes. Explosions of pure raw power. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUbCLjZovK8Eq700PPySjJdpE2hYUCyApnGWge6RUkS6SUU_bhPhTkVFy2OSi8j4dEsoIvtb0xL7fcgADWd5ZeGZ_gOw6IMIgIGOI9H1_w3gunPNcrDqjYD73UqsrXrwbNcsoPWIpgblIvwOY-cC5ole8G9zJAnIqez4yHWM2B1_MBsLigSQjHG0ke/s2165/P1050097.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2165" data-original-width="1395" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUbCLjZovK8Eq700PPySjJdpE2hYUCyApnGWge6RUkS6SUU_bhPhTkVFy2OSi8j4dEsoIvtb0xL7fcgADWd5ZeGZ_gOw6IMIgIGOI9H1_w3gunPNcrDqjYD73UqsrXrwbNcsoPWIpgblIvwOY-cC5ole8G9zJAnIqez4yHWM2B1_MBsLigSQjHG0ke/w412-h640/P1050097.jpg" width="412" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Actually some influence comes from the Warren horror comics of the 70's here too. I need to get some pics uploaded from those. During the period known as the <b>Spanish Invasion</b>, when <b><i>Jim Warren</i></b> hired a whole stable of Spanish artists to work from overseas, they did a lot of scraping with razor blades and spattering in their large format black-and-white horror comics, and Tex and Lee were definitely paying attention. Some of that influence moved through the 70's Batman art—it became very horror- and gothic-inspired for a while. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLUpKS2lNSp_HS_YIe25AdJd_HANSTnW6CkeGdfZBqLjXnd5niM1YvC5iE1CY5siihIaLQp1wOXPqDO3ARP4rdsXGVVORCkhlFY9Dks_Qz04NSM7JqEaEKHbzeEdr7QsCwYqYdDWyg2lT_Z3CC6_mRYjZCkdf45vjjxICekvQn859cr12UiU3k0oqT/s2101/P1050098.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="2101" height="584" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLUpKS2lNSp_HS_YIe25AdJd_HANSTnW6CkeGdfZBqLjXnd5niM1YvC5iE1CY5siihIaLQp1wOXPqDO3ARP4rdsXGVVORCkhlFY9Dks_Qz04NSM7JqEaEKHbzeEdr7QsCwYqYdDWyg2lT_Z3CC6_mRYjZCkdf45vjjxICekvQn859cr12UiU3k0oqT/w640-h584/P1050098.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I also detect a strong <b>Aliens</b> influence here. The guns look just like the ones the Colonial Marines used in <b><i>Cameron's</i></b> movie. Crazy, now we have influences coming in from the world of movies! I'm sure that happens all the time. Hah! Coming in to edit because I just saw the Terminator influence above. More than influence, it was a direct rendition of the character by Bisley. So I guess there's a Terminator influence in nthe Jae Lee Chapel image too, but more subtle, filtered through the <b><i>Biz</i></b> piece. Influences abouding, back and forth and every which way. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Because I've been posting so much about all these artists recently I've begun to really notice these influences and cross-pollination of ideas and techniques. But something else is happening too. They're swirling through my head and merging together and taking root in my mind. This is exactly what happened one night back in the 90s when I decided to sit down and look through all my heroic fantasy art books. I made a pile of them on the bed, sat next to them, and paged through them all—mostly Frazetta and Corben and <b><i>Jeffrey Jones</i></b>. Probably <b><i>Ken Kelly</i></b> too. I went for at least an hour, probably closer to 2—until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I moved all those books off the bed, crawled in, and when I closed my eys all I could see were swirling images of all those paintings. They coalesced and after a while I was seeing something a little different. A new image—not crisp and clear, a little blurry and ill-defined, no real detail, but sort of the <i>idea</i> of detail in places. It was this:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94gWMpdj76HsIHkES5119HT5PnWq_KNZZK-97Ny7plh6PjWAEODtuj_ePGu6mwuv8jCCzXl6-7mfA98KXEuAAV6PIaU4N1IasDA-aDhS-89VI0KcYB2kVPa_Hbim8pj8lh9IU_1uDjz44OVQvOXEWA2BfNGk5CS8zrskpV4Dd7XZ0cGEmnMiuNteW/s358/faftorso.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="358" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94gWMpdj76HsIHkES5119HT5PnWq_KNZZK-97Ny7plh6PjWAEODtuj_ePGu6mwuv8jCCzXl6-7mfA98KXEuAAV6PIaU4N1IasDA-aDhS-89VI0KcYB2kVPa_Hbim8pj8lh9IU_1uDjz44OVQvOXEWA2BfNGk5CS8zrskpV4Dd7XZ0cGEmnMiuNteW/w640-h600/faftorso.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I actually saw it in color, like the painting, but before I could do the painting I had to do the sketch:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK-HXB3tkLavo9aTj_9EMlszp2XjFwcb5_7Baf883sON_Y6Vwu1gNWF1Cw-9KKE86D1ejCy-pLelBEUhgRToyUbIL-vkWu2ozBv5hgHUVq57lkztnofKOwUFnQGFAzfSVvolnxvGGC56m526dnv4DSgQ856lNkf0u6yPs3ThwVfvVawG8Pratfu8Gg/s1020/Fafhrd%20sketch.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="748" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK-HXB3tkLavo9aTj_9EMlszp2XjFwcb5_7Baf883sON_Y6Vwu1gNWF1Cw-9KKE86D1ejCy-pLelBEUhgRToyUbIL-vkWu2ozBv5hgHUVq57lkztnofKOwUFnQGFAzfSVvolnxvGGC56m526dnv4DSgQ856lNkf0u6yPs3ThwVfvVawG8Pratfu8Gg/w470-h640/Fafhrd%20sketch.jpg" width="470" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>I don't remember if I drew it before going to sleep. More likely I lay in bed until I saw it, then got up and drew it. Screw sleep, when you have a momentous idea like this you need to get it down, written or sketched, before letting yourself drift off, or the next morning you'll be all like "Now what was that cool idea I had last night?" <p></p><p>What was so powerful about this image is the convergence of the composition, the slightly comical aspect of the figure, but without sacrificing his heroic aspect, and the cool color palette. I saw all of that at once. It was my first experience with getting a mental image and knowing I needed to draw/paint it. The next time I remember that happening was here: </p><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://aartventure.blogspot.com/2017/04/building-body-right-way-part-2.html" style="color: #dd5432; text-decoration: none;"><u>Developing the Body the Right Way part 2</u></a></li></ul></div><p>I seem to have myself primed for another such experience. I'm getting pretty sleepy, maybe I need to look through a big pile of comic books before I drift off... </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-15958406614214698662023-04-11T17:09:00.005-05:002023-04-11T17:36:35.090-05:00How did I never mention Jae Lee? <p style="text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="408" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R_GhP0dSFVo" width="651" youtube-src-id="R_GhP0dSFVo"></iframe></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">He's definitely another of my favorite of the crazy 90's comic artists, standing along side Mark Texeira (who I talk about all the time). The 90's were the decade when everything had to be extreme, and these guys were as extreme as it gets. </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f0/f5/b4/f0f5b4c1830c408a83d317824c739aaa.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="644" height="800" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f0/f5/b4/f0f5b4c1830c408a83d317824c739aaa.jpg" width="644" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In this drawing of the character Chapel you can see a strong Simon Bisley influence</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Unlike Texeira though, when I look at Jae Lee's work, I don't see distorted bodies so much as the pure <i>essence</i> of these characters. It's like you're seeing their spirits or thri souls, rendered symbolically to show you the intense energies raging inside of them. The narrator in the video mentioned they look like demonic mosters, and that's definitely true. In the 90s comics followed where movies and pro wrestling had led, away from good-guy heroes, through antiheroes, and into a space where there are no heroes anymore, or rather you can't tell them from the bad guys. They're monsters. They had all become monsters. And in comics like those of Jae Lee and Mark Texeria even the 'good guys' are violent and destructive. It's just that they only unleash it against the really tyrannical sadistic monsters that are the bad guys. I think the idea was "It takes a monster to fight a monster." That concept has always been there, if often subdued, in stories involving heroes and villains. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://media.karousell.com/media/photos/products/2020/7/27/youngblood_strikefile_1_1993_s_1595836690_30083836.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://media.karousell.com/media/photos/products/2020/7/27/youngblood_strikefile_1_1993_s_1595836690_30083836.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>This kind of art (in which I include both Jae Lee and Mark Texeira) could only happen in a post-<b><i>Frank Miller</i></b>, post <b><i>Sienkiewicz</i></b>, post <b><i>Walt Simonson</i></b> world—those guys I spoke about recently who had to restrain themselves through the seventies and part of the 80's and were finally freed to do the more powerful, modernistic, and exaggerated art they had always wanted to do. That laid the ground work and allowed for the next generation to push beyond, culminating as far as I'm concerned with Jae Lee and his crazy explosion of pure raging testosterone-fueled expressionist nightmare imagery. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://freshcomics.s3.amazonaws.com/cache/03/84/0384b2ea28c97384ddeef8f527cd002b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="528" height="800" src="https://freshcomics.s3.amazonaws.com/cache/03/84/0384b2ea28c97384ddeef8f527cd002b.jpg" width="528" /></a></div><p>This kind of art and this whole business model for comics topped out and apparently burned out somewhere in the mid to late 90's. I can't really say what happened, I lost interest around that time and stopped looking at comics. The last thing I remember buying in a comic shop was the 4-issue <b>Sabretooth</b> miniseries drawn by Texeira that I posted about recently. I don't think I even went back into a shop after that. I can't say exactly why, I think it was burnout or too much extremism. They had pushed it all so far it became too much. You can't just keep going in such a crazy destructive direction, and how do you come back down from it? I don't know how they did it, I just know everybody seemed to lose interest in this over-the-top stuff around the same time. Maybe the times they were a-changin'. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/57/d7/c8/57d7c8b62c1f0fb685c19aa5be275cd0.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="524" height="800" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/57/d7/c8/57d7c8b62c1f0fb685c19aa5be275cd0.jpg" width="524" /></a></div><p>Maybe the artists couldn't sustain that kind of intensity and extreme distortion for very long. Nor could the readers. Extremism tops out and fades, or it explodes and then people have to start to rebuild from the ashes. The few times I tentatively peeked in at what new comics looked like afterwards (years later) I didn't like what I saw. No more extremism, no more testosterone-fueled monsters raging at each other looking like inflated bodybuilders on steroids or Asian demon spirits. Drawing styles were either uninterestingly realistic or insipidly cartoonish, often with a strong Manga/Anime feel. And when I wanted to see some comic book greatness I had to pull old issues out of the boxes or look up videos about comics from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Or more recently buy Omnibuses or new collections in paperback form of old runs, usually printed on nice slick paper with reproduction values far better than they were originally printed with (on that crappy newprint stock). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f6/58/57/f65857dc40762a8cb4ea948363252f2e.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="553" data-original-width="360" height="640" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f6/58/57/f65857dc40762a8cb4ea948363252f2e.jpg" width="417" /></a></div><p>His backgrounds were often non-eistent, which makes the comics 'read' very fast—you can quickly see at a glance what's happening, and it helps your eye move around the page rapidly. And when he did draw backgrounds they were even less realistic thean the characters. They were pure expressionism, like something form <b>The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari</b> or <b>Metropolis</b>.</p>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-5316679783437349162023-04-04T00:59:00.002-05:002023-04-04T01:06:58.069-05:00The Texeira Emulations<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvHZa1WvUBNuuSP3S7CfPXDapE50VRkifHFoj-IQw8EQIpJ-f0iSWmNBoXkg7WohPHOyqXHlFKP4SduxrxJEOj725VowNP38EJsyYLS7egc8tghWghuH-M0-xhHLVRRd3FfOkZ2IjmrBlA1863i_6WBn9arhnNvaTOWOXWta406CbbV3JyM8UoTKf/s1020/P1050085.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="814" height="658" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvHZa1WvUBNuuSP3S7CfPXDapE50VRkifHFoj-IQw8EQIpJ-f0iSWmNBoXkg7WohPHOyqXHlFKP4SduxrxJEOj725VowNP38EJsyYLS7egc8tghWghuH-M0-xhHLVRRd3FfOkZ2IjmrBlA1863i_6WBn9arhnNvaTOWOXWta406CbbV3JyM8UoTKf/w525-h658/P1050085.jpg" width="525" /></a></div><br /> This was the first time I deliberately tried to draw like Tex, or at least the first time I felt I was successful. I might have tried a few times before and failed miserably, but here I hit on the right combination of techniques (which I wrote down in the corner of the page). The really crazy thing is, I did this directly in ink using dip pens and brushes, with no pencil guidelines underneath. I seem to do some of my best work when I go in without a net like that (not always, sometimes it's a disater). <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigh3qJGI9Z7oK4qm-px8tA2XCeWgcjCy1qClPtxGND3sFFqgPQXcJPgPVJF5OcnTLR39pzCRKbv7bDcRYuwez27OoG-Az6OCXFtRhQ86mYIRhYjNBgw_-KOztb7GnCrD8mvaeHSRLZU4rUUt-zet4n7lDguXvTVudSdZuj3_iZDEgPiSkHJo2HLwcW/s1020/P1050082.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="802" height="639" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigh3qJGI9Z7oK4qm-px8tA2XCeWgcjCy1qClPtxGND3sFFqgPQXcJPgPVJF5OcnTLR39pzCRKbv7bDcRYuwez27OoG-Az6OCXFtRhQ86mYIRhYjNBgw_-KOztb7GnCrD8mvaeHSRLZU4rUUt-zet4n7lDguXvTVudSdZuj3_iZDEgPiSkHJo2HLwcW/w504-h639/P1050082.jpg" width="504" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>These don't all look as much like Tex's work, but they all have some of the elements, and in particular most of them have the outlines where I 'built up energy' by thickening in places, and the 'shadow mapping', where you draw a thin outline around shadows before filling in, completely or partially. This gives the shadows a nice <i>designed</i> look and interesting shapes.<div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh_iTm_MHaz7WlTzdm6QqOaY6IWocj4D4YlzKxtrgho-OUzVMYSCohGp-9qQd8DRPAk4lWU8aMlx3Al2S9NBYTCFl0uYIp_KD8PlORCbB8-U-stqrsmRA2nVRoLcOi18xY1JXUJFhD-Z2SsjR_hBatkr1RGKz4sVlUi0OGOdTRdfMCjuyqTPcHFJOf/s1020/P1050084.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="867" height="599" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh_iTm_MHaz7WlTzdm6QqOaY6IWocj4D4YlzKxtrgho-OUzVMYSCohGp-9qQd8DRPAk4lWU8aMlx3Al2S9NBYTCFl0uYIp_KD8PlORCbB8-U-stqrsmRA2nVRoLcOi18xY1JXUJFhD-Z2SsjR_hBatkr1RGKz4sVlUi0OGOdTRdfMCjuyqTPcHFJOf/w510-h599/P1050084.jpg" width="510" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Some of these are in my 90's <b>Image Comics</b> style. Or <i>styles</i>. I was emulating several artists, sometimes in one drawing. </div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXVXnsUAelwyTZk3cdboTs_JoNBNTsDflgECrisFtDftmdrlgUP0TtnFtMwC9xCCrNjPsHhwJiIhp0mPZ5WFZc6tWnoLoB_ZNswo6khpOzB-FNdpmsDSUwHRMylcYsCv2cDIN3I7s0re8tCCizmYAxthAMOyBhR1TBIYJXPTn0weAIlXA63LMfjxkb/s1020/P1050086.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="758" height="692" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXVXnsUAelwyTZk3cdboTs_JoNBNTsDflgECrisFtDftmdrlgUP0TtnFtMwC9xCCrNjPsHhwJiIhp0mPZ5WFZc6tWnoLoB_ZNswo6khpOzB-FNdpmsDSUwHRMylcYsCv2cDIN3I7s0re8tCCizmYAxthAMOyBhR1TBIYJXPTn0weAIlXA63LMfjxkb/w514-h692/P1050086.jpg" width="514" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoeRse9KdbQoHcDU7rkxzjtpLUjTr9RMainXTm2mRMLysrM5_epNQTGQ9kxoFnAyDd38K3OMfyiWyg2skpgqNQrCYm4EUbFc_yQbOm41b3yc1oyMeES_-hVLuxM7-IqKjpPXbCSkGHjaRTY83DwKev1iIdxuJCed6jxk0ITSyg3ACkfKYTAH0U1oMG/s1020/P1050087.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="798" height="657" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoeRse9KdbQoHcDU7rkxzjtpLUjTr9RMainXTm2mRMLysrM5_epNQTGQ9kxoFnAyDd38K3OMfyiWyg2skpgqNQrCYm4EUbFc_yQbOm41b3yc1oyMeES_-hVLuxM7-IqKjpPXbCSkGHjaRTY83DwKev1iIdxuJCed6jxk0ITSyg3ACkfKYTAH0U1oMG/w513-h657/P1050087.jpg" width="513" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Here I was beginning to move more toward a <b><i>Kent Williams</i></b> emulation, but my knowledge of anatomy and proportioning etc was not good enough for that. I'm not sure if I did this page before or after discovering how to emulate Tex. I suspect it was before. </div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKqgMj-P56YyipFuRmbJ0y7e2WYBf9Jy9O0cF2owxJlW4NtHUiTwTAKUboOPpmSWupCCtPsPrQm1bKk0tCUkeoWtW6fkV7CVi111n4OvRM16V0nsAXs7ato9GtILx4NLNQDl_id8gCH0wiSeyxcyAu9L9hqrYK0Hf6pXP1NyBFYSWOyvfPLOs0fNUD/s1020/P1050091.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="833" height="624" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKqgMj-P56YyipFuRmbJ0y7e2WYBf9Jy9O0cF2owxJlW4NtHUiTwTAKUboOPpmSWupCCtPsPrQm1bKk0tCUkeoWtW6fkV7CVi111n4OvRM16V0nsAXs7ato9GtILx4NLNQDl_id8gCH0wiSeyxcyAu9L9hqrYK0Hf6pXP1NyBFYSWOyvfPLOs0fNUD/w510-h624/P1050091.jpg" width="510" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSEBPbkCcBXCjw2K2hV45u5fdX3m9Y018XK2FJi9cBPOQNLBf2JoklkjB7UD2orrM7dGxC60dFF0Q06ypchxgPM-EOUKDwUrA8485GSbQkVkYp3Yr2LXtoBEff8rr2MXrrzzMeh059m1NArHXNnsBbwop7P5rwICjRiNgPQewuVNuL9WEOe7cv7-mp/s1020/P1050080.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="869" height="607" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSEBPbkCcBXCjw2K2hV45u5fdX3m9Y018XK2FJi9cBPOQNLBf2JoklkjB7UD2orrM7dGxC60dFF0Q06ypchxgPM-EOUKDwUrA8485GSbQkVkYp3Yr2LXtoBEff8rr2MXrrzzMeh059m1NArHXNnsBbwop7P5rwICjRiNgPQewuVNuL9WEOe7cv7-mp/w517-h607/P1050080.jpg" width="517" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiadra-aDJDR3WX0-Dg3T5jpPEQcfreVsBDTj-H_6kNUzJnbVMotdhbKPPpvPNU4OE2YkDXalAzwpZF_bevl3Suj7BRya0VcvhJNfJ1hAHg3lRioVfu9FslCx7gIam-Plzrx6bg8sRv3q9h_0OztT2QblA0MJwt9YCk8UoqslxnkFCV5Pc9-55I1Paz/s1020/P1050081.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="727" height="711" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiadra-aDJDR3WX0-Dg3T5jpPEQcfreVsBDTj-H_6kNUzJnbVMotdhbKPPpvPNU4OE2YkDXalAzwpZF_bevl3Suj7BRya0VcvhJNfJ1hAHg3lRioVfu9FslCx7gIam-Plzrx6bg8sRv3q9h_0OztT2QblA0MJwt9YCk8UoqslxnkFCV5Pc9-55I1Paz/w507-h711/P1050081.jpg" width="507" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Some of those elements I discovered in the Tex emulations made it into my later and much more artistic 90's Alternative style. I love the way I was drawing then, and I intend to get back to something like it, as soon as I feel I've learned enough about proportioning, anatomy and construction. I feel like I'm getting close—maybe I'm there. </div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4CZ3wnoLJ2P9T7vQgasI-q7DIn7nVMed8K_KvHAJCY1T2EHgj3OLHboMTX0PUg7EDOW69yLl7UBOv_-Gyyw8DgMFo6G7_qKE0DsARlyXKUfmuqmrCaSrmT1q5-pw19N8_ZkJd47d-3kxoCV2bfscF8T5KfjmVwRwwS1OTRk8GheQHn7vw4W9eXZAF/s1020/P1050090.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="757" height="672" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4CZ3wnoLJ2P9T7vQgasI-q7DIn7nVMed8K_KvHAJCY1T2EHgj3OLHboMTX0PUg7EDOW69yLl7UBOv_-Gyyw8DgMFo6G7_qKE0DsARlyXKUfmuqmrCaSrmT1q5-pw19N8_ZkJd47d-3kxoCV2bfscF8T5KfjmVwRwwS1OTRk8GheQHn7vw4W9eXZAF/w497-h672/P1050090.jpg" width="497" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Again with no pencil guidelines. It really takes confidence and trust to draw like that, you have to be psyched up for it and just dive in whatever may happen. You can see I tried the Valkyrie figure once and then decided it wasn't properly shaped, so I attacked it again. The second one is far more dynamic. I think I wasn't psyched on the first try, or maybe I just didn't have my ideas together. In fact it looks like I was mainly trying to design the armor, and did it on that bizarre flat figure, then went to work to make a <i>drawing</i> from it, like with a pose and everything. It was from a story idea about a warrior who was trapped and impaled through the thigh, dying under the root system of a huge tree that had been blow by a tornado or something, and a Valkyrie came for him. Or something, I don't remember the details. They aren't supposed to take you unless you die gloriously in battle though, so I dont know. Maybe he was trying to bargain with her.</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAC79eglBpi4mL7QblZqR5hMBkHkHG7vZ5nTIuDpOAgHfbLEzRvRGYtBrwXDwCJRA6Mj6OGftcr6jLTfR_3L06fJEqLGfkQ79sbxiWwHJmfdJM1C4yqn10fyEEEcpJ7sauYTNW5tY1GNjXHNYd6fFguMfeNfMLh5ZOjgMnXgsymYsBPliatAsoc-1i/s1020/P1050088.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="872" data-original-width="1020" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAC79eglBpi4mL7QblZqR5hMBkHkHG7vZ5nTIuDpOAgHfbLEzRvRGYtBrwXDwCJRA6Mj6OGftcr6jLTfR_3L06fJEqLGfkQ79sbxiWwHJmfdJM1C4yqn10fyEEEcpJ7sauYTNW5tY1GNjXHNYd6fFguMfeNfMLh5ZOjgMnXgsymYsBPliatAsoc-1i/w503-h431/P1050088.jpg" width="503" /></a></div><div><br /></div>No pencils, just straight to the dip pens. I dont think I used a brush on these. Hard to tell in places. I believe all of these were drawn in a big Strathmore sketchbook, 11 x 14 or so. I drew almost everything in those in the 90's. From a story called Season of the Witch.</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg6aRDoVS2-3_SQfP0NNGs_Ic_ksXDc0RaSX-LZ6vGodWEsu_M7gI7SkMcqqJQy3rQ5_2wRGAcG6W70mFFNl868Ye3HVqs0JB35SsXscOcHHbnhjnhLIzfoJ75mUETx3bSXwof5d5HMGCEBWH_F_KZU9FCJ8jVsP351fxK5XMemfN3NZGxjd030ppi/s1020/P1050079.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="865" height="589" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg6aRDoVS2-3_SQfP0NNGs_Ic_ksXDc0RaSX-LZ6vGodWEsu_M7gI7SkMcqqJQy3rQ5_2wRGAcG6W70mFFNl868Ye3HVqs0JB35SsXscOcHHbnhjnhLIzfoJ75mUETx3bSXwof5d5HMGCEBWH_F_KZU9FCJ8jVsP351fxK5XMemfN3NZGxjd030ppi/w499-h589/P1050079.jpg" width="499" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p></div>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4630761804173579376.post-16772345383130572432023-04-03T22:23:00.006-05:002023-04-03T22:31:34.441-05:00Distorting complex forms three dimensionally the Texeira way<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a9/e2/09/a9e20921a6533bcaffd2640de3a0f00a.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="745" height="462" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a9/e2/09/a9e20921a6533bcaffd2640de3a0f00a.jpg" width="607" /></a></div><br /><p>Tex does far more realistic heads/faces than most comic artists. Not totally realistic, but built on extensive knowledge of skull structures and muscle structures that give shape to the face and to expressions. But not necessarily drawn 'realistically'. Having that knowledge lets him construct the face from forms, and he can do things you can't if you copy photographs etc. He builds the faces from those inner structures, really from his own understanding of them in three dimensions. So again, as with the body, he can exaggerate in many different ways and push beyond realistic boundaries. Those mouths that open farther than any human mouth really can, sometimes with extra teeth in them, for instance. </p><p>In the image above it's clear he understands the skull structures the head and face are built on. </p><p>He's obviously drawn a lot from photographs after developing all that in-depth understanding of the forms, and extrapolated/extended what he actually sees. Since he understands the construction of forms like the jaw hinges and the bunched muscles around it that give shape to a smile or a frown, he can push what he sees in ways other artists simply can't. And I'll guarantee you, when he draws from photographs, it isn't a simple matter of copying the shapes and tones that he sees. He <i>interprets</i> what he sees, infers things that can't be seen, and builds a head, visualizing it all three-dimensionally, based on what he sees. I know, because I do this, though my own understanding is nowhere near as extensive as his. But this is the beauty of constructive drawing. It teaches you those forms and how everything under the skin interacts to create the lumps, bumps and hollows we see on the surface of the body. And it gives you power to manipulate what you see, and to change it however you want to. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1b/86/21/1b8621dcd5a2336131720fff13b93ad6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="518" height="800" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1b/86/21/1b8621dcd5a2336131720fff13b93ad6.jpg" width="518" /></a></div><br /><p>I'd say what he really has developed is a mental mannikin of the human figure in great detail, with full understanding of its anatomy down to the skeletal level, and it's distorted the way his drawings are. Or he can distort it that way when he wants to, though his figures when they're really distorted are fairly limited in their movement. He seems only able to draw them in a small range of poses that way. And his particular methods of distortion seem to slip at times. You'll sometimes see a different kind of distortion for a panel or two, and then his usual method comes back. He was doing this in the 90's when everything had to be extreme, and comic book art in particular. Many other artist were doing similar things. </p><p>I have no interest in drawing such intensely distorted figures, and I don't want to distort the same way he did. But some of my favorite artists work this way. Learn the structures and anatomy and proportioning of the human body so well they can distort it <i>from the inside—</i>3 dimensionally. Meaning the skeletal structure itself gets distorted, as opposed to those cartoonists who don't really know the skeleton, so when they distort there's no sense of one underneath the flesh, creating that chassis or framework on which the muscles are anchored. </p><p>Ok, I guess I ought to put my money where my mouth is and show what I'm talking about, though most of my minuscule audience probably already knows this. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://getdrawings.com/images/cartoons-drawing-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="486" height="309" src="http://getdrawings.com/images/cartoons-drawing-1.jpg" width="188" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There's a vague sense of some type of structure under there, but it doesn't look much like an actual human skeleton, aside from having a torso, arms, legs, and a head. Those forms are extremely simplified. And yes, in a way that does suggest some smaller forms like vague elbow joints and almost pseudo-knuckles. This kind of cartooning can be very pleasant, and isn't about detail or anatomical accuracy. It's about simplicity, design and character. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p7Zqfyobwv4/maxresdefault.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="221" src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p7Zqfyobwv4/maxresdefault.jpg" width="393" /></a></div><br /></div><div>Here there's more of an attempt at something approximating a human skeleton under there, but it's very simplified (not as much as Lisa was), and the muscles are drawn as very basic forms made of simple round curves. This isn't too far from a giant marshmallow man from a certain 80's. movie with ghosts and comedians, or maybe a tire man from the 70's. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path[1%2F7%2F6%2F9%2F5%2F17695517]&call=url[file:product.chain]" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="629" height="477" src="https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path[1%2F7%2F6%2F9%2F5%2F17695517]&call=url[file:product.chain]" width="375" /></a></div><br /><div>Even here there's some vague effort at a structure, but it's drawn very flat with no effort to make it look 3 dimensional. </div><div><br /></div>Darkmattershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15410415900992364189noreply@blogger.com0