Thursday, January 22, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Midterm Exam - Part 2
2. How does the work in our concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea?
The work in my concentration displays my desire to refine a "comic-book" style of art because all of the pieces in my concentration are all part of one big piece. All my pieces tie together and create a ten-page story. This definitely displays the exploration of my idea, because instead of having ten "pin-up" drawings of various people that are unrelated, I have ten cohesive pages that flow together and create a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Each page took at least four hours, with some pages taking up to eight hours, but it really shows. Each page was drawn up with stick figures first, then penciled lightly, then penciled darkly, then traced in black ink to create a professional looking black and white comic book.
I think that this year my area of concentration really represents my artistic direction for the first time ever, in previous years my concentration has always been a random collection of decent art that I threw together at the last minute, this year, I thought of an idea for my concentration and I followed through with it, creating exactly what I wanted to. I was able, for once, to create something that I am proud to share and proud to say represents my area of concentration in art. I think that someone who wants to draw comics created a ten page comic for their ten page area of concentration is very fitting and definitely shows some patience, determination, and skill.
My comic is inspired by artists such as Dave Mazzuchelli, John Romita Jr. and Frank Miller, all of whom I have commented on earlier in this blog in separate posts. Some of the more difficult things about creating this comic book were inking it, which could be very difficult because there was no room for error. Also, pencilling some of the combat positions was very difficult, especially those from weird angles. I found that I had to get everything right before inking it though, because I would never want to ink over something that I thought to be anatomically incorrect, because I would feel like I was cheating myself by not doing my best. My own sense of perfectionism sometimes was the thing that made me take much longer than I thought I should take on some pages. Page five is a prime example of such perfectionism creating alot of work for me. In the bottom panel of page four, I created a giant jungle scene that the hero, Stopwatch, has fallen into after traveling through time. For the beginning of page five, I heavily illustrated the jungle in the first panel and found that I had backed myself into the corner of having to recreate that hyperdetailed jungle in every single panel for the rest of the page. This jungle took at least three hours on its own, not to mention the other five hours that the other parts of the page took up. It is examples like that, of me feeling like I had to add just a little bit more detail, that made drawing this comic very time consuming but also very rewarding. I have never in my life created anything as detailed and comprehensive as this comic book. The other reason it took so long to do is that the pages are not the average 8.5" by 11" that is the general size for most sketches and drawings but rather a much larger piece of posterboard with a much larger area that had to be filled.
Drawing ten pages on this type of paper is no easy task, it was not a task that could be ever be accomplished in one weekend, even if I spent every waking minute on it, I would only be able to make a couple of pages maximum over the course of a weekend. That is why I'm so proud of what I've accomplished over the last couple months. It is the first time in my artistic career that
I have set a very lofty goal and accomplished it without slacking and without rushing. I took my time and perfected every single detail on the way to created this comic, this was truly a labor of love. It was a concept that I cared dearly about, one that I would not cheat myself by rushing on, one that I devoted myself to for hours every single night for mid-November to mid-January. This comic represents the peak of my abilities right now, the absolute best I have to offer to anyone artistically, my art does not get any better than this. That is why it is my concentration, not because the teacher told me to create ten pieces for an area of concentration for a grade, but rather because I wanted to create something that I could be proud of, that I could keep in my portfolio for years to come, something that I could use to show people what I excel at and to show people my passion for drawing art in this style.
The work in my concentration displays my desire to refine a "comic-book" style of art because all of the pieces in my concentration are all part of one big piece. All my pieces tie together and create a ten-page story. This definitely displays the exploration of my idea, because instead of having ten "pin-up" drawings of various people that are unrelated, I have ten cohesive pages that flow together and create a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Each page took at least four hours, with some pages taking up to eight hours, but it really shows. Each page was drawn up with stick figures first, then penciled lightly, then penciled darkly, then traced in black ink to create a professional looking black and white comic book.
I think that this year my area of concentration really represents my artistic direction for the first time ever, in previous years my concentration has always been a random collection of decent art that I threw together at the last minute, this year, I thought of an idea for my concentration and I followed through with it, creating exactly what I wanted to. I was able, for once, to create something that I am proud to share and proud to say represents my area of concentration in art. I think that someone who wants to draw comics created a ten page comic for their ten page area of concentration is very fitting and definitely shows some patience, determination, and skill.
My comic is inspired by artists such as Dave Mazzuchelli, John Romita Jr. and Frank Miller, all of whom I have commented on earlier in this blog in separate posts. Some of the more difficult things about creating this comic book were inking it, which could be very difficult because there was no room for error. Also, pencilling some of the combat positions was very difficult, especially those from weird angles. I found that I had to get everything right before inking it though, because I would never want to ink over something that I thought to be anatomically incorrect, because I would feel like I was cheating myself by not doing my best. My own sense of perfectionism sometimes was the thing that made me take much longer than I thought I should take on some pages. Page five is a prime example of such perfectionism creating alot of work for me. In the bottom panel of page four, I created a giant jungle scene that the hero, Stopwatch, has fallen into after traveling through time. For the beginning of page five, I heavily illustrated the jungle in the first panel and found that I had backed myself into the corner of having to recreate that hyperdetailed jungle in every single panel for the rest of the page. This jungle took at least three hours on its own, not to mention the other five hours that the other parts of the page took up. It is examples like that, of me feeling like I had to add just a little bit more detail, that made drawing this comic very time consuming but also very rewarding. I have never in my life created anything as detailed and comprehensive as this comic book. The other reason it took so long to do is that the pages are not the average 8.5" by 11" that is the general size for most sketches and drawings but rather a much larger piece of posterboard with a much larger area that had to be filled.
Drawing ten pages on this type of paper is no easy task, it was not a task that could be ever be accomplished in one weekend, even if I spent every waking minute on it, I would only be able to make a couple of pages maximum over the course of a weekend. That is why I'm so proud of what I've accomplished over the last couple months. It is the first time in my artistic career that
I have set a very lofty goal and accomplished it without slacking and without rushing. I took my time and perfected every single detail on the way to created this comic, this was truly a labor of love. It was a concept that I cared dearly about, one that I would not cheat myself by rushing on, one that I devoted myself to for hours every single night for mid-November to mid-January. This comic represents the peak of my abilities right now, the absolute best I have to offer to anyone artistically, my art does not get any better than this. That is why it is my concentration, not because the teacher told me to create ten pieces for an area of concentration for a grade, but rather because I wanted to create something that I could be proud of, that I could keep in my portfolio for years to come, something that I could use to show people what I excel at and to show people my passion for drawing art in this style.
Midterm Exam - Part 1
1. What is the central idea of you concentration?
The central idea of my concentration is drawing a ten-page comic book. It is a very long and tedious task but the central idea is to show the amount of time and effort that go into creating even something as short as ten pages. I wish to show people that I can start a daunting and difficult task and finish it, all while keeping the same level of quality throughout. I think that the medium of the comic book is a fascinating way to tell a story, it is a combination between a book and a motion picture, it can tell any story and I think that it is completely underappreciated. I hope that the people who see my comic book that I've been working on for so long will understand how difficult it was to create and maybe will appreciate it as a form of art.
My concentration this year is the logical extension of my concentration in previous years because my work has always been largely inspired by comic books. This is just the next step in terms of difficulty and also in terms of artistic accomplishment. You can see how focused I've always been on comic books by looking at my blog over the years and now I've finally created something that validates that perhaps one day I could be a comic book artist for a major publisher. That is what I am concentrating on, I enjoy drawing comics and I hope to become an artist for a comic book company later in life if it is possible.
The central idea of my concentration is drawing a ten-page comic book. It is a very long and tedious task but the central idea is to show the amount of time and effort that go into creating even something as short as ten pages. I wish to show people that I can start a daunting and difficult task and finish it, all while keeping the same level of quality throughout. I think that the medium of the comic book is a fascinating way to tell a story, it is a combination between a book and a motion picture, it can tell any story and I think that it is completely underappreciated. I hope that the people who see my comic book that I've been working on for so long will understand how difficult it was to create and maybe will appreciate it as a form of art.
My concentration this year is the logical extension of my concentration in previous years because my work has always been largely inspired by comic books. This is just the next step in terms of difficulty and also in terms of artistic accomplishment. You can see how focused I've always been on comic books by looking at my blog over the years and now I've finally created something that validates that perhaps one day I could be a comic book artist for a major publisher. That is what I am concentrating on, I enjoy drawing comics and I hope to become an artist for a comic book company later in life if it is possible.
Friday, October 31, 2008
25 Words
1. Dynamic
2. Bold
3. Contrast
4. Black
5. White
6. Action
7. Battle
8. Science-Fiction
9. Comic-Book
10. Technology
11. Super-Hero
12. Costumes
13. Design
14. Anatomy
15. Animals
16. Architecture
17. Cityscapes
18. Punching
19. Women
20. Ink
21. Pencil
22. Portraits
23. Cars
24. Guns
25. Bravery
2. Bold
3. Contrast
4. Black
5. White
6. Action
7. Battle
8. Science-Fiction
9. Comic-Book
10. Technology
11. Super-Hero
12. Costumes
13. Design
14. Anatomy
15. Animals
16. Architecture
17. Cityscapes
18. Punching
19. Women
20. Ink
21. Pencil
22. Portraits
23. Cars
24. Guns
25. Bravery
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Five Artists Drawings
John Romita Jr.
Jim Lee
Roy Lichtenstein
Frank Miller
Frank Miller
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Five Hero Artists
Five artists that I admire and try to learn from are, Roy Lichtenstein, Jack Kirby, Frank Millar, John Romita Jr. and Jim Lee. Four of those five artists draw comic books, but they are still artists that I really look up to. Roy Lichtenstein is one of my favorite artists because of how bold and bright his paintings are. They are extremely simple, giant blow-ups of comic book panels, but the giant lines and glaring colors really bring them to life. His 3-D work is interesting too, such as the house sculpture that can be perceived as a room or as a house depending on how you view the central corner. I like work like his that is open to interpertation to the viewer. Jack Kirby is probably the most famous comic book artist of all time, his work on 1960s Marvel comics influenced the style for years to come. He also uses fairly simplistic lines with bright colors. Sometimes his environments can be intensely detailed, and so can his costumes but it still retains a sense of simplicity, regardless of all the minor details added in. He drew for the Fantastic Four and many other comic books during his long career. Frank Millar is another more contemporary comic book artist who is known for darker-themed books that he writes and usually illustrates as well. His style is extremely simplistic, almost bare-bones in its contrast. Alot of his work, like Sin City or the 300, has only a handful of colors and very blocky illustrations. I like that style though because as a reader, you still know exactly what is going on, and the way everything is drawn adds to the theme. John Romita Jr. is a modern comic-book artist, who currently draws a number of comic lines. He is not particularly amazing, but I respect typical comic art. It takes alot of work to draw 30 pages a month that cohesively tells a story, and he does a good job of telling a story with pictures. His style of art is fairly simplistic but his backgrounds are very well done. He keeps face simple as well as bodies, he does not draw bulky muscle with veins popping for his heroes, he draws men in costumes. Jim Lee is my final artist and I respect him simply for the fact that he draws intensely detailed people, faces, bodies, backgrounds, cars, and everything else. The level of detail in everything he draws is amazing because he does it for thrity pages a month just like Romita Jr. Lee has a perfect knowledge of facial structure and anatomy and his drawings look spot-on.
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