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This blog is a collection of posts from my personal blog, Tumblr blog, and re-bloggings from my reading list. I hope you enjoy it!
31 January 2018
28 January 2018
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26 January 2018
Godzilla has been drawing again with his new snowman pen. Looks like he’s thunbnailing a book... weird. * * * #sketch #illustration #brianbowes #dailydrawing #kidlit #characterdesign #kidlitart #santacruz #instaart #instadraw #creativeadvertising #cartoon #creativethought #supportlocalartist #drawingoftheday #design #childrensbook #doodle #fun #illustrator #illustrationartist #childrensillustration #bookart #ink #character #gozilla #monsterart # #dailysketch #kidsbookstagram
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24 January 2018
19 January 2018
Oscar Droege's Color Woodblock Prints
via Gurney Journey http://ift.tt/2DGYso4
Droege was born in 1898, serving in both World Wars. He was kept prisoner by the Soviets. During peacetime he traveled with a friend through Germany, France and Scandinavia on bicycles and paddle boats in search of subjects for his art. He died in 1983.
Learn more
Brief online biography of Oscar Droege
Examples of Farbholzschnitt (color woodblock prints)
Other practitioners of the color woodblock print include:
Carl Thiemann (1881-1966)
Martha Cunz (1876 -1961)
Josef Stoitzner (1884-1951)
Engelbert Lap (1886-1970)
Heine Rath (1873-1920)
Sherrie York is a young artist working today who carries on the tradition in color lino cut
YouTube: Hubert Pische demonstrates how to create a color woodcut (in German)
Oscar Droege was a German artist who worked in the medium of the color woodblock print or Farbholzschnitt.
The color woodblock print (sometimes called a "color woodcut") is a printing process where multiple wooden plates are relief-printed.
Each plate is inked with a different color, including opaque light colors. Note how one of the plates is lighter and cooler than the paper. Smooth gradations can be achieved while inking the plate. Note how the far mountains are lost in mysterious atmospherics.
Sometimes many plates are needed. The detailed dark lines are printed last. The effect can be lyrical and poetic, while at the same time it carries strong poster-like impact.
The reflections of those two pilings are inked in the plate. The white foam on the water has a second plate for the slightly darker value.
Droege was born in 1898, serving in both World Wars. He was kept prisoner by the Soviets. During peacetime he traveled with a friend through Germany, France and Scandinavia on bicycles and paddle boats in search of subjects for his art. He died in 1983.
Learn more
Brief online biography of Oscar Droege
Examples of Farbholzschnitt (color woodblock prints)
Other practitioners of the color woodblock print include:
Carl Thiemann (1881-1966)
Martha Cunz (1876 -1961)
Josef Stoitzner (1884-1951)
Engelbert Lap (1886-1970)
Heine Rath (1873-1920)
Sherrie York is a young artist working today who carries on the tradition in color lino cut
YouTube: Hubert Pische demonstrates how to create a color woodcut (in German)
A NOTE TO ASPIRING ILLUSTRATORS
via Maria T. Middleton http://ift.tt/2DkZ3L7
An illustration student emailed me recently asking for advice on getting her work published. I've been in the industry for less than a decade and am by no means an expert, but I can say with certainty that there's no magic formula for instant publishing success. The trick isn't about making good work, it's about getting that work noticed by the right people. Challenging, but not impossible. Here are some of the things I encouraged her to do:
An illustration student emailed me recently asking for advice on getting her work published. I've been in the industry for less than a decade and am by no means an expert, but I can say with certainty that there's no magic formula for instant publishing success. The trick isn't about making good work, it's about getting that work noticed by the right people. Challenging, but not impossible. Here are some of the things I encouraged her to do:
Maintain a web presence.
Don't be hard to find. Have a blog, website, or digital platform that shows your best work. Keep it current.Send postcard mailers to art directors and editors.
I'm not the only art director who loves getting postcards in the mail. I keep them for reference when I'm hiring for new projects. Don't be afraid to send updated mailers every couple of months—just remember to include your website and contact info so we can find you. |
| My postcard drawer. |
Get involved in the industry.
Stay current on what's happening in the industry and make as many connections as you can. Organizations like SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators) help aspiring and even established illustrators connect with folks in the publishing world. Other organizations like the CBC (Children's Book Council) and the Society of Illustrators will offer helpful insights, too. Don't work in a vacuum, get out there and see what other illustrators are doing.Consider representation from an agent.
Most publishers don't accept unsolicited manuscripts or project pitches. Hiring an agent is a little like jumping to the front of the line: It doesn't guarantee success, but you'll have a better chance of getting your work in front of the right people. Good agents have strong working relationships with editors and art directors and know the kind of projects those folks might like. Agents are like partners, find someone you connect with and who understands your work. They will be your second biggest advocate. You should be your first.Most importantly: Be persistent and patient.
Getting published rarely—and I mean rarely!—happens overnight. Be persistent. Be patient. Be kind. Repeat.14 January 2018
How Many Values?
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Matthieu asks: "I know that value grouping is a technique you often use when sketching. How many values do you usually prefer? I have been experimenting with four values lately (white, black, bright and dark). But that is so few it is a challenge in itself..."
Matthieu asks: "I know that value grouping is a technique you often use when sketching. How many values do you usually prefer? I have been experimenting with four values lately (white, black, bright and dark). But that is so few it is a challenge in itself..."
Matthieu, for this exercise to be useful, the fewer values the better. As Howard Pyle said, "The fewer tones the simpler and better your pictures." As an exercise, try limiting it to two or three tones. You can do that by using markers or gouache, or by premixing pools of color in oil.
| Dean Cornwell |
Sometimes it helps to think of families of values: a light family (with some variation in the tones) and a dark family (very much darker than any in the light family, but still distinguishable from each other).
Those big families of tone don't have to be close to white or black, by the way. The poetry of the Cornwell moonlight scene comes from handling those "whites" as a family of mid-range cool tones and saving the highest values for those sparkling windows.
Another thing to keep in mind is that it's not just how many values you have in your design, but how they're arranged.
| Travels of the Soul by Howard Pyle |
In the painting above, Pyle has basically set up a light family and a dark family and has gradated between them. The impact of the design comes from that powerful grouping of the lights together into a single mass and the grouping of darks into a mysterious shadow.
Pyle told his students: "Put your white against white, middle tones (groups) against grays, black against black, then black and white where you want the center of interest. This sounds simple, but it is difficult to do."
| John Singer Sargent, Two Girls Fishing, 1912, Cincinnati Art Museum |
These ideas were in the air when Pyle and Cornwell were working. Many other leading artists, such as John Singer Sargent were always grouping tones in arresting and memorable ways. If you check out any of the posts linked below, you can see more examples.
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Previous related posts:
'What About that Rule?'
Posts that mention "Notan"
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Posts that mention "Notan"
My other channels:
Instagram @jamesgurneyart
YouTube
12 January 2018
With or Without Background?
via Muddy Colors http://ift.tt/2Eoq5l0
I have to admit that I was never a fan of drawing backgrounds. I've work hard to learn the rules of perspective and everything involved in the process of creating a believable environment for my characters, but I was always more interested in the figure drawing.
It's not out of laziness, I swear. I love drawing and painting and I've never shied away from hard work (At least when it comes to art; If you need help moving furniture, I may show up late) but It's hard for me to get eager about drawing a background.
If I feel like the image needs it, that the background tells an important aspect of the story I’m illustrating and helps the narrative, I do it without a blink but, luckily for me, comic book covers, and specially Superheroes comic book covers, are very character driven and, most of the times, a background won't add much to the cover.
On top of that, there needs to be room for a code bar, title, credits, and sometimes a tagline so, most of the times, it's better to leave the image as light as you can so it can read well once the trade dress is added.
But what about those times when you do need a background? Well, as anything you do on the page, you better find a way to make it amusing for you. It doesn't mean skipping work, it means working differently. You'll still have to put up time and effort to think about a way to portray the story you want, the way you want.
One of my ways of making it fun is to, whenever I can, working the background as an element of design. This Spider-Men cover is a good example:
Heavily inspired, you may have noticed, in Coles Phillips' work:
Take a look at how much information he's giving us, with so very little drawing. He might not have spent time drawing details, but he sure spent a lot of time designing.
The lack of a full background was very common in the covers of the old paperbacks. I assume this was because of, as previously mentioned, the need for space for the trade dress, but I I'm pretty sure that it was also a clever way to meet the deadlines.
This (above) is a beautiful example. It didn't need more than a silhouette and some circles to convey the idea of a behind the scenes of a TV studio or a movie set.
Mitchell Hooks was a master at this.
Take a look at the cover of "My Man Godfrey" (Above). While the only background is a stair (A banister, actually; he didn't even draw any steps) and a chandelier, he made sure to made it in a way where you can immediately tell it's a mansion. You don’t need more than that. Which reminds me of a saying from the old master Alex Toth that could apply here. You probably heard this one before: "Strip it all down to essentials and draw the hell out of what's left.".
If you enjoy drawing backgrounds, and have the time to do it, then draw the hell out of it and knock it out of the park. But if you don't enjoy it much, or the deadline is too tight, you can always come up with clever and interesting ways of providing your characters of an environment and give the reader the info they need. As I’ve said before: It’s not about skipping work, it’s about working differently.
I might not be big on drawing backgrounds, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy seeing other people do it (I'm not a monster!), so let's end this post with a few samples of wonderful, crowded, beautifully rendered backgrounds.
PS. I'm not lazy!
|
I have to admit that I was never a fan of drawing backgrounds. I've work hard to learn the rules of perspective and everything involved in the process of creating a believable environment for my characters, but I was always more interested in the figure drawing.
It's not out of laziness, I swear. I love drawing and painting and I've never shied away from hard work (At least when it comes to art; If you need help moving furniture, I may show up late) but It's hard for me to get eager about drawing a background.
If I feel like the image needs it, that the background tells an important aspect of the story I’m illustrating and helps the narrative, I do it without a blink but, luckily for me, comic book covers, and specially Superheroes comic book covers, are very character driven and, most of the times, a background won't add much to the cover.
On top of that, there needs to be room for a code bar, title, credits, and sometimes a tagline so, most of the times, it's better to leave the image as light as you can so it can read well once the trade dress is added.
But what about those times when you do need a background? Well, as anything you do on the page, you better find a way to make it amusing for you. It doesn't mean skipping work, it means working differently. You'll still have to put up time and effort to think about a way to portray the story you want, the way you want.
| Cover for "Hawkeye" #12. Marvel Comics 2017. |
One of my ways of making it fun is to, whenever I can, working the background as an element of design. This Spider-Men cover is a good example:
| Cover for "Spider-Men". Marvel Comics 2017. |
Heavily inspired, you may have noticed, in Coles Phillips' work:
Take a look at how much information he's giving us, with so very little drawing. He might not have spent time drawing details, but he sure spent a lot of time designing.
The lack of a full background was very common in the covers of the old paperbacks. I assume this was because of, as previously mentioned, the need for space for the trade dress, but I I'm pretty sure that it was also a clever way to meet the deadlines.
| Robert McGinnis |
This (above) is a beautiful example. It didn't need more than a silhouette and some circles to convey the idea of a behind the scenes of a TV studio or a movie set.
Mitchell Hooks was a master at this.
Take a look at the cover of "My Man Godfrey" (Above). While the only background is a stair (A banister, actually; he didn't even draw any steps) and a chandelier, he made sure to made it in a way where you can immediately tell it's a mansion. You don’t need more than that. Which reminds me of a saying from the old master Alex Toth that could apply here. You probably heard this one before: "Strip it all down to essentials and draw the hell out of what's left.".
| Robert McGinnis |
| Robert McGinnis |
If you enjoy drawing backgrounds, and have the time to do it, then draw the hell out of it and knock it out of the park. But if you don't enjoy it much, or the deadline is too tight, you can always come up with clever and interesting ways of providing your characters of an environment and give the reader the info they need. As I’ve said before: It’s not about skipping work, it’s about working differently.
I might not be big on drawing backgrounds, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy seeing other people do it (I'm not a monster!), so let's end this post with a few samples of wonderful, crowded, beautifully rendered backgrounds.
PS. I'm not lazy!
| Bernie Fuchs |
| Bernie Fuchs |
| Paolo Rivera |
| Brian Sanders |
John Henry, Ezra Jack Keats
via The Art of Children's Picture Books http://ift.tt/2mzYQh1
Today's vintage children's book is John Henry, An American Legend, illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats. This great American folk tale has been illustrated by many different artists over the years, but Keats does it justice with his use of color, texture and distinctive style.
John Henry
An American Legend
Story and Pictures by Ezra Jack Keats
Scholastic Book Services, 1970
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Basil of Baker Street, Paul Galdone
via The Art of Children's Picture Books http://ift.tt/2FwR2V0
Today's vintage children's book is Basil of Baker Street, written by Eve Titus and illustrated by Paul Galdone. Galdone was a prolific illustrator who collaborated with Titus on several books. Two of their books, Anatole and Anatole and the Cat won Caldecott awards. This book has sentimental value for me as well. My son who is grown, adored the Basil books as a child, reading and re-reading them.
Basil of Baker Street
By Eve Titus
Illustrated by Paul Galdone
McGraw Hill Co., 1958
Today's vintage children's book is Basil of Baker Street, written by Eve Titus and illustrated by Paul Galdone. Galdone was a prolific illustrator who collaborated with Titus on several books. Two of their books, Anatole and Anatole and the Cat won Caldecott awards. This book has sentimental value for me as well. My son who is grown, adored the Basil books as a child, reading and re-reading them.
To view a past post of another book illustrated by Paul Galdone, click here.
Basil of Baker Street
By Eve Titus
Illustrated by Paul Galdone
McGraw Hill Co., 1958
Thanks for viewing my blog, I hope you enjoyed it.
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