Early works show a feel for storytelling from the beginning:
Not a comic book artist really, Jeff Jones (aka Catherine) was an heir apparent to the great Frazetta. The paintings produced by this exceptionally fine artist speak volumes about the sensitivity and deep love of art that came from within the soul of this tortured genius. Early works show a feel for storytelling from the beginning: Jones developed early and quickly as a great illustrator and fine artist with particular attention being paid to figure work. His approach was at once sketchy but deliberate and his ability to place blacks was so well developed that on some occasions he was called up to just place shadows on already existing illustrations. But the paintings were what separated Jeff from the others. The rich colors, the textures, the isolated simple designs, all were perfect for an emerging paperback marketplace in science fiction and fantasy. The incredible use of negative space, the color simplified color pallets, the rich and beautiful designs that create depth and motion, these are the deceptively simple elements Jeff used to create the masterpieces you see here. Always immaculate in conception, always experimental in execution, these are masterful and powerful visions made of paint. Moody and atmospheric, all the spirit and emotion evoked by each image lives on. And isn't that the very definition of art?
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The single most prolific artist to draw the Batman, Jim Aparo was a legend whose mark was cast in stone. A quiet and unassuming person, Jim really didn't venture out a lot, almost never made the conventions and wasn't a really splashy artist, but his work wasn't humdrum or mundane by any stretch of the imagination. His work on the Batman stories approached the best ever done, even by rival artist Neal Adams, and his delineation of Aquaman and later the Spectre for Adventure Comics would secure a place in history for him. His art is often an example masterful storytelling and technique. His style enabled the use of clean clear direction combined with impeccable design. He's been gone for a little while now, but his work lives on. Below, you'll find some of his material. Jim Aparo drew more Batman tales than anyone in history. Aparo died on July 19, 2005. Below you will see what I think are some of his more significant efforts. This is an artist worth studying. Greg Tocchini Greg Tocchini, a Brazilian artist relatively new to the states, has blown apart the seams, creating art that is both beautiful and detailed while retaining a loose feeling of creative spontaneity, which is an awfully hard-assed word to spell for something that is supposed to remind us of that thing we do when we are just creating and NOT paying attention to things, like spelling. Anyway, Greg is impressive. His covers for Hinterkind alone should elevate him to godhood, but his interior art has been incredible as well. One look at his beautiful new series, LOW, and if you're not hooked for life, you might want to check your pulse. His previous efforts, both for the independent press (The Last Days of American Crime) and Marvel (Marvel 1602: Fantastik Four, Marvel 1602: The New World, The Uncanny X-Force:Otherworld), have been really good, but LOW promises to be a new path. I am SO impressed with the beauty of this series, I can't really put it into words so, here are some pages from LOW: Too beautiful for words. Don't walk, RUN, to your nearest comics store and BUY THIS NOW. But if you are, somehow, still unconvinced of the incredible stuff Tocchini is doing, check out the covers for Hinterkind: Or the art from The Last Days of American Crime: Or just the miscellaneous stuff he has spread out all over the internet: So if you have hesitated to express a love for comics or a passion for the stuff that is invigorating and giving you life, remember that art comes in all kinds of places, appears in the strangest, smallest of worlds and inspires virtually all of us.
Have a good day. What can I say that hasn't been said? Frank Frazetta was just a brilliant, and quite possibly the most influential, artist of the 20th century. His work can be found in comic books from the 1950's, on book covers and record albums and magazine covers and portfolios and too much to mention here.
I have a had many conversations about the man with my friend Kenneth Smith, who knew Frank well, and he recalls that Frank was an unusual artist who tended to paint straight from the tube, preferring to mix his paint on the canvas instead of pre-mixing the paint to get the desired color before he laid it down. Kenneth said he told Frazetta that this could lead to the paintings not lasting as long because the bonding agents would not work as well. Frazetta did not seem to take that advice to heart. I've heard other tales about the casualness with which Frazetta thought about his art. James Gurney of Dinotopia fame worked with Frazetta on Fire and Ice, the animated film feature he did with Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat, the first X-rated cartoon), and said he recalled when he and Frazetta were talking about clear coating some acrylics that Gurney was working on. Frazetta commented that one of his paintings was a little flat looking in an area or two and asked Gurney to actually use a varnish to touch it up. Gurney, of course, went pale and refused, but did pass the can to Frank. And he seemed like that. He seemed kind of nonchalant about it all, as if the art just flowed off of him and onto the canvas, with little or no effort, and who knows, maybe it did. He got rich off it but I think that it became a burden too. Kenneth Smith told me once that the reason Frazetta slowed down towrds the end was that every time he picked up a brush, he was expected to turn out a masterpiece. Then again, Frank himself told stories, backed up by others by the way, of how he would wait until the day before a painting was due and then just churn it out. His son tells a story about how they put one of his paintings in the oven to get it to dry faster. Kenneth once told me that the famous Conan painting where he is standing on top of the dead with the girl at his feet was actually painted in its entirety while Frazetta watched television with his family one afternoon. Frazetta later turned down a cool million dollars for the painting. It is one of the items most fantasy art fans would consider priceless. Frank was said to have an incredible memory when it came to imagery. Once, while drawing a western tale for Atlas, Frank is said to have closed his eyes to recall what a rabbit looked like as it was jumping from out of a bush. He then quickly laid down an image to paper which one of the Fleagle Gang inked and the panel was done. The Fleagle were, if you don't know, Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Frazetta and a guy who would change Frank's life, Roy g. Krenkel. It was Krenkel who got Frank involved in doing the paintings for the Conan paperbacks. Krenkel was, at the time, doing Tarzan covers for them and suggested Frazetta, who was doing paintings for the Warren magazines such as Eerie and Creepy. Frazetta covers on those paperbacks made Conan a best selling paperback series and from there, Frazetta seemed to be on the road to superstardom as an artist. He would later move on to portfolios, movie posters and become wealthy just on the sales of his now famous posters. His inspiration was Harold Foster and Alex Raymond and painters like Wyeth, but he carved a niche into the world of science fiction and fantasy that may never be filled by anyone else. Successors like Jeff Jones, Arthur Suydam, Boris Vallejo, Rowena, and even some of the more risque artists such as Olivia owe a lot to this brash semi-professional baseball player turned painter. He had a style and a power to his paintings that no one could equal and his passion was always at the end of his brush. He will be missed, but remembered always as a king among illustrators and despite what the gallery owners believe, a truly fine artist. |
Mark Boyd
I am an artist living in the Dallas area. I have been doing design and illustration here for over 20 years now. Categories
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