My Neck hurts and here’s some cool illustrators
I got a pro-tip for you on how to shift away from being stressed out about the current state of things. What you do is, you fall asleep on the couch with your neck at an impossible angle. You’ll be amazed at how the pain of truing your head to the left eliminates giving a flying f*ck about anything else.
It’s a nice little reset button. Now, whenever I startdwelling on it, I just try to turn my head to the left, and magically a blinding shot of painmakes me forget whatever I was thinking about.
Of the many things going on lately as the result of the -you know what-, the one thing that mystifies me the most is seeing fellow creatives posting work and talking about using the time to work on things. I’m a bit envious.
All I’ve been able to do is sit flabbergasted and
occasionally blink. People are able to put this out of their
minds and draw and write. I’m amazed, that’s not a dig…I
truly am amazed.
To be able to ignore all of this to the
point where you can delve into your imagination enough to be
creative at a high level…? Either they are really well
adjusted or complete psychopaths.
But as long as the ole’ carburetor between MY ears is flooded, this would be a good time to point out some other people I’m impressed by.
“Douglas is plugging someone else’s work, the world IS coming to an end”
…more like I haven’t been sleeping well (possibly because I keep falling asleep on the couch) and am not as egomaniacal as normal. One good nap and I’ll regret this.
As far as comic book illustrators, who have more or less mastered their craft and have a distinct style, you often get one of two categories. You get real intricate, precise, type stuff, like say a George Perez, a Moebius…
And you got your wild, energetic, chaotic stuff, your Bill Sienkiewicz, your Gene Colan…There’s others, but no one’s coming to mind.
note…not sure these are the best examples of what I mean, but I think they’ll do. I just grabbed up the first pics I saw, it’s not good for the ego to spend too much time scrolling through work that’s better than yours
Occasionally you get someone who is both wildly stylized and precise at the same time. Like say, Kelly Jones.
*note to self- pay no attention to the skillfulness of the background texture
While strolling around on Instagram a while back, if found such a person.
who did this…
and this…
This is some really really impressive work. A solid mastery of the human figure, nicely detailed, precise backgrounds, lot’s of expression and energy…and the page layouts…cripes. So damn good.
There is so much interesting technique in telling a visual story and leading the eye, going on up on that page, I could write a whole blog dissecting it. I’m not going to…I’ve dissected it for my own knowledge. You’re on your own.
Here’s a blast of some more work, but check out the intragram
page and give it a look, because there is lot’s of good stuff
there.
https://www.instagram.com/berthohorn/
You know when you’re good? When you can draw batman jumping into action and have it feel like it’s the first time you’ve ever seen such a thing.
This, is of course my favorite.
I have had many people draw up their own take on VooDoo Joe. And most have been good, well done, some of them very very skillfully completed. Hell, some of them more skilled than I. But sometimes…a character is like a signature, it’s not about the ability to write the letters….it’s something else that makes it feel genuine. But THIS is the first time I saw one, looked at it and saw Voodoo Joe, not a drawing of Voodoo Joe. If you get my meaning. I look at this at it’s 100% Voodoo Joe, the personality is captured dead on, and jumps right out at you.
Another illustrator who’s no slouch is Ian Nichols, and for a while now he’s been doing live drawings of commissions.
NOW, me myself personally…spending any amount of time watching someone draw isn’t that appealing, BUT I can see how it would be fun for others. There’s a link below of a session of his.
As for me doing anything like this…meh…I am planning on doing some videos breaking down they why and how I do stuff. Maybe I’ll get to that after this neck ache goes away.