As is my frequent habit, I got up at 2:00 am with insomnia and started putting down everything that was running uncontrolably through my head. It's becoming my favorite time to work. Absolutely no distractions or interruptions. A mind that's just spent several hours in solitude, processing the day's events.Right now I'm thinking about the look of the city that part of my story takes place in. Although I have unbounded admiration for people who can do those beautiful, tight, professional architectural renderings, I find I have a mental block against using rulered lines for buildings and machinery. Do people have their favorite artists who handle cars and buildings in offbeat ways? Moebius and Windsor McKay come immediately to mind for me. Anyone else?
Wow! Neat!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, Jack Kirby comes to mind. Everyone remembers all the great characters but forgets all the cool mega cities he created... Asgard, Apokolips, New Genesis, Zenn-La, etc. They had their own personalities, but they were all very Kirby.
Rick Geary is another guy with a very personal way of drawing cities.
I remember when I was a kid someone had given me a poster of Boston (ironic, no?). It was a sort of map, wildly detailed with hundreds of buildings and little tiny people doing things on it. I wish I could find a copy of it because it was really fantastic. I don't think a straight edge was used on the whole thing... it was all hand drawn and had tons of personality and color.
Attsa nice Tom. I like the page to read and to ...read ( as in look at the pictures.)
ReplyDeleteLooks a bit like Rick Geary colliding with Robert Crumb. Like the other comic work you were sharing. Great sillohutte on all the elements.
Have you seen the new perspective tool in photoshop studio. That's kinda cool for getting quick grids. That combined with the new warp tool could sure produce some nice matrix for doodling up architecture where you didn't want to get out a ruler. Print the grid, put it on the back of your board and light table time. Or, if you can stand the look of the phantom screen on your paper, print the grids on nice bond at about 10 percent and start dodling in Balck right over that. Then you scan again and try and fry off a lot of the screen with level adjustment. I like your buildings. They fit in your style.
Ha! So those were the ramblings you were covering up with your hand model hands! It was fun looking at the notes you scribble to yourself. Funny and insightful too! As far as favorite BG artists I would have to agree with Ellis on R.crumb. He loved to draw beauty of the ugliness of the world. I would suggest you maybe take reference pics around SD of the types of buildings you like and just draw them in. All the work is done for you! Just copy it. I have to say that your sketchbook pages are inspiring. I don't know if I have the attention span to fill a page like that!
ReplyDeleteAhh yes, I hadn't thought of Kirby. Even his portrayals of non-fantasy cities are worth looking at. As an old teacher of mine pointed out, artists have to develop their own, "idiom" he called it, for handling very complex subject matter such as trees and cities, because you can't go around drawing every leaf and brick. And of course Kirby had his unique way of dealing with machinery too.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about the Photoshop option. I like the idea of lightly printing out guidelines onto another piece of paper and drawing over it. Remember Art-O-Graphs? Did I actually hear Adam Hughes refer to using one in his work? I thought those went out thirty years ago!
It's always nice to R. Crumb's name dropped. I forgot about him too. I love his depictions of the dirty, grungy side of city living. Sometimes it's only a simple silhouette but it says a lot. After all is said and done, I will probably settle on something very simple and minimalist in the end, but hopefully it will retain some personality.
An excellent suggestion about taking pictures around town Skribbl. I must reserve a weekend for that.
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful Tom!
ReplyDeleteAlongside those illumninaires mentioned I also think of Kaluta with cityscapes as well as Enki Bilal and Frank Miller (particularly thinking of "Ronin" but also the DD series).
Now when I get up at 2 I'll know you're busy drawing and I'll be so exhausted by the thought that I'll be able to go back to sleep.
Thanks Tom!
Oh yes, and there was that Serpieri guy who did all the wild environment stuff in his Druuna series.
ReplyDelete