Comics

Marko Djurdjevic has been a concept artist for Marvel for many years. I recently discovered this man’s work by browsing the web for anything relating to comics. Boy, I was not disappointed! The moment I saw his paintings, I was inspired by the energy his characters convey. His figures are designed in such a way that they are not standing still, just like Frazetta’s illustrations. The strength of his characters lie in the fluidity in form, as well as the force in which they move. Even though his works are static, they give the illusion of movement, as if they were animated.

Even his sketches are exemplary, containing the same energy as the finished work. The only difference is that the initial sketches are raw.

Alex Ross

Alex Ross has been an artist I have admired for quite some time, but since I am heavily studying art, I have discovered new aspects in his work. If you are unfamiliar with Ross, he is one of the top illustrators for Marvel, producing polished works that are so vivid. He mostly uses watercolor, adding additional polish with airbrush layers toward the end of each work.

The strength of Ross’s work is the realism they contain. Each character that he creates retains a personal element to them, as if they were real people. His illustrations are believable, almost diving into hyperrealism, in the sense that they aspire to something higher than photorealism into a lucid fantasy.

There is a notable disadvantage to Ross’s work that is a direct consequence of the advantages. The biggest knock against Ross is that his work is sometimes static. His sense of acute realism can sometimes stifle any sense of movement in his pictures. Below is a link to his website.

Infinite canvas

A friend of mine introduced me to the work of Scott McCloud, for which I am immensely grateful. I re-watched a lecture of his many times, and it can be found through this link.

The part of his presentation that struck me most was his talk of unconventional narratives. He mentions circular narratives and parallel narratives rather than the standard left to right comic layout. This blew my mind because I never really appreciated the possibilities that can be taken with this. What if there was a comic that had a layout like a spider-web? The sky’s the limit in this respect.

What I would mainly be concerned about when designing such layouts for comics is practicality. Would readers like experiencing such unorthodox comic layouts? The danger of breaking the mold too much would be that it would be too distracting and focus too much attention away from the story, which is the most important part of comics.

Slinkachu

If you stop by any Barnes and Noble, you should check out the Arts section. There was a book I came across that featured the work of Slinkachu. The book is called Little People in the City and offers a glimpse into the world of this particular artist. I didn't read the book very extensively, but I did get a lot out of it.

Slinkachu's work is fascinating because he creates miniatures that are smaller than a fly. The miniatures are generally people, living their day-to-day lives in a much bigger universe. As I flipped through the pages, I imagined what it would be like to be that small. Would I get eaten by spiders or other small predators? There was actually a picture of a small human with a rifle, killing a fly. The fly was shown dead on its back with the miniature human aiming the rifle.

I don't think you have to necessarily have to be interested in art in order to appreciate this work. Some people already feel small in the universe, why not observe from an even smaller scale?

Drawingboards

In my N240 class, we had to do an exercise in teams, where we all took the same set of storyboard drawings and rearranged them to tell different story ideas. I found this to be a great way of brainstorming different possibilities within constraints. Upon first doing the activity, I was under the impression that there was a very limited number of possible storylines that can be derived from the drawings. It turns out that the mind can come up with truly crazy ideas from very ordinary looking storyboards. For example, a car driving on a road can actually be a car driving upside down through a futuristic highway. Of course, the number of different story ideas can be dictated by a person's imagination as well as the number of drawings present.

Logos

Creating an effective logo is more difficult than most people imagine. When some people see the Nike symbol or Adidas, they say that they can easily do the same thing. Some equate being able to easily replicate the logo as being competent enough to coming up with effective logos. Ironically, creating such logos can be the hardest thing to do. Trying to conceive a design so minimalistic and memorable to the public is more a mental process than a technical process. The artist must take into account the psychological aspects of design, and consider different avenues to take that would best sell a brand and represent a company’s values.

Beatles Rock Band animation

The animation for Beatles Rock Band is stunning. Every movement takes you back to the time of Beatlemania, whether it be the mop-tops shaking their heads, or the screaming fans at Shea Stadium. I loved the transition between the Fabs' concert era and their more "experimental era" of music. They show the Beatles going up an elevator, with their dress changing to more colorful Sgt. Pepper uniforms. Once "I am the Walrus" plays, more CG elements are added in, which really give a different dimension to the piece.

The 2D animation at the beginning of the short is great and I think a lot of that has to do with the appeal of the character designs. The Fab Four look like themselves, but are slightly caricatured to give them a fresh look. All the characters are stylized, and the result is very appealing.