AL WILLIAMSON - R.I.P. 1931-2010

Secret Agent Corrigan (c)KFS - the hero was modeled by the artist himself!

THE PRINCE AMONGST the comics medium knights has laid his mighty brushes to rest and went where all of us shall go one day or night... joining his pal Frank Frazetta, Archie Goodwin and other incomparable giants who walked amongst us once, allowing us to stand on their shoulders.

Williamson followed the path of Alex Raymond, inspired also by Daniel Vierge, Joseph Clement Coll, Franklin Booth and other masters of the pen and ink technique.

His contribution to the comics is humongous - comicbooks, syndicated newspaper strips... penciling, inking [himself and others, in the later part of his career] and genuine love for the artform examplified with his tireless collecting of originals.

Those in the know, especially distinguished ones honoured to know him personally will publish more appropriate rememberings of his life, deeds and achievements. I've never managed to meet him but I am sure that he really was The Gentleman and one of the sweetest persons ever to unleash his kindness on fellow artists and people in general.

He shall be missed.

Some New-ish Drawings... sort of

JUST TO AVOID being too absent from here...

MALEFICENT (c)Disney

Vetty & Beronica... y'get it, right..? (c)Respective Copyright Holder[s]

THORELLA -female version of Thor (c)Marvel/Disney

SISELLA & her flat-chested failed female sidekick, (c)ME

All drawn by me. No inks, just blue or graphite pencils, ordinary printer A4 sized paper, tweaked here'n'there in PhotoShop.

'Nuff said - as the great man uttered on so many excelsior-occasions.

Salut

Stacey Owens Project

THERE IS NOTHING mysterious about STACEYTRON, Ms. Owens' Deviant Art personna. Stunning looker and inspiration to many artists over there -- me included.

Amongst numerous other sketches and some finished drawings I've done three incarnations of the MultiMedia VideoGame Maiden.

Here are pencils and finished inks with gray tones (done with COPIC markers) for the third delineation of the incomparable StaceyTron.

More Deviations

I don't think necessarily that my work is a benchmark of exceptional quality or with distinguished instructional value -- yet I like to share the very process that happens when I delineate a character...
... in this case a few feminized versions of MARVEL superheroes, appearing as super-heroinettes!

Straight from the alternative universe inside my overgrown-fanboy head -- here they are:

CAPTAINELLA AMERICANA

and
THE MIGHTY THORELLA!
Damn, that blue pencil rocks..!







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(c)Marvel/Disney

From my DeviantArt Page

AFTER SEVERAL WEEKS... or is it actually months?!... I'm to post a thing or two here, to prevent cobwebs to amount.

I've been posting various sketches and finished artwork, some of it being studies of other artists' work - that I have credited and presented my 'learning way' and understanding how things are done. This, for example, is my take [no study of other artists' work] on the video-game character Kat Fallout, shown in stages.

So ... with red lead clutch pencil [2mm] I've structured shapes with the help of established 'line of action' first and head shape oval sketched-in last which provided me with the groundwork to proceed and come to this final drawing, tightened with 0.7 mechanical graphite pencil, HB lead.

ONE OF THE POSSIBLE APPROACHES, more or less

REMEMBER THE OLD question that goes something like: "But how do you get them ideas for your drawings/poems/scripts/stories/novels/music/whatever?"..?

I haven't been honoured with such a curiosity by anyone but thought it would be interesting to share with you one of the secrets how things might happen when creative process is shared, let's say. In this case, it's the team-up of Jovial John Gallagher and Yours Truly, Bashful Boyann M. Johnny was kind enough to share with me one assignment, giving me a chance to do some kinky illustrations for a special kind of adult publication, a picture-book of sorts for... y'know... stuff that I love to draw. I never saw the script or the final text version - Mr. Gallagher did the 'chewing' for me in the form of prepared roughs which I was supposed to turn into a more or less finished version[s] for publication. So, first here's Johnny:


As you can see, he drew what used to be called 'a scribble' - rough sketch that sometimes editors provided an artist with, to avoid misunderstanding and go straight to the point, like "This is The Way I Want It".


With practically everything sorted-out for me in advance, I've sharpened my trusty F 2mm lead in the leadholder klutch pencil and doodled away the following:

Of course, I wouldn't be what I am if I didn't use the wood-clinched light blue pencil for rough underdrawing, for backgrounds first and then adding figures, tightening them a wee later with graphite lead. Small JpegS were shared with John via the magic of Internet and, with his blessings, I've proceeded with... INKING..!

For years I had this bottle of FW acryllic black ink that I've been saving for... what..? Eternity..? 'Till it dries and turns into a goo..? Realizing that a good ink is left in vain unused, I took my beloved Hunt 22 nib [with a touch or two by the incredible Gillott 290] plus Winsor-Newton series 33 brush No. 5 [yeah, I've been careful to save my best, series 7 WN sables for non-acryllic ink!] and did this homage to the mixture of horror and superhero illustrations with lots and lots AND LOTS of cross-hatching. So there: an evil Mistress Of Pain takes the lovable, innocent Heroinella into the Dungeon Of Endless Sufferings which I've made a suggestion of with a hint of the great Wally Wood machinery quite in place for some Mad Scientist's secret lab. But... did you think that I've forgotten to show the inks of the next pic with our tied but still defiant Heroinella..? More on that just a wee later, folks.





















There's the thing: I've PhotoShopped the colouring on the inked FIRST drawing and -- the very same second drawing as it is - left in penciled stage, only tweaked in PS to appear darker, 'blackier'... just to give it a whirl like in modern comics where many pencils are left uninked, just coloured for the viewing pleasure.

I remain by all means the supporter of inking - the real 'wetworks', not digital fiddling to ape the real thing. Whether it's a brush, nibs, markers or even rapidographs -- I don't care, as long as the inking is applied the way it's supposed to be done.

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Now, if you check out www.twomorrows.com site, amongst many things there you'll notice that the latest issue of DRAW! magazine is out, where the interview with the incomparable RM Guera - artist on many European comics and DC's Vertigo title 'Scalped' - is done by Yours Truly, using his nom de plum Brian 'Duke' Boyanski. Guera is my childhood friend now living in gorgeous Barcelona - the most beautiful city in the world situated on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. He is one of the best comics artists in the world.

So c'mon -- order the mag this instant [or at least the cheaper PDF version for upload] and enjoy the best magazine on the planet devoted to the art of drawing and making better comics.

Even better - apart from making the editor Mike Manley and me richer, check out other phenomenal TwoMorrows publications and make yourselves richer with knowledge, insight how things are and were done in comics and for comics. Above all - have fun.

Salut.

The MASTER At Work, no less..!

FOLLOWING OTHER BLOGS when I have the time can be enchanting, making me simply fotget that I also have a blog to run and, at least, throw-in an update or two every now and then.

Yup, there are pages and pages of the stuff I have been involved with these past several months, but not all of them are appropriate to be shown here.

Exactly!.. They're even more hard-core than those I've shared with you previously, with gratuitous nudity and whatnot. It's true artists have to draw certain things if others aren't available -- and some like me even love drawing such stuff for money AND pleasure, so...

But today I am sharing with you a video of somebody else doing the creative magic before the camera... And NOT 'just anybody' but The Somebody of the legendary status amongst the comics giants - Mr. Neal Adams, boys and girls.

The Man draws... pencils... inks... attempts to turn on the light-box which happens to be unplugged... talks to his daughter [and studio manager, off-screen] Chriss... and has oodles of fun before our very eyes.

We see how he does it; the size of the original he is embellishing or transferring via light-box from the rough sketch underneath; the brush dipped in ink [and the brand is even readable!]; the pencil - ordinary wooden yellow school pencil, not some fancy-shmantzy special mechanical micro-lead wonder we imagine 'big guys' are using to create graphic[al] magic..!

Come to think of it -- the greatest amongst the great always showed modesty concerning their tools, never going for gadgetry or drawing gizmos - just the basic equipment and that's it. See, Neal Adams' brush even has split hairs, not 'the perfect' point 'good brand brushes' are supposed to keep always.

I want you to enjoy this and hunt down other YouTube videos of masters at work. It can be the next best thing to actually sitting next to the creator knocking out stuff that makes us love this wonderful medium and wish we can also do it, like them.

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Now, instead of P.S. --- if you check out YouTube links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOT5NgKt9N8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1JhcJl82gk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55qji6QMRLg

... you can see my band and me in action. PLAYING MUSIC, not drawing.

What does it have anything to do with comics..? Well, IT HAS, since the gig was shot on Sept. 24th 2009 at the Grand Opening of the Seventh Comics Salon in Belgrade, Serbia. FATAL CELLULITE OBSESSION performance was my personal gift to the Salon, its organizers, colleagues, friends and relatives who've bothered to pop-in and have some R'n'R fun in the comicdom assembled there and then.

Salut.