Proko TV: Figure Drawing

Stan Prokopenko, who did a great video series on how to draw the human head, is now doing a series on how to draw the whole figure. The first part of this series is about drawing gesture, and just went live a few hours ago.

Enjoy!

Sketchbooks

Above: A sketch by Dave Stevens

by Arnie Fenner

I had mentioned in a post sometime back about how fanzines were unique collectibles, true "limited editions" that aren't really on most people's radar screens. When compared to prices for out of print (or first edition) titles in the book world, fanzines (with press runs ranging from a few hundred to, at most, a few thousand) are absolute bargains. And they're something of a guerilla history of both the fantasy/comics/science fiction community and of various artists' careers.

I feel the same way about the artist sketchbooks that have become popular convention items in recent years. Some are elaborate productions with full color pages and hardcover bindings, others are b&w and saddlestitched with self-covers. Regardless of which, virtually all of them have something of interest to art fans. With even smaller press runs (on average 500 to 1000 copies) they tend to disappear quickly and escalate in price rapidly on the secondary market (Bruce Timm's early Xeroxed® sketchbooks go for big bucks). But speculation or avarice isn't the only reason to snag the sketchbooks when they're available at a show: buying them direct is a great way to support the artists and encourage them to do more. When you also consider that there are many gems to be found in this booklets—everything from pin-ups to SF to monsters to superheroes and everything in between—that most likely can't be found anywhere else, a few bucks is a good investment all the way around.

And, of course, if you can't attend a show where your favorite artists are set up, chances are good that you can visit their websites and still snag copies before prices go crazy on ebay.

Above left: Adam Hughes (Adam always signs his sketchbooks on the cover with "AH!")

Above right: Chris Sanders (yup, the director of How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods)

Above left: Woodrow J. Hinton III

Above right: Travis Charest

Above left: Mike Mignola

Above right: Bill Carman

Above left: Scott Altmann

Above right: David Palumbo

Above left: Cory Godbey

Above right: Allen Williams

Above left: Terry Dodson

Above right: Bruce Timm

Above left: Arthur Adams

Above right: Donato Giancola

Above left: Dave Stevens (Dave, who passed away in 2008, was among the first to do convention sketchbooks; Bud Plant has the remaining copies of Dave's original series.)

Above right: Daren Bader

Above left: Dave Dorman

Above right: Brett Bean

Above left: Justin Sweet

Above right: Justin Gerard

Above left: Gary Gianni

Above right: Jeff Miracola 

Above left: Mark Schultz

Above right: Neal Adams

Above left: Paul Bonner

Above right: Shelly Wan

Above left: Mark A. Nelson

Above right: William Stout (Bill was also one of the pathfinders when it came to producing sketchbooks to sell during his convention appearances.)

Jim Danforth

-By Arnie Fenner

"Since my primary interest has always been on making films with an emphasis on visual effects rather than effects just for themselves, I usually think first about the arrangement of a sequence—particularly in the case of stop-motion animation sequences—how the shots will be edited, what the tempo is, and so on. But even with matte shots, I tried to interject some of my own philosophy about sequence design—tried but rarely succeeded. It seems to me that having only one spectacular matte shot in a sequence calls attention to itself in an undesirable way and could result in what Al Whitlock referred to as “the JOHNNY TREMAIN problem” —small live-action sets combined with spectacular painted vistas. My view was that it would be better to include one or two matte shots that weren’t spectacular—just enough painting to suggest that, the sets or locations were larger than they actually were. In that way the ‘big’ vista would be less jarring."

— Jim Danforth

The posts about Ray Harryhausen's drawings and masters of matte painting made me start thinking about another film SFX legend, Jim Danforth. So after a little web searching I happened across a lengthy interview which covers all aspects of Mr. Danforth's career as both a stop-motion effects creator and as a matte painter of the first order. Enjoy!

Illustration Master Class 2013

Greg Manchess

IMC 2013 is off and running. It’s always exciting for me to work with so many damn good painters. And this year we have the pleasure of Mike Mignola’s company, fabulous critiques, and dynamic art to drop our jaws.

Scott Allie from Dark Horse is here all week doing portfolio reviews and lectures, as well as guest lecturers Mo Willems, Peter deSeve, and James Gurney.

Our core faculty: Rebecca Guay, Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Donato Giancola, Scott Fischer, Dan Dos Santos, Irene Gallo, Iain McCaig, and myself....still turbo-charged about teaching with a taboo-less philosophy for drawing and painting. And the students are eating it up. They feel limitless, creative, and capable. Non-stop laughter for a serious passion to build compelling, story-telling images.

Man, I love this week.

photos by Irene Gallo

Unikron

-By Winona Nelson

Good friend and fellow illustrator, Winona Nelson, just finished this wonderful 8-page comic for the 'Childhood Heroes' anthology. The entire comic was written and drawn by Winona, and created traditionally using Copic markers.

You can see more of Winona's work at: http://winonanelson.com/