Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
So, doing this 24 hour comic day has been a real learning experience! The last time I tried it out, I only did the pencils. This year I tried to do the whole kit and caboodle - thumbs, roughs, inks, etc. I didn't finish, but since I had to go out that day to see friends it ain't all that surprising.
What I learned? If I'm not terribly concerned about quality, I can make a lot of pages in a short amount of time. Even if I do inject some intermediate effort into the art, I can turn around quite a few pages by sticking to a simple style.
Ultimately, I'd like to make a lifelong (and god willing, successful!) career of comics. Alas - I am notorious about not finishing the stories I start. I hope the new year-long project I'm undertaking will help fix that.
WHUT you ask A NEW PROJECT BUT KAREN YOU ARE ALWAYS DOING THAT i know i know shut up! I'm doing it anyways! SO THERE.
I'm making 365 comics.**
You are now free to take bets on whither or not I'll make it a whole year. C'mon take a chance I'M A DARK HORSE BABY. The first one is already up and running!
**yes yes I will still be posting on this blog and on ma tumblr, no worries.
Today is the day that Edward Hopper died (May 15, 1967), one of my favorite fine artists. I won't pretend to be an art critic but what I will say is that I can stare and stare at his paintings, and rarely get tired of them. The loneliness of them arrest my attention, and the captivating compositions are a big influence on me. I often feel like his work says things I wish could my own work could say, so several of his paintings are quite close to my heart.
When Passover comes around my Mother often asks me to help with the customary cleaning. In an effort to shirk her requests I usually point out her subconscious gender discrimination: she never asks my brothers to help with this, just me. Time and again my mother half-grins at this comment, looks thoughtful, then says she'll ask them to help too.
Does she? Do they? If they do, I'm never around to witness this mythical event.
Anyhoo, I am usually guilted into polishing the silverware.
Growing up in the Jewish community and as a regular synagogue-goer, I was often surrounded by judaic/biblical art. Polishing silverware is tedious, but it does give me satisfaction in removing the tarnish off the religious objects I grew up with.
In Judaism there is a mitzvah - commandment - called Hiddur Mitzvah. The idea is that the use of beautiful aesthetics in Jewish practice glorifies god. Here's a selection of Passover objects I found while scouring Google Image Search and EBay that make my art bug itch and my wallet whimper. Click the links for the wiki articles relating to those objects.
Things I've been watching:
Elektra, the 1980 Opera from The Met:
I think the liberetto (lyrics) are fantastic - I'd love to make a comic based on the opera someday. I found myself wishing that I could have seen Birgit Nilsson in her prime, as this performance happened late into her career. Ce la vie. I will have to dig around for old recordings of this fab lady.
Also, been watching Dangerous Liasons from 1988:
Why the hell didn't anyone tell me that Glenn Close is fabulous? So far, I've been stuck on the part where John Malkovitch dumps Michelle Phiffer. Brutal.
Although the news broke yesterday, I learned about Satoshi Kon's passing this afternoon, and it hit me like a kick in the chest.
He was the director of several acclaimed anime films, several of which are my personal favorites - Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers.While I'd seen Perfect Blue as a teenager, I saw the latter two movies only recently, which cemented me as an enthusiastic Satoshi Kon fan. While I wasn't wild about his last film, Paprika, I've been making my way happily through his series Paranoia Agent, and waiting eagerly for his next film, The Dream Machine. He passed away while the film was in production, and while I don't know if it'll be finished now, I still hope to see it someday.
I'll probably detail my feelings on his work at a later date, but for now I'll throw up some clips from the above mentioned movies. It's always sad when we lose a bitchin' talent.
Inspiring pinup artists: Gil Elvgren, Zoë Mozert, Duane Bryers
by Karen H. Brown on Thursday, August 12, 2010
I'm having a blast working on these superhero pinups for FanExpo. Safe to say, I've been inspired by one of my favorite Illustrators, Gil Elvgren.
Better descriptions of his art have probably been written, so I'll just say here that my favorite quality in his work is the way he managed to make the girls look innocently indecent. Whoops, my skirt just fluttered up! Oh noes, can you see my butt? I don't know how, but he managed to make the slightest sliver of skin seem quite salacious.
Zoe Mozart is an artist that I'm learning more about and enjoying, specifically her nude/pinup work. The most famous female artist of retro pinup artists (so the internet tells me), she often used herself as a model.
Duane Bryers is often credited with being one of the first artists to paint plus-size pinup girls, specifically 'Hilda'. I love Hilda to death. With over 200+ Hilda paintings (gouache on illustration board), this guy blows me away.
Links
Official Gil Elvgren Website
Zoe Mozart at The Pinup Files
Hilda Gallery at Toilgirls
