Art Archive The Artist's Cantina: A Social Thread

Come on in, get some Juri Juice, discuss your art, others' art, what you'd like to see, concept art, etc...

//orders a Pan-Galactic Gargle-Blaster... I always drink 'em when I draw!

I'll start us off... What do yoiu think of, say... Doug Chiang? I love his style. I've been trying to replicate it.

Check out the new version of the Social Thread here.

 

I'm really digging Ryan Church's conceptual work for AOTC right now.

Just got the "Art of AOTC" and it's great. Gotta love those "Art Of" books.

-Otis

 

Yes, Ryan Church is great, I wish I was as good with computer-naturl media artwork. I have 3 Art Of books, TPM, AotC and ESB... I love them all.

Who's your fave Concept Artist? It's difficult to choose... the OT guys were awesome, Joe Johnston, Colin Cantwell, Raplh McQuarrie...

Most of the prequel guys are awesome too.

 

Grrr. Don't have Art of Ep 2 yet. I've been informed I am not allowed to purchase it, as I am receiving it as a gift for my birthday - in a MONTH! Oh well.

My favorite prequel guy (well Ep 1 since I haven't seen the Ep 2 stuff yet), would have to be Iain McCaig. My favorite things are character and costume design, so naturally, he's my fav.

Now, I think Doug Chiang is great. They guy just churns the stuff out at an amazing pace - and so many ideas - BUT, as far as quality of drawing, he's my least favorite. His drawings come off as stiff and impersonal (hides behind chair waiting for the rotten vegetables to come my way!). If you look at the concept art, (in the Art o' Ep1 book) strictly from the quality of drawing, most everyone else is far superior. Iain McCaig's drawings all have a life and grace to them that Doug's lack. And compare Jay Shuster's pod designs to Doug's and you may begin to see what I'm talking about. I agree that all the other guys have the advantage of focusing on one area of expertise while Doug has to cover the whole grand array of designing *everything* - so, um, lost my train of thought. THere ya go.

Just mixin' up at the party, mates!
~Baroness, troublemaker....

 

"Art of AOTC" is my freakin' BIBLE!!!!

I dig everything in there. I especially love the Clonetrooper and Anakin sketches....cool stuff!

 

Speaking of conceptual design (we are, aren't we?) . .

Has anyone else been here?:

Concept Design Forum

It's a great place to see professional and not-so-professional conceptual artists at work and play. If you go there, I'd lurk for a while and not post any of your work until you feel ready. For the most part the artists there are VERY good, and WILL give you some in depth critiques, It can be daunting, but it is also a great resource.

Check it out.

While I'm handing out useful links, here's another one:

The Drawing Board

This is the forum for Shane Glines's site.

Shane in an illustrator and conceptual artist who has done a lot of work on the Animated Batman and Superman shows. I highly suggest checking out the forum, and his persoanl site at:

ShaneGlines.com

Enjoy.

-Otis

 

Thanks for the handy links, Otis! I've been to Shane's site many times. My favorite things are the galleries of Illustrators he's put together. I really like his taste (love the old vintage looking stuff). I haven't ever posted there before (I'm way too wimpy) but i have a friend who loves to, and says he gets great feedback.

 

I know what you mean, Baroness. I love Shane's site, it's such a great resource for illustration. I recommend EVERY young artist check out his database of artists from the golden age of animation and illustration.

Shane truly has an appreciation for the masters.

-Otis

 

Oooh, great thread!

*sits down and orders Corellian Whiskey*

I'd LOVE to buy the "Art of _____ (insert random SW episode title here)" books. But the problem is that I don't have much money... I've seen AOTC 3 times (and plan to see it again for a couple of times more) and bought the soundtrack, and I'm planning to buy the TPM and AOTC posters, so I'm pretty broke. Oh well. But one day, one day....

My favorite SW artist? Drew Struzan, without a doubt! That guy is Art God, I swear. I've downloaded this huge version of AOTC poster (without text), and have been admiring all the little details of it. Gosh, I love Drew's style! He's awesome... *sigh*

 

I love Struzan posters, too. I just got the Episode II one-sheet and put it next to my Episode I poster on the wall of my office. I think the AOTC poster is my favorite SW poster since the original. There's just something about it.

Has anyone else noticed this:

[image=http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00003CXKT.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg]

[image=http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00003CX9M.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg]

While I love his style, I must say this about Drew and his poster work . .

I like his work for the style, more than the creativity involved. His work is more along the lines of "stylistic representation" than pure expression.

I also love his "Back To The Future" posters. The way each one reflects and adds to the previous one is great.

-Otis

 

Amen to that, sista-friend! Drew is amazing. I don't know if many have seen much of his early work, but it is heavily heavily influenced by J.C. Leyendecker. It's kinda different from the Drew style we all know and love, but still pretty cool. Now, Mr. J. C. Leyendecker is the most amazing incredible artist to have ever lived! So, um, yeah... can you tell he's all time my favorite Illustrator....

~Baroness, yo yo yo

 

oops - i was replying to Mar17 while Otis was posting -was not calling you sista-friend Otis!

I do really like the Special Edition posters he did, and how they all link together - I guess like the Back to the Future posters Otis was mentioning.

That's funny about the Dr. Zhivago poster! I completely agree with you Otis - I love Drew for his style and interpretation. Creative? Hmmm. But, he is really good at assembling montages (collages?)!

 

I just "Googled" J. C. Leyendecker (man, that sounds dirty).

I can't believe I've never heard of him before. He's awesome! Thanks for the tip. His style is like what Norman Rockwell's stuff would have been if he'd done fantasy illustrations.

EDIT: Okay, now that I've read more about him, it looks like Rockwelll may have been inspired by Leyendecker, considering the timeline and the Saturday Evening Post connection.

-Otis

 

Hi! It's been a while since I've last been here. I saw ADONIAH32's thread in Communications about this forum, and I thought I'd see what the fuss was about. I'm not an artist, I'm a writer, but I did attend design school for five years (little good that did me ).

Now that I'm thinking about creating my own web site, I'm faced with going back to playing around with graphics, and have NO IDEA what I'm doing. Maybe I could get some advice here when I need it?

 

Funny Otis - "googled" - what makes it funnier is that Leyendecker was not a ladies man, if you know what I mean.....

I heard somewhere that Norman Rockwell stopped his Post cover career one short of the number Leyendecker had painted, as a sort of tribute to him.

There's a Leyendecker thread over at Shane's site:
leyendecker

 

<<Funny Otis - "googled" - what makes it funnier is that Leyendecker was not a ladies man, if you know what I mean.....>>

No, I have no idea what you mean. I'm not sure what you're implying. My mind is drawing a blank. Curious.

<<I heard somewhere that Norman Rockwell stopped his Post cover career one short of the number Leyendecker had painted, as a sort of tribute to him.>>

That's cool.

I've been a Rockwell admirer since I was a wee one. My mother bought me a birthday card with this image on it:

[image=http://store3.yimg.com/I/chsms_1682_3617241]

It's called "Day in the Life of a Boy".

I asked Mom who did the picture, and she bought me a Norman Rockwell coffee table book. The rest, as they say, is history.

-Otis

 

lol Otis. I have no idea what I meant either...
Anyway...back in the day when I was a shiny happy little intern in the wilds of New York City (I so stuck out like a sore thumb) one of my fellow interns worked at Illustration House, a gallery run by Walt Reed. They preserve and sell illustrations from the "Golden Age". Pretty amazing stuff. Anyway, while we were there they had an auction, and the big centerpiece attraction at the show was Norman Rockwell's color comp for his Freedom of Speech painting. What was crazy was you pretty much couldn't tell that it wasn't the finished piece. It was beautiful. And the auction was so exciting. It was like we were in a movie with the price skyrocketing into the millions, last minute bids just before the gavel came down, the air thick with tension.... When it was all over everyone cheered and applauded. We found out later that the person who won the bid was a buyer for one Mr. S. Spielberg. Now i could just be perpetuating unfounded rumors here, but makes a good story, no?

Um, on that trip I picked up the Thrawn trilogy, and became hooked on Star Wars. And were those not the UGLIEST Star Wars book covers EVER? Well, maybe not, but just bringing it back to topic!

~Baroness,
apologizing for making you all tolerate my long-winded boring stories!

Oh and Daughter_of_the_Force, didn't mean to ignore you! Please post your web site or questions or whatever, I'd love to give you feedback or help however I can (be careful what you ask for....I can get a bit overzealous and ramble on and on and on and on.... )

 

Struzan is my Star Wars art idol! I met him for the first time this year at the Pittsburgh comicon and again at C2. I had him sign my Obi Wan Kenobi: Jedi Knight print. He's a nice guy in person too, he never pressured me into buying any of his work either which says alot to me.

I love his style, I've been trying to mimic it for the last couple of years, but alas I am burdened with lack of talent when it comes to painting outside of photoshop. My perspective and texturing is always off.

I don't have the Art of Ep 2, it costs too much money and since I can't find any work right now outside of the local grocery store I can't get it. Hopefully when I graduate from art school in July I'll find a half way decent job in the multimedia field, something in the line of doing DVD menus or interactive press kits and such. I really like to do that kind of stuff.

 

Cool links, Otis!

Though that Struzan may be a "borrow", his stuff is still breathtaking. The guy has quite a bit of talent.

My first real influence to draw was definitely those of Curt Swan and Neal Adams, two of the greatest comic illustrators of all time.

I've always been a huge comic fan. Those two, along with Carmine Infantino, were revolutionists in their style of comics.

I also love Alex Ross. He does such realistic renderings of classic panels as well as his own stuff....I'll post some examples.

Neal Adams:

[image=http://www.nealadams.com/DC/Batman/BATS245.JPG]

Curt Swan:

[image=http://www.theartistschoice.com/scans/swan/action465-19.jpg]

(Carmine Infantino's basically the same )

Alex Ross:

[image=http://www.alexrossart.com/gallery/publishers/warnerbros/img/superman1LG.jpg]

 

Jabachile-

As a longtime comic book fan, I love all three of those artists. I got into Infantino heavily as a kid in the 80's, and followed his terrific run on THE FLASH.

Alex Ross, of course, is amazing. The Norman Rockwell of comic books. KINGDOM COME is my favorite work of his. UNCLE SAM is a close second, just because is so different.

I've got some more links for y'all. These fall under the category of "Useful Sites".

General Cartooning and Photoshop Tutorials

Ink 'n' Paint in Flash

Anatomy References

Enjoy.

-Otis

 

Otis, you are the king of handy links!

That Alex Ross guy is amazing. I've only seen a couple things he's done. Growing up, my world revolved around Barbie and My Little Pony (I loved to draw Unicorns and Teddy Bears!) - I can't believe I'm telling you guys this. ANYWAY. Needless to say, I am hopelessly ignorant about all things Comic. There are so many great artists out there. Please tell me more - give me more names to check out!

~Baroness
*with hearts and rainbows!*

 

Damn, I should've caught onto this thread sooner! Leave it to me to miss all the good stuff until it's too late.

Baroness - If you're looking for some interesting comic artist, check out Adam Hughes. At least, he's interesting to me - I was working on the Mara/Luke piece I did awhile back at the same time I was browsing comic artists online (of which there are a sadly limited few available on the web), and I found AH's site... Very, very strange - I had never heard of him, and his stuff was 90% similar to mine. What I mean is that while some of his pieces are similar, the cosmically wierd aspect is that, looking at his pieces, a given line is almost *always* where I would have put it were I drawing the piece.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but I think I'm getting my point across.


Anyways, continue with this excellent thread.
...where do I order drinks at?

Cheers,
-C.

 

All of "that Alex Ross guy"'s ) stuff is @ alexrossart.com. Incredible.

Otis- What exactly is Uncle Sam about? I just can't find anything on it, I have no clue. Agreed- KC is one of THE coolest things I've ever seen in comics. I recommend it to anyone who is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy fan (which is everyone here!).

And if you're interested, Otis- He's doing a piece in "Batman: Black and White: Vol 2"

 

Thanks for the Alex Ross link, Jabachile. I just have to say - wow. I really dig those Joker pages for the Batman book. I was checking out Adam Hughes' site as well. I love his line quality. If I was semi-literate, I would try to explain why.

Oh, and Rox, I keep forgetting to mention - congrats on being so close to graduation! that's exciting. Just don't move to the west coast. The multimedia industry out here is so dead right now.... well, unless you're a programmer!

Hey - big exciting news - was at the market today, and bought my first piece of AOTC merchandise! They had that Anakin: Apprentice book illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards. Figured I could spare the four bucks. Some very cool illustrations in there.

 

I can code but I really don't want to, I just keep it in my pocket as an extra incentive to hire me. I do know alot of Lingo in Director, but it's my favorite program so I'm kind of a nerd with it.