| Sketchbook... |
"The Temptation of Amadeo" is based on descriptions of a painting by the vampire Marius in
Anne Rice's "Queen of the Damned" and "The Vampire Armand". It was a chance to play around
with early Renaissance style painting, and a great illustration exercise to incorporate the various
elements and moods of the novels.
Anne Rice's "Queen of the Damned" and "The Vampire Armand". It was a chance to play around
with early Renaissance style painting, and a great illustration exercise to incorporate the various
elements and moods of the novels.
| In September of 2000, I visited the Black Hills of South Dakota. I'm used to thinking of the Dakotas as flat prairie, so I was pleasantly surprised at the incredible beauty of the Black Hills, and completely blown away by Crazy Horse Mountain. The sheer size and audacity of the project (they're carving a whole mountain!) and the story of Crazy Horse...well, we visited Mount Rushmore later that day, which looked to me like four white guys huddled together, looking to the east for rescue. The story of Crazy Horse would make a great graphic novel. |
| An aquaintance of mine inspired this ink and colored pencil sketch. |
Left: An illustration based on
Dan Simmon's "Hyperion" and
"The Fall of Hyperion", of a
mysterious creature known as
the Shrike. Sometimes the
cover illustration of a book
makes you want to do your
own version. The cover art
basically showed a man
covered with spikes, while the
text actually makes it a lot
more menacing! A note on
technique here: on pen
sketches like this I rarely pencil
them in first, I just draw. I often
hear beginning or non-artists
worry about "What happens if
you make a mistake?", as if the
Art Police are looking over
their shoulders, ready to rap
them on the knuckles for
drawing the wrong lines!
(Maybe they went to Catholic
school!) The answer is: I use
the mistake, or cover it up, I
don't worry about it. The
drawing is very organic that
way.
Dan Simmon's "Hyperion" and
"The Fall of Hyperion", of a
mysterious creature known as
the Shrike. Sometimes the
cover illustration of a book
makes you want to do your
own version. The cover art
basically showed a man
covered with spikes, while the
text actually makes it a lot
more menacing! A note on
technique here: on pen
sketches like this I rarely pencil
them in first, I just draw. I often
hear beginning or non-artists
worry about "What happens if
you make a mistake?", as if the
Art Police are looking over
their shoulders, ready to rap
them on the knuckles for
drawing the wrong lines!
(Maybe they went to Catholic
school!) The answer is: I use
the mistake, or cover it up, I
don't worry about it. The
drawing is very organic that
way.
| At the San Diego Comic Convention in 2001, I was privileged to be in a booth next to where the legendary comic book artist John Buscema was making a rare (and as it turned out, one of his final) convention appearance, doing a signing of his newly published sketchbook. This afforded me the opportunity to dash off this quick portrait, which he was kind enough to autograph, commenting with a smile, "You make me look so old!" He died the following January. It is difficult to estimate his great influence on my work. Below: In comics, it is often necessary to do work on "spec", hoping to get a job. This is from a spec page for CrossGen comics. |
Art by Chaz Truog
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