Artistic Influences
While I was writing the previous post I realized just how much I really enjoyed Jaime Hernandez. So, I sat down with my sketchbook and thought about all the artists I have enjoyed over the years and wrote a list of the ones that have influenced me the most. Go get some coffee, take a seat and dive in with me as we explore the artists who have influenced or inspired me over the years. These are in no particular order.
1. Jaime Hernandez is a master story-teller and comic artist. He works primarily in black & white and creates some very real characters with only a few lines. Jaime uses a crow quill nib pen to make his lines and somehow is able to vary his line enough to give his characters weight and substance. Few comic artists can do this without using color to add a sense of depth to their figures. His use of positive and negative space is also top notch. Anyone who is serious about comics could learn almost everything you need from reading his books. Check out these samples.
2. Mike Mignola is a god among men in comics. His style is unlike anyone else's and his stories are fun and unique. I first saw Mike's drawings in an X-Men annual. It was an issue where they had ten artists each draw three pages of the comic. That way people could become more familiar with the new talent at Marvel. When I saw Mike's pages I just stopped reading. I stared at the pages and tried to figure out what was going on. The figures were simple, if not almost out of proportion and wrong, and his lights and darks were very stark and striking with no blending. I thought to myself, "This is all wrong... but it's so awesome! How does he do this?" I still have the issue but I could not find it at the time of this post.
When he started creating Hellboy I was hooked. The stories and the art were incredible. I encourage all of you to get a copy of his graphic novels and check him out. Here are some samples...
4. Masashi Kishimoto is the Jaime Hernandez of Japanese Manga Comics. I know what you're thinking... Naruto?!? You read Naruto?!?! Isn't that some Japanese comic for young boys and weirdos who dress up like the characters? Yes, I read it, Yes is is for a younger crowd, and No, I don't dress as the characters... well, maybe sometimes. Anyway... Naruto is just a great example of Japanese Manga. It doesn't have a lot of that weird "super-natural girls in school who are deamons with huge boobs and pilot robots that are the size of the moon" crap. It's pretty straigth up, boy ninja trying to prove to himself and the world that he's the best and he wants to bring world peace. Sound dorky but it really isn't. So, let me break down the reason Kishimoto-san is a genius artist/storyteller.
1. Jaime Hernandez is a master story-teller and comic artist. He works primarily in black & white and creates some very real characters with only a few lines. Jaime uses a crow quill nib pen to make his lines and somehow is able to vary his line enough to give his characters weight and substance. Few comic artists can do this without using color to add a sense of depth to their figures. His use of positive and negative space is also top notch. Anyone who is serious about comics could learn almost everything you need from reading his books. Check out these samples.
2. Mike Mignola is a god among men in comics. His style is unlike anyone else's and his stories are fun and unique. I first saw Mike's drawings in an X-Men annual. It was an issue where they had ten artists each draw three pages of the comic. That way people could become more familiar with the new talent at Marvel. When I saw Mike's pages I just stopped reading. I stared at the pages and tried to figure out what was going on. The figures were simple, if not almost out of proportion and wrong, and his lights and darks were very stark and striking with no blending. I thought to myself, "This is all wrong... but it's so awesome! How does he do this?" I still have the issue but I could not find it at the time of this post.
When he started creating Hellboy I was hooked. The stories and the art were incredible. I encourage all of you to get a copy of his graphic novels and check him out. Here are some samples...
3. Bill Watterson is the best cartoon artist and a huge influence on me when I was younger. I loved Calvin & Hobbes. Calvin had a crazy-wicked imagination and it was never stunted or reserved. Watterson let loose on his pages and brought out the kid in all of his readers. Let us also not forget his amazing skills as a draftsman and his wizard-like abilities with ink and watercolor. I was a regular reader of the funny papers since I was four years old, and I had never seen anything like Watterson before. No one was doing comic-like splash color splash pages in the Sunday edition... unless you count Family Circus, "Jeffy finds his way home again" maps... but I'm not counting them. Take a look at what I included below and I think you'll agree. This stuff is pure genius.
4. Masashi Kishimoto is the Jaime Hernandez of Japanese Manga Comics. I know what you're thinking... Naruto?!? You read Naruto?!?! Isn't that some Japanese comic for young boys and weirdos who dress up like the characters? Yes, I read it, Yes is is for a younger crowd, and No, I don't dress as the characters... well, maybe sometimes. Anyway... Naruto is just a great example of Japanese Manga. It doesn't have a lot of that weird "super-natural girls in school who are deamons with huge boobs and pilot robots that are the size of the moon" crap. It's pretty straigth up, boy ninja trying to prove to himself and the world that he's the best and he wants to bring world peace. Sound dorky but it really isn't. So, let me break down the reason Kishimoto-san is a genius artist/storyteller.
- He puts out a new 15-18 page comic EVERY WEEK. Not the lame American once-a-month-maybe crap... EVERY WEEK!
- He has a literal cast of hundreds all with distinct backgrounds, family trees, sub-plots and motivations... he has no "cookie-cutter" characters.
- His ability with the brush is uncanny and he rarely uses those half-tone screens to shade his work. It's all ink brush.
- His characters evolve! They grow, mature, learn, invest you in their story, make you feel for them, they even sometimes seem like real people... Whoah! That's a novel concept that American comic writers should look into.
- People die... and they are not really alive in some alternate world where good is bad and they fight their fire-breathing/planet-killing self while in another dimension they never existed X-Man bull-crap. (I love the X-men... but their stories get on my nerves after a character dies 40,000 times.)
- Character design is amazing. Each character has things that tie him/her to a village, but at the same time they have their own things that distinguish them. The things they wear and the way they fight and interact with the world is all different for each character.
Here are examples of Kishimoto-san's work.
Well, that's it for today... I'll try to get some art up soon. Stay-tuned as I'll be sharing more of my influences with you all soon. Enjoy!
JPF
This is cool. I can definatley see the influence of these guys in your art. Mignola is one of my favs too. This is good idea, i think i'll sit down with mah own cup o' joe and take a look at my own influences.
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