One day the discussion in class turned to fan art. One of my students was happy that a fan sent him a sketch of the characters in his online comic strip (which you can see here) One of his classmates, a young lady named Alex, turned and demanded that I do some fan art for her. I asked, "Am I a fan of you, or your work?" She cockily replied, "Um, Both" At which point, I invented an entire mythology based around the assumption that she was a hermaphrodite that I grew in a test tube and then unleashed on an unsuspecting public (to this day I still try to convince strangers she is half-man).
I'm kind of in love with old 50's horror and science fiction comics. The draftsmanship of those comics dwarfs most comics today (with the exception of Europe). I thought I would do a homage to those old covers and practice some Photoshop painting. The biggest obstacle to this kind of work (for me) is always the mental aspect. You're painting, but not painting and you have to let go and realize that no matter how you approach it, digital will always look digital so exploit it for what it's worth. It was fun, but I'm not trading in traditional methods anytime soon. doing digital under-paintings and then glazing and painting over the top seems like an interesting idea I'm gonna play with in the future.
I've found many interesting websites in the weeks that I have been trapped doing committee work so I thought I would lay 'em out for you:
The Horrors of it All- Painstakingly scanned old-time horror comics.
Pappy's Golden Age Blogzine- He likes Bill Everett and Bob Powell as much as I do.
Jack Kirby double page spreads- Unbeatable quality
Golden Age Comic Book Stories- Old Illustrators and comics
Airtight Garage- big online collection of Moebius work, very nice because with a few exceptions, very little of this stuff is available in English
Enjoy
