A LITTLE NOSTALGIA

It is no real secret........... I love doing pencil drawings, to me the pencil is the KING of all traditional art tools. I have just recently ( today ) finished a drawing that brings back a lot of memories and nostalgia as it were to my brain.

In college, I had a studio class where we were not allowed to use a pencil sharpener. We had to use a knife to sharpen our pencils, and nearly thirty years later, I tried it again..........it is pretty cool, and am not sure why I ever stopped doing this.

What got me to do it again was sort of a silly little thing I saw on Facebook and was honestly quite happy to obtain as well ( thanks Brian ). It was an old Tarzan pocket knife. More so than just an old Tarzan pocket knife, it is exactly like my art hero Frank Frazetta  used to sharpen his pencils...

Franks knife
photo Doc Dave

Once I got the knife ( actually two of them ) a little drawing thing came up in which I got the opportunity to do a drawing of Vampirella......something I always wanted to do, but never really had the time nor inclination to do, but now seemed to be a good time to do so, AND what better way to do her than to do a pencil drawing and to try something I hadn't done in years as well as a sort of homage to tradition and to do her in the way that her creator did.......... I got out my Tarzan pocket knife and sharpened my pencil. I did use a 2B for this and not a 3B .

Here is what I learned along the way: 

when sharpening a pencil with a knife, you retain more lead if you leave it with a more or less blunt tip. 

the blunt tip gives you a softer ore organic line and as you use the pencil, you tend to make sharp spots on it for more finer detaily parts

the softer more organic line is easier to erase and smudge........which works well with the way I draw

the only real thing I didn't like was that if I wanted a really REALLY sharp point I would have to work a bit harder at getting it by scraping the lead down and I am a bit too lazy to do that a lot, so I went back to my brass bullet and another pencil and sharpened it for a fine point.

Will I do this again.........not really sure, but maybe, but it was fun to go back to something I hadn't done in years, and to sort of pay tribute to a Master.

the tools of the trade

the final piece

GNEW YEARS GNOME 2013

Every year for the past several years I have been doing a little gnome painting, generally in watercolours, the tradition started out as a seasonal image to put in a frame that hung in our entry room. For the Gnew Year I would do a Gnome, Valentines day would get a little cupid or cheruby thing, St Pats would get a leprechaun and so on.

I still do the Leprechauns, but they are for a charity auction for the local St patty' Party, that started about 10 years ago, but will blog on that come closer to March 17th.......

Back to the Gnew Years Gnome...... usually the image is sparked by something that has gone on in the past year and I will some how incorporate it into the them of the image. This year was honestly no different. 

A friend of mine, Heidi, had made a comment about her pre-lit tree only being half lit, and with that it sparked the memory of my dad ( he passed 3 years ago in December,very close to the date she posted )   and Christmas. When we would be putting the lights on the tree, it was his job, and mine as helper, to string them, we would stretch themout along the living room floor and he would go thru bulb by bulb and check the connections making sure there were no shorts or bad wires. Some younger folks might not realize that the wiring on older lights was not as efficient as it is now.....

Anyway, Heidi, thank you for the friendship over the past few years and the memory.

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!

 

FRAZETTA TRIBUTE SHOW at the Gallery Provocateur

Here is a link to the results for Gallery Provocateur's up coming tribute show for Frank Frazetta.

Congratulations to all those who were accepted and a special thanks to the judges as well as Veronika for devoting so much time and energy into putting this thing together.

A FEW ROUGHS FOR THE FUN OF IT

After making yesterdays post on the FRAZETTA TRIBUTE SHOW I thought I would post a few roughs for the pieces I am doing as my entries.


This is the original concept for the Conan piece, the sketch in the upper left is the beginning, then I started playing with the fellow impaled on the tree, and fleshing himout.....sort of became fun so he is a lot more detailed in this than just a normal doodle

Now we have a rougher but more fully lain out rough of the painting with a few production notes of what I want going on in the piece, complete with coffee stains, (I think Frank was around while I was doing this and bumped my hand............I was pleased, sort of made it seem more of a tribute)





............just sort of a colour schemey thing ..........

.......here we have a bit of progress on the actual painting..........

This little yellow doodle came out of nowhere one night. My wife and I were at the local community theater's ( the Rush County Players.....aka RCP) awards program.......The Hammies, and while I was talking with a friend of ours, I sort of rudely began doodling while listening to her, and this ol' boy popped out..............he is drawn on a folded up paper place mat .......

......so in the morning when I got up and looked at the doodle again, I thought to myself....."I really should do this one" so I re-sketched it and did this little colour rough.

..........and here we have him in progress....................

 Originally the emblem on the shield was the bird from the first Death Dealer, but as I was painting on it I thought that the Frazetta "F" would be more than appropriate. I hope the family will understand and not be offended.

A few final words on Frank

It has taken me a few days to get my thoughts together on this, the passing of Frank Frazetta, at this point I think I can maybe put together what I have been feeling and thinking for the past few days.

Like so many people in the field of fantasy art.............I took this path from seeing the works of Frazetta. I first saw one of his paintings in the 7th grade on the cover to Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, Tarzan swooping down out of the trees at a lion by fire light. The copy of the book was old and the dust jacket was gone, but it was a light blue book with spotty orange inking on it. I loved the motion the intensity of the image, but was unimpressed............next was Conan the Usurper. HOLY CRAP I was hooked.

From the moment I saw Usurper I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to do THAT! I wanted to paint those pictures. Then one day I found the Ballantine book, THE FANTASTIC ART OF FRANK FRAZETTA. If I wasn't hooked before, I was then. It wasn't until the third Ballantine book came out tha I saw Opar in full colour...........I was wrong..........that is the most amazing painting ever. I am always asked at somepoint or another what my favourite Frazetta image is.........that is tops on the list, but as I have said way to often, my favourite painting is whichever one I am looking at at the moment, which really does hold true.

You look at a Frazetta, and I have been doing this for about 35 years now ( I am a young buck in fandom ) and I STILL see something new everytime I look at one of the images. That says it all about his work. I will continue to look at and study the mans paintings for the next 35 years and still see something new. Newer generations of fans will look at his stuff and point out something new to me........let that soak in.... there is ALWAYS something new to see in a Frazetta.

Frank Frazetta was a mythical giant to me, a mentor, an inspiration, a guidance counsoler, and in many ways a friend. If I was stuck on an image .......... go see what Frank would do. That was something I constantly did growing up and trying to learn my craft. It was almost always  "look to Frank", pull out the books get a new grip on the problem and go solve it. Still to this day I will do this......I know I will do it in the future as well. You may say what you will about it.

I would look and see how he would solve a similar issue and then apply that to my image and do it my way. MY Way........a big key in life, follow the examples of those who went before you and learn from them and apply it to you and your situation, and resolve it your way.........through their guidance. Frazetta seemed to always say " why be a second rate Frazetta, be a first rate you" . Very inspiring words to me, and in my art I have always aspired to do that and in life in general.

I got to spend several hours with Frank in his studio in the mid '80's just prior to all the health problems, and I have to say meeting the giant was more than I ever expected. Warm, gracious, friendly and interested in me and my stuff. In that meeting it was for me, a dream come true. Sitting on the floor of his studio him flipping thru my portfolio ( all college stuff and a shambles and everything I had......EVERYTHING ) pausing here, and commenting, holding this up and that up, asking questions. It was honestly a better crit and review than I ever got in school, not because it was Frank Frazetta, but becuase of the interest and passion in the man.

During that visit, he would bring this painting out, and that  one .......Reign Of Wizardry, and if I remember, the nude from '64 because at the time it wasn't hanging in the first museum............and as he was doing so, he would ask what do you think of this area, should I do this or that or just leave it alone?? We talked of art, coffee, guns all sorts of things just had a grand time.

That night I had purchased a museum print. I didn't have all the money, but was allowed to make installments. I brought the last payment up to Pennsylania a year later, and got to visit the house again. Frank wasn't there, he was getting tested. Ellie brought out the print, and pointed out the drawing on the bottom, and said he did that the night after I left.

Twenty some odd years later, I got to go back and see the new museum, met up with some friends I had just met, but had known for a few years thru the internet. We wandered around the place, talking, discussing and discovering new things about the paintings. We got to meet Frank,  and after the twenty some years, the bad health and all..............the one thing I saw that never changed was the sparkle, the fire in his eyes. Intensity..........Frazetta.

We all knew that the Master would one day leave us, it was expected, as it is for all of us, but I just wasn't expecting it on Monday, May 10, 2010.

I have not had an artistic life without Frank Frazetta in it. Many of us haven't. His art will endure, and continue to astonish and amaze people for a long, long time. I guess I went through that brief lifestory for this........

Frank Frazetta was a mythical giant to me, a mentor, an inspiration, a guidance counsoler, and in many ways a friend.

The images he painted, drew or thought of were larger than life and left me with a desire to be better, to do the best I can and to be me, to do it my way......INSPIRITATION

He sat with me for a few hours talking art, discussing my images, suggesting things, taking the time to offer advice and crit the works of a young 22 year old wanna be, but on the level of an equal. ..............MENTOR

Looking at his works and seeing ways to resolve my own conceptual problems ......GUIDANCE


 A lot of us have read about him and heard things over the years, grew up with him and in a sense known him. Now I cannot claim that I was his friend, I only met him twice, but in those meetings, he made me feel as tho I was. I can say this, in my heart he was .............my FRIEND

Frazetta was so many things to so many people that it is a difficult task to put things into words that will encompass all. I can only relay what he was to me.

There is a passage from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, that I love and have hanging on my studio wall which reads:

"The friends that we have lost do not repose in the bosom of the eath, but are buried deep in our hearts; and it has thus been ordained, that we may always be accompanied by them."

Frank Frazetta will be carried in numerous hearts, and memories. His works will continue to warm and inspire the hearts and works of generations to come.

I know personally that I will carry him and all I have garnered from him with me, and will pass on what I know and have learned so that the chain will remain unbroken and more links can be added.

I got to say this to him in person on my last visit and I wish to say it again now


Thank you.