Happy Halloween!

A little something just for today....

Pencils by Mike DeBalfo, Inks and Colours by Matt James

Influence Spotlight: Andrew Wildman

This will be a regular feature on my page where I will talk about influences on my techniques and styles. Hopefully I can introduce you to new artists, or give you a different way to look at artists you already know.

Instead of doing an artist who I directly draw influence from, today I am going to talk about one of the artists who got me hooked on comics in the first place - and that would be Andrew Wildman. The very first comics I ever bought where an issue of DC's Unknown Soldier and Marvel's G.I. Joe in the early 1990's - and G.I. Joe became the first series I would "collect" - this was largely because Wildman's art drew me in immediately. 

He may not be everybody's big influence for pencilling technique etc, but he was the first comic artist to grab my attention - of course guys like Jim Lee and Joe Mad are bigger influence on my techniques and styles, but Wildman was my gateway drug, so to speak. Although he is probably better known for his work on Transformers - his G.I. Joe stuff has always been the standout in my eyes.

Check out some of Wildman's art below, and follow some of the links to see more info and galleries by the man himself.

Andrew Wildman Wiki

Andrew Wildman's Blog

Andrew Wildman's Homepage

Whats new this week??

Over the last weekend, I put some serious hours into my drawing.. so instead of talking about it, how about I just post the images!

Oh and don;t forget to check back Thursday, I will be posting my Halloween image :)

Pencils by Wes St Claire, Inks by Matt James

Pencils by Mike DeBalfo, Inks by Matt James

Pencils by Rantz, Inks by Dhinking, Colours by Matt James

Pencils, Inks and Colours by Matt James

Pencils by J Scott Campbell, Inks by J Skipper, Colours by Matt James

                                     

Blog of the Week: Well.....

So this week, I am giving Blog of the Week a miss. I have been way too busy with real life interfering with my drawing and blogging to really spend anytime going through peoples profiles. I hate it when that happens......

Rest assured, I do have a couple of blogs and deviant art profiles I am looking at to feature in the next few weeks - pus I have some new art coming for this week, and I might have a special Halloween post for next week too (even though being Australian, we don;t really do the whole halloween thing, it is a good excuse to do some awesome art)

I would be interested in hearing form anyone reading this though - do you have a blog you would like me to check out (and possibly feature here), do you have suggestions for the blog in general? I am all ears when it comes to constructive criticism and advice (about all things - the blog, my art etc)

So feel free to comment, and let me know what you think. I am still very new to the whole blogging thing, and would love some feedback.

Also, make sure you check out my Facebook and DeviantArt profiles - my Facebook has a bit more interaction on it, and DeviantArt is probably a little bit more for the art geeks out there, I tend to post a lot more of my older sketches and paintings etc as well as my new work and progress type stuff.

And because I have been slack... how about a little bonus art for you to check out! :)

Pencils, Inks and Colours by Matt James

This is an old piece I did when I was first learning photoshop colouring and I still thought inking was best done with felt tip pens, ball tips pens and sharpies! I look at it now, and see so much improvement that can be made on this, but it is also fun to look back and see how far I have improved in the last 12 months or so...

Influence Spotlight: Frank Frazetta

So each week, I will post a few samples of the stuff I have been working on for you all to see, I will try talk a little about what has been going on with my art and new techniques I am trying etc.

Today's influence spotlight will be about Frank Frazetta, while not really a comic book artist as such, he has had a massive impact on many, many comic artists as well as fantasy artists. Frank's most famous pieces are probably his images for series like Conan the Barbarian. 

Two of my favourite things about Frazetta's work are his compositions and colour pallet. I love his use of triangle shaped composition to lead the eye and make characters seem larger than life. I love the way his pallet contains a lot of natural earthy colours that give his work a very gritty, almost mean and oppressive feel, it is something that I really try to emulate when doing heavy fantasy type pieces (my Conan colours here are an example). The two elements combined with his awesome handle on human anatomy make for amazing art - in both he comic and fantasy art fields.

Check out the following links for more on Frank Frazetta and some of my favourite images of his below too.

Frank Frazetta Wiki Entry

Frank Frazetta's Home Page

What have I been working on this week??

So each week, I will post a few samples of the stuff I have been working on for you all to see, I will try talk a little about what has been going on with my art and new techniques I am trying etc.

This week I have been working a few requests, and I also started work on a little something for Halloween - so make sure you check  back on the 31st to see what I have done. It will be worth the click!

My main focus this week has been working on my pencilling - and I decided the best way to do this was to offer requests in exchange for people sharing my Facebook page. I was pretty happy with how Sgt Rock and the Hector below turned out. I am hoping to get a few more requests going like this, because I really think doing art work that other request is a great way to push out side of my comfort zones (a good example of that is Hector - who is an OC for a fellow Deviant Art member), I have always had more problems drawing animals than humans, so I approached as a good challenge, and I am pretty happy that I did have a go at it, because I can see some definite improvement over earlier attempts. I am hoping to have coloured versions of these in times for next weeks update.

Anyways, enjoy Sgt Rock and Hector.

(p.s. if you want to make a request of me, like and share my Facebook page and I will gladly get something done for you)

Pencils and Inks by Matt James

Pencils and Inks by Matt James

Blog of the Week: Pencil Ink Comic Book Artist 1950's 1960s 1970s 1980s

Blog of the week is a regular Friday post in which I spotlight a blog or profile I have been reading during the week. These may be professional or amateur artists, but they will always be artists whose work I truly admire.

So today's blog of the week is not an individual artist, but a blog that focuses on vintage cmic cook art - more or less form the 1950's-1990's. I spend hours scanning through this blog (and it's updated multiple times a day - so there is always plenty to check out).

The main reason I love this page so much is because it covers the era of comic books from my childhood (and well before), so a lot of the stuff they post is the stuff I grew up reading, and the stuff that got me into drawing in the first place. You can search the massive number of posts by genre, artist or publisher, but be prepared to waste a lot of time!

This page is definitely worth checking out!

Pencilink