Believe it or not, there was a time long ago, when I thought that all comic book artists made up every single image in their stories out of their heads. This idea was reinforced by reading "How to draw comics the Marvel way" by Stan Lee, which demonstrated how John Buscema would construct scenes and characters completely from scratch, beginning with lines, cubes and cylinders, with other details filled in afterwards. Believing that this was the only way to draw comics, I attempted to imitate Mr Buscema, only to find, sadly, that all the resulting figures looked like robots.
Later on, I got into artists like Jon J Muth and Bill Sienkiewicz, whose artwork was more lifelike, and I began to suspect that there was some photo-referencing going on. The clincher came when Muth illustrated a book whose hero bore a suspicious resemblance to James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. He illustrated further stories "starring" Marcel Duchamp and Anthony Hopkins, their likenesses having been lifted from photos and film stills. Although I'm now not one to play the "cheat" card with artists, at the time I couldn't help being a little judgemental, particularly as my teachers at art college had told me that I shouldn't draw from photos.
Muth is not unique in this regard, however. With the standard of reproduction in comics having improved, painterly artwork and photo-realism have become industry standards. Occasionally it is possible to identify the source of some of the artist's figures. With some artists, it is a little harder to tell where that familiar face has come from, and that nagging sense of familiarity becomes a distraction.
Later on, I got into artists like Jon J Muth and Bill Sienkiewicz, whose artwork was more lifelike, and I began to suspect that there was some photo-referencing going on. The clincher came when Muth illustrated a book whose hero bore a suspicious resemblance to James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. He illustrated further stories "starring" Marcel Duchamp and Anthony Hopkins, their likenesses having been lifted from photos and film stills. Although I'm now not one to play the "cheat" card with artists, at the time I couldn't help being a little judgemental, particularly as my teachers at art college had told me that I shouldn't draw from photos.
Muth is not unique in this regard, however. With the standard of reproduction in comics having improved, painterly artwork and photo-realism have become industry standards. Occasionally it is possible to identify the source of some of the artist's figures. With some artists, it is a little harder to tell where that familiar face has come from, and that nagging sense of familiarity becomes a distraction.
Occasionally, use of found imagery can land an artist in hot water. Back in the nineties, Jackson Guice drew a cover for an issue of Doctor Strange, lifting an image of Amy Grant from one of her album covers. Grant's management, not wanting Grant associated with the occult content of a Doctor Strange comic, took legal action and had the comic withdrawn from bookshelves.
No comments:
Post a Comment