Category: Reviews
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Trail of Steel – 1441 A.D., Marcos Mateu-Mestre
The link between movies and comics is a strong one. Even without the obvious bridge of their wonderful merging in animation, they share numerous qualities. Both are visual storytelling mediums, and share a common concern with establishing shots, close-ups, framing a scene, conveying the spatial relationship of characters one to the other and other elements…
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The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, 4th Edition
Like the 1930’s Hollywood cliché of the civilized explorers wowing the backward and worshipful natives with the “magic” of a cigarette lighter held aloft at a dramatic moment, there has long been an assignment of magic to the ability to draw and paint realistically in our culture. This comes from the notion that the ability…
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Comic Crits, John Bonner
Comic Crits are book reviews done by artist John Bonner in the form of one page comic strips. The reviews are often (though certainly not always) of books in the science fiction or fantasy genres, such as Neal Stephenson’s Reamde (above top), and The year’s Best Science Fiction 28, edited by Gardner Dozois (above, bottom).…
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Drawing the Head and Hands, Andrew Loomis
in the 1940’s well known illustrator and art instructor Andrew Loomis wrote a series of drawing books that have become standards in the field of art instruction, prized by generations of illustrators, comic book artists, concept artists, character designers and others, particularly those who must “invent” the human form without constant recourse to a model.…
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Dinotopia 20th Anniversary Edition
Originally released 20 years ago, Dinotopia: A Land apart from Time was the first of artist/author James Gurney’s acclaimed and popular illustrated adventure story books placed in the same mythical land. Presented as an adventurer’s sketchbook, which the author has “found”, the story resonates with some of the sense of wonder and discovery to be…
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They Draw and Cook – the book
As I mentioned in my post from last year, They Draw and Cook is a site on which illustrated recipes (or recipes as illustrations) are posted on a regular basis. Created either by artists who cook or cooks who draw (for whatever difference that may be), the recipes are a far cry from your old…