Lines and Colors

Alex Ross

October 6, 2005

Ask comics fans about Alex Ross and you’ll get mixed but strong opinions. Many think his highly rendered watercolor and gouache comic illustrations “inappropriate” for comics storytelling, others find his work exciting and beautiful. I fall into the latter camp and have a tremendous respect for his water media technique. I also have no problem with his extensive use of photographic models. I feel that practice falls squarely in the tradition of great comic illustrators like Hal Foster, Alex Raymond and Al Williamson. Much of the most interesting art is to be found in the Ross Report newsletter section of the site.

www.alexrossart.com/

Categories:

Comics, Illustration, Painting

Practical Painting

October 5, 2005

Practical Painting
This is an unpretentious little how-to artists magazine created by an individual artist (identified only as “Denise”). The site features compact, informative articles on art technique and tool basics such as choosing canvas, colors and brushes. Her “What Paint Colors do I Need” article, for example, is a quick introduction to choosing a split-primary color palette. The site also includes interviews with working artists and articles about Art Nouveau and the Pre-Raphaelites. There is also a good list of online museums.

www.practicalpainting.com/

Categories:

Drawing, Painting, Tools and Techniques

Chet Phillips

October 4, 2005

Chet Phillips is an illustrator who does what he terms “Digital Scratchboard” in Corel Painter. His colorful images of animals (mostly domestic) and other subjects have an eye-pleasing freshness and energy.

www.chetart.com/gal.html

Categories:

Digital Painting, Illustration

Artistic Interpretation of Literary Figures

October 3, 2005

This is an individual’s collection of art, mostly by comics artists, on the theme of lilterary figures. It includes drawings and paintings that offer the artist’s interpretation of literary characters, as well as portraits of writers (and occasionally artists). (The image shown is a portrait of Dante Gabriel Rosetti by Barry Windsor Smith.) The site is part of the Digital Medusa site that hosts several other collections of comic art.

www.digitalmedusa.com/sgettis/roughed_lit.html

Categories:

Comics, Illustration

Phillip Straub

September 30, 2005

Phillip Straub is a concept artist and illustrator who works primarily digitally. His style ranges from dark and moody sci-fi game concept art to candy-colored children’s illustration.

www.philipstraub.com

Categories:

Concept & Visual Dev., Digital Painting, Illustration

Wally Torta’s Journal

September 29, 2005

Wally Torta’s Journal is a wonderful sketchblog that ranges from simple and direct observations from everyday life to flights of fantasy to meeting doodles to cartoons and drawings in a style influenced by B. Kliban (one of my absolute favorite cartoonists). Most often, though, he seems to simply draw what’s in front of him. Worth checking back often.