tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post3586627783119463694..comments2024-03-28T05:04:06.624-04:00Comments on ILLUSTRATION ART: DETAILS (A TAXONOMY FOR BEGINNERS)David Apatoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-54495116178318176392012-03-02T06:59:55.981-05:002012-03-02T06:59:55.981-05:00wildthing-- Thanks so much for your kind comment, ...wildthing-- Thanks so much for your kind comment, I appreciate it.David Apatoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-83332460819914322292012-03-01T07:33:53.753-05:002012-03-01T07:33:53.753-05:00I was looking for an email address cause I would h...I was looking for an email address cause I would have just written you.<br />"I...LOVE...THIS...BLOG...!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-25224927442862954202009-11-20T17:19:04.309-05:002009-11-20T17:19:04.309-05:00Astrobot, Pinocchio is one of my very favorites to...Astrobot, Pinocchio is one of my very favorites too, although I am especially fond of Fantasia.<br /><br />Kenney-- thanks for your comment.<br /><br />Anonymous-- good. That means you understood it.David Apatoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-46184789885115276182009-11-13T03:23:25.808-05:002009-11-13T03:23:25.808-05:00This post turns me on.This post turns me on.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-87184922321387145362009-10-18T01:32:27.428-04:002009-10-18T01:32:27.428-04:00What a great visual argument. This is a problem t...What a great visual argument. This is a problem that I grapple with quite a bit. For me, it's not about masses of details but actually underlying structure. If the structure (anatomy of form) is solid and understood, you don't need detail to pull it off.<br /><br />Thanks for a great posting!Kenney Mencherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16685559624262422961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-360935402453531322009-10-10T23:42:03.964-04:002009-10-10T23:42:03.964-04:00Jimny, here--reading you all with considerable int...Jimny, here--reading you all with considerable interest...very interesting--not the ill mannered bits, however, alas.<br /><br />Astrobot? I forgot that was a handle when I first signed up with the google thingy!!! So Astrobot it will be, though I like Jimny better. Pinocchio is my favorate Disney movie.astrobothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08288812447307713609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-34437608837960586002009-10-06T22:48:14.603-04:002009-10-06T22:48:14.603-04:00It's pretty ridiculous to invest much in an in...It's pretty ridiculous to invest much in an internet conversation, don't you think? <br /><br />I don't mind your anonymity at all. I just didn't know what else to call you.theory_of_mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04330560294467684481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-16671779637761833782009-10-06T19:11:46.086-04:002009-10-06T19:11:46.086-04:00theory_of_me
You're another anonymous fuck hid...theory_of_me<br />You're another anonymous fuck hiding behind a moniker, you don't have anything personal vested PERIOD.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-21601554617139464552009-10-06T09:05:14.893-04:002009-10-06T09:05:14.893-04:00Who the hell is Bob Finkelstein? :)
Yes, that old...Who the hell is Bob Finkelstein? :)<br /><br />Yes, that old house manager did like his drinks and may have had a tendency to exaggerate. I don't have anything personal invested in anyone's reputation so I don't feel the need to believe or disbelieve anything I hear about them. I did very briefly meet B.F. a couple of years ago and he seemed down to earth but we'll never know what really goes on in anyone's mind, no matter how well we feel we know them.<br /><br />Maybe even Rob Howard has good intentions, who knows...?theory_of_mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04330560294467684481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-30718820763505515132009-10-06T07:18:23.825-04:002009-10-06T07:18:23.825-04:00Theory of Me, there is nothing I care to comment o...Theory of Me, there is nothing I care to comment on in the recent exchanges (which seem to me rather pointless) but I do want to address the story you heard from the old house manager at the Society of Illustrators: "There's a story about a certain famous illustrator whose initials happen to be B.F. that was told to me by the old house manager at the Society of Illustrators. Apparently, the bartender (a recent art school graduate, a nobody) didn't recognize him and asked him who he was. According to the guy that told me the story, it caused B.F.'s eyes to look like they were about to swell up with tears."<br /><br />If we are talking about the same B.F., I would bet my mortgage that your source was either mistaken or drunk. I have been at the bar of the Society of Illustrators with B.F. He was basically a shy and modest man who was embarrassed by attention or flattery. It is inconceivable that the person I know would respond the way you described. I also saw him at that same bar surrounded by young and adoring art students who did recgognize him, and while he was kind, he was also uncomfortable and looking for a graceful exit. So unless your B.F. is Bob Finkelstein, I would say you got some bad information.David Apatoffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11293486149879229016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-74524288365509601802009-10-06T04:18:25.844-04:002009-10-06T04:18:25.844-04:00"...while people like you were looking at the..."...while people like you were looking at the buxom girl's bosom, were had all sorts of messages planted in the lace bodice and beer foam. Think of us as the visual equivalent of pickpockets of your mind. And while you ordered that beer by the truckload, you never knew why you did."<br /><br />~Being that you have been such a powerful influence on numerous people, you wouldn't mind naming the brand and year for one of your wicked awesome campaigns. <br /><br />Your middle name doesn't happen to be Goebbels, is it?अर्जुनhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14724439749828805512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-18661882470991384212009-10-06T00:30:38.394-04:002009-10-06T00:30:38.394-04:00Rob Howard is exactly the kind of illustrator that...Rob Howard is exactly the kind of illustrator that makes the general population regard all illustrators as corny hacks who are only in it for a quick buck.<br /><br />To anyone who's defending him as if he's your hero I suggest getting a better hero. Or better yet, stop hero worshiping and be your own man (or woman, whatever the case may be, anonymous).theory_of_mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04330560294467684481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-91625330281104938452009-10-05T23:36:11.385-04:002009-10-05T23:36:11.385-04:00Mr.Howard, your argument is insensable. On one han...Mr.Howard, your argument is insensable. On one hand, you freely acknowledge you were nothing more than a hack illustrator, yet you seem to want to be thought of as important in the field, nonetheless. Your current work is merely repainted photos, yet you claim impeccable taste and kinship with Sargent and 19th century aestheticians. You clearly lack the kind of professional-level imaginative skills to make believable scenarios, (also, no doubt part of your long term dependency on photography, or the cause of it), yet you put down those who can create believable scenarios, you berate fantasy artists yet you show two <br />terrible RECENT fantasy pictures of your own (angel and dueling dragons), you constantly put down the visitors to <br />this blog as worthless, yet you seem to be begging for their <br />attention, approval and respect... In short, you are a <br />pathetic, insecure blowhard. If you want to impress people with your financial swashbuckling, try Forbes.com. This blog, in case you didn't get the memo, is about art, not commerce. Contrary to your fondest wishes, we come here for respite from hacks like you. Take your meds and go take a long, hard look in the mirror.Dan V. Randallnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-63053688028347375732009-10-05T22:29:27.571-04:002009-10-05T22:29:27.571-04:00So, you might want to stop posting.
Since you hav...So, you might want to stop posting.<br /><br />Since you have no idea what you're talking about.<br /><br />Just a suggestion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-77856660810143965692009-10-05T22:13:29.241-04:002009-10-05T22:13:29.241-04:00You couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler...You couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler.<br /><br />Yet here you are opinionating on things you will never understand.<br /><br />Yeah...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-35766553275263403542009-10-05T22:06:13.043-04:002009-10-05T22:06:13.043-04:00"I never said that I was anything but one of ..."I never said that I was anything but one of the many solid, prolific illustrators who lived during an era when the US Department of Labor listed the profession as the highest paid in the country."<br /><br />I wonder what those other solid prolific illustrators are up to these days. Do they all go online and repeatedly, nauseatingly remind anyone who'll listen that they were "one of the many- blah blah blah... back when the money was blah blah blah blah"?<br /><br />"An iron bull is bothered not by gnats, why do you rants?"<br /><br />I don't know about that, अर्जुन. There's a story about a certain famous illustrator whose initials happen to be B.F. that was told to me by the old house manager at the Society of Illustrators. Apparently, the bartender (a recent art school graduate, a nobody) didn't recognize him and asked him who he was. According to the guy that told me the story, it caused B.F.'s eyes to look like they were about to swell up with tears. You'd think that someone as accomplished as him (one of the all time greats) would merely chuckle when a young incompetent nobody displayed his ignorance. And ironically, it turned out that the bartender was indeed a huge fan of the man's work but just didn't know what he looked like in person.<br /><br />It appears that "iron bulls" or those that just like to pose as such are quite sensitive to the opinions of "gnats". Maybe there's no such thing as an "iron bull" or maybe the iron is hollow and no accomplishment is satisfying without recognition by those who are supposedly beneath them.<br /><br />The defeated male ego sure has some violent death throes, doesn't it?theory_of_mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04330560294467684481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-12266152698316391682009-10-05T21:29:13.217-04:002009-10-05T21:29:13.217-04:00Hey, indecipherable squiggle Arabic name guy, do y...Hey, indecipherable squiggle Arabic name guy, do you have any work to show?<br /><br />Or are you on the sidelines, like a fat commentator watching the football?<br /><br />Can you do anything?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-20673440792489675252009-10-05T21:18:02.963-04:002009-10-05T21:18:02.963-04:00I said nothing negative regarding your art, it'...I said nothing negative regarding your art, it's quality is for each individual to decide. Nor did I request a portrait portfolio. I simply asked if you would cite 1 of your mainstream illustrations of note. Something you still haven't done.<br /><br />An iron bull is bothered not by gnats, why do you rants?अर्जुनhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14724439749828805512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-50543411221617617962009-10-05T21:10:09.990-04:002009-10-05T21:10:09.990-04:00Rob and Kev, please check your handbags at the doo...Rob and Kev, please check your handbags at the door.<br /><br />Kev = skilled draughtsman (really, go look at the comic book, it's pretty sweet..)<br /><br />Rob = clearly a skilled painter. <br /><br />In a parallel universe you might be best pals.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-33256855596025653962009-10-05T20:34:39.879-04:002009-10-05T20:34:39.879-04:00Oh my goodness, I find myself attacked be The Gnat...Oh my goodness, I find myself attacked be The Gnat of The Indus when he's away from his telephone help desk using an improbable name with "hello dis is Brian."<br /><br />A friend wrote to indicate that The Gnat had gone through the trouble of collecting a bunch of old how-to demos, etc.<br /><br />Rest assured that if the Internet was a hotbed of potential clients and sitters, I would be more circumspect but the reality is that few have ever commissioned art, let alone art offered at a professional rate of pay, so my risk in turning off a potential $20K portrait is...'ow you say...freakin' unlikely from most of you. Like...when was the last time that you paid money for art?<br /><br />It's always interesting that the assault come from the lower echelons. I never said that I was anything but one of the many solid, prolific illustrators who lived during an era when the US Department of Labor listed the profession as the highest paid in the country. And make no mistake, I knew it and parlayed my talents, as they were, into a money-making enterprise. I also ran a studio hiring other illustrators. My aims were not to leave great art for the ages (like those derivative fantasy artists drawing the same sword and sorcerer's art) but art-to-order made for professional art buyers who needed an attractive buxom beauty hold mugs of beer as we embedded thirty of forty subliminal messages into the picture. You know, professional art, not schoolboy stuff.<br /><br />The reality is those embedded messages and symbols are completely over your head (with the operator's headphones), oh Gnat of The Indus. The reality is while people like you were looking at the buxom girl's bosom, were had all sorts of messages planted in the lace bodice and beer foam. Think of us as the visual equivalent of pickpockets of your mind. And while you ordered that beer by the truckload, you never knew why you did.<br /><br />I do.<br /><br />The horrid reality (horrid in that it insults your massive ego...which is based on no real accomplishments) is that art has always been both a tool for putting forth a message and a great playground for the marginally talented disconsolate youth searching for meaning in their meaningless lives. They draw monster (the same ones with tongues and slathering drool), body-builders with swords (when a .45 ACP would solve all problems) and titties galore. Oh puhleeze...plumber's sons who have learned to draw and draw with a plumber's taste. You are the ones who, without a Mac and Photoshop would not...nay, could not ever be artists. Even with Photoshop, the best you can hope for is to work for another Mac-derived AD who has no knowledge of what it takes to be an AD in one of the agencies that drives taste...and sales.<br /><br />The best part is that your are smug and arrogant enough to think that your taste (which has, at best led to moving out of your mother's basement) has anything to do with what drives the world of commerce. After all, we illustrators are (or used to be <i>commercial</i> artists)...and well paid for that. The standards were, and should never be, the same standards that drive great fine art, such as the stuff you don't really understand.<br /><br />So, oh Gnat of The Indus, have I properly alienated you and lost all possibility that you will ever spend a couple of grand for one of my pictures to grace some Hindoo (love Flashman's spelling) restaurant or telephone bank?Rob Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07587811799010051018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-17448671076058104872009-10-05T19:15:04.497-04:002009-10-05T19:15:04.497-04:00अर्जुन:
I can't tell what's more amazing,...अर्जुन:<br /><br />I can't tell what's more amazing, the ratio of his arrogance to the level of quality of his work or the fact that someone actually bothered to catalog all that crap.<br /><br />I like your blog by the way. There's something strangely familiar about it....theory_of_mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04330560294467684481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-53917550697777972962009-10-05T12:00:56.691-04:002009-10-05T12:00:56.691-04:00The ARC isn't the only order. Kev hasn't ...The ARC isn't the only order. Kev hasn't gone through proper channels, the trials and tribulations of the fire rites, in order to be acknowledged a mystic-knight in the magic arts of hack illustration. <br /><br /> Would, nay could, Mr. Howard please site one illustration from his past 50 rarified years that anybody(in the real world) may have seen and, possibly, slightly recalls. Lookin' forward to the book and film! ~cheers<br /><br />For anyone that cares, zip file via rapidshare~ <br /><br /> http://tinyurl.com/R-Howard-Art<br /><br />,22mb and over 200 images, that leave no doubt to the quality of his taste and skill!अर्जुनhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14724439749828805512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-84718351652042069112009-10-05T09:28:33.570-04:002009-10-05T09:28:33.570-04:00"Comic books now offer higher resolution and ..."Comic books now offer higher resolution and half tone printing which have encouraged some artists to pursue ambitions that are not well suited for sequential art..."<br /><br /><br />which artists are you thinking of here David ?<br /><br /><br />i agree that comics 'read' much more smoothly with a stripped-down visual style. for instance you can read Dan Clowe's 'Ghost World' in an hour and there is nothing that slows the pace for a second. on the other hand there is nothing that compels you to go back and look at the art and see what more there is to it. it's very hard to pick out a particularly interesting frame because there aren't any.<br /><br />i propose a different way: the art is so rich that you HAVE to slow down and look at it otherwise you will miss most of the content. i don't mean incredibly detailed rendering. i mean visual storytelling married to an atmospheric style that EMOTES. that works on you and pulls you in and demands you go back and look and look again... a style that the story wouldn't be possible without.Laurence Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11988700485839219253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-12884554460484996432009-10-04T23:43:41.343-04:002009-10-04T23:43:41.343-04:00"yawn"
That's right, nap time for t..."yawn"<br /><br />That's right, nap time for the big whiny baby. You've had an important day on the internet and you need to rest.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12189014.post-80223292143603505932009-10-04T23:18:43.588-04:002009-10-04T23:18:43.588-04:00Someone (one of the many anons posting) talked a b...Someone (one of the many anons posting) talked a bit about comic artists only working in one style (or seeming to only have one style available to them).<br /><br />One artist that was talked about during this thread, Moebius, is well known to have a few styles, the other one using Jean Girard as the creator name on his well known western work.<br /><br />However, just like most illustrators, I think many are capable of doing several styles (I do several myself), but don't. The reason for this, as most of you know, I am sure, is that your editor needs to know what to expect, and your readers are expecting a certain look from you as well. Of course, as Moebius does, you can make this work for you...but of course, not everyone is as insanely skilled as Mobeius is, either.<br /><br />And an aside to Rob and Kev...I wish you guys wouldn't go at so vehemently...it's sorta like seeing two respected professors assault each others personal failings or something. Darn, I know the both of you are waaaaay smart enough to make points without attacking each other.<br /><br />Hope I didn't hijack the thread, David!kenmeyerjrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03784570125726397121noreply@blogger.com