Bertie Explains Artist Inspirations
Tradd Moore is an American comic book artist best known for co creating The Strange Talent of Luther Strode and pencilling the most recent Ghost Rider series. I really like the use of long clean elongated lines, this gives the figures featured an abstract edge to them setting them apart from a lot of other illustrations. I also like how the forms have been presented as they are incredibly embellished. I also really like his use of colour as it is incredibly bright psychedelic and visually stimulating. His use of perspective on a certain drawing presented here also makes the audience feel as if the audience is falling with the figure into the psychedelic chasm of green and yellow teeth. I will take certain aspects from his style such as the dramatic poses and fluidity of the figures to make my comic visually intriguing whilst also putting a spin on it with my own style making it unique.
Greg Capullo is an American comic book artist. He is best known for his work on Quasar, X Force, Angela, Spawn and Batman. He was influenced by painter Frank Frazzetta, John Buscema, Neal Adams, Gene Colan and Gil Kane. I really like his style as the figures are highly complex yet also cartoon like in nature. This creates highly expressive characters adding to the drama of certain panels such as the stand offs between Batman and the Joker. The use of colour is also highly important as colourist Danny Miki who colours the panels uses bright tones for outlandish moments such as Batman fighting the Joker due to the uses of bold yellow. He also Contrasts this for the much darker moments such as Batman holding Joker up by his throat which is evident due to muted hues of blues and greys as well as heavier inking on the cape and other shadows. I really like Greg Capullo’s work due to anatomically correct but still visually interesting forms. I also really like the use of colour for certain scenes depicted and will try to use this technique for my comic to give it visual flair.
Jack Kirby was an American comic book artist and considered a major and one of the most influential innovators in the medium. Being well known for creating many characters for both Marvel and DC. I really like his style due to its timeless quality. The drawings are still not dated in the slightest. This is due to the bold lines, use of colour and expressive poses and faces. Each expression is different no matter what image from the top image clearly showing determination to the bottom image showing a brooding man with his held low and stooping as if in defeat and finally the third image showing happiness cheekiness and content due to the smile. The use of colours are also incredibly impressive as they are bold simplistic but not juvenile. I will try to adopt the bold lined technique used throughout each drawing. I would also like to adopt the colouring technique from the psychedelic to the usual bold colours.
Paul Pope is an American alternative comic book artist known for his work on Batman Year 100, Battling Boy and Heavy Liquid. His style is incredibly unique due to the use of overly expressive faces and poses. As well as the use of heavily inked lines. The colours used are also notable as they can be muted evident in the Grendel drawing and the Batman Year 100 drawing or they can be much brighter evident in the Battling Boy image. The poses used are also highly dramatic which is mostly evident with Batman clutching a wound and running for dear life. I absolutely love Paul Popes style and I feel adopting his inking technique will make my illustrations pop giving a rather alternative and indie feel to them. I may also adopt his use of colour as I feel if I make it bright and colourful it will become much more eye catching to the reader.
Wes Craig is an American Comic Book artist whose work has been seen in both Marvel and DC titles. He is most known for creating the book Deadly Class. His artwork is highly expressive anatomically correct and modern. Each character is shown with their own styles and personalities which can shine through alone with the body language and facial expressions depicted. The use of heavy line work creates a clean yet moody style which fits perfectly with the subject of the story (involving teenage assassins). The colours used are highly psychedelic in certain images using bright pinks and blues. As well as being highly dramatic with the use of brooding reds yellows purples giving a very sleazy neon feel to the work. This is fitting as the subject matter is set in the later part of the 80s. I would like to adopt the line work used and the colouring technique as it is complex and simplistic making it something I could perhaps easily incorporate in to my style and work.
Stan Sakai is an American comic artist mostly well known for his lettering work on Groo and his long spanning ongoing run on Usagi Yojimbo a comic about a lone samurai rabbit in Feudal Japan. I absolutely love his style as there is an essence of trickery to it. It seems so simplistic during close up panels featuring anthropomorphic animals but during battle scenes it is in fact incredibly intricate. This style would fit perfectly with my historically accurate depiction of Admiral Nelson in my comic. I also like the lack of colour as it helps the reader focus solely on the movement and expressions of the characters. Also the lack of colour means less stress when it comes to using colour as I can instead focus on the detail. I really like how the characters express themselves in which they are overly expressive helping to convey to the reader how multiple characters are feeling on the page. I may adopt this technique for my strip explaining Admiral Nelson.
For the front cover of my comic strip I have chosen an image of me that has been taken from one of the comic strips, zoomed in on it so that only a small portion of Admiral Nelson is visible so as to subtly hint what the comic is about and within the text box I have added the text welcome to Bertie Explains with the name Bertie highlighted in red. For the background I have made it look like a skyline in order for it to fit with the rest of the comic. I really like this cover as its bright colourful and relevant to the rest of the strip.
For my first comic book page I have decided to do an overview shot of the whole column. I did this to show the scale compared to regular people upon the ground as well as buses and cars. I have decided to draw in the style of Jack Kirby which is fairly evident due to the idealised male form of myself on the right but also because of the bright vibrant colours used. I drew this page by first using marker on paper after that I then scanned the image into Manga Studio 5 which is an illustration software. I then drew over the top of the original image use the black pen tool. This is to make the image pop and look more professional. I then used the same software to colour the image. For this I used a base colour for each aspect of the page and then afterwards layered on top of it using different tones, applying them using the watercolour brush tool. I did this to create texture as well as add my own form of light and tone. I really like how this turned out as its colourful and the illustration is clean and to me professional. I wish in the future to improve upon this though by cleaning up certain edges. I may also make the boxes look like they are more intentionally scruffy than they already are.
For my second page I have focused on the statue of Admiral Nelson at the top of the column. It contains three smaller panels that feature a close up on the statue. For these I have focused on his head, torso and hand that is wielding a sword, with each panel being accompanied by text boxes that explain certain features in each panel. To create the image I used the same technique as I did for the previous page, also applying the same style as well in order to show that they are related to each other. I have also added once again a figure of myself with a speech bubble with relevant information to the subject matter. I really like the use of colour as it is incredibly bright and colourful really eye catching for potential audiences.
For my third page I have focused on the Battle of Cape St Vincent relief. To do this I not only used the same technique as I did for the first two pages. I have decided to break the relief into five parts so I can easily focus on each important aspect of the piece. For the background I decided to use a different colour scheme this was to keep the comic feeling visually fresh. I also used oranges as well to help make it seem as if it is in the backdrop of an ongoing wall. Hence the use of black smog clouds. I have also added another figure of me with a speech bubble explaining certain aspects of the bronze relief. But instead of being placed to the right it is instead placed to the left to also keep the whole final outcome fresh. Overall I feel that this is my favourite due to its warmer colour scheme that contrasts really well with the darker comic panels. If I were to improve it I would make the black smog seem a lot more natural.
For my final page I have focused on the Death of Nelson Bronze relief. I have decided to break the image up into 3 boxes with the third taking up the entire page. The page was created using the same technique I have used throughout this outcome. For the first panel I have focused on the two dead bodies at the bottom of the relief and in the top right corner of it a textbox. In the second panel I have focused on the figures in the top left corner. To the left of the figure of Nelson I have added four text boxes that describe the overall bronze relief. I have made Nelson the central focus which is the same as the bronze relief. To the right I have once again added a figure of myself with a text box above which contains information that is relevant to the subject matter. I quite like how this turned out due to the bright colour and clean illustration. However certain areas could be improved as it could be cleaned up in certain areas where some minor mistakes are present.