Monday, January 6, 2014

Beauty Is Embarrassing

You may not think you are familiar with Wayne White, but you probably are. If you've seen Pee Wee's Playhouse you have seen his work. He made all the puppets and did a bunch of voices too, but he is so much more than a puppeteer. He is an amazing artist in most any medium and blends whimsy with satire and social commentary as well as any. I loved this inspiring documentary and it made me want to get off my duff, so check it out if you want some inspiration.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Virgil Finlay

Once upon a time I fancied myself an artist and my biggest influence was a man named Virgil Finlay. He was an American pulp illustrator in the 20's through the 40's. It's sort of an odd choice for a teenager in the 80's to be stuck on, but some older friends into such things introduced him to me and I was hooked. The amount of detail he put into his pen & ink illustrations was just unbelievable. He used every tool in his arsenal to make the illustrations, adeptly using stippling, crosshatching & scratchboard in the same illustration. Do yourself a favor and see if you can locate the fabulous Underwood Miller books that reproduce this stuff in glorious detail on nice glossy paper. I spent hours pouring over them, but alas I never carried the illustration flame forward. Feast your eyes on a master and seek him out for yourself.