Crypto Kitties

I recently made this illustration about Crypto Kitties for IEEE and Spectrum magazine.

This is what the Kitties look like… I would have to translate this into my illustration style.

NFT-collectible Crypto Cats became immensely popular and failed just as quickly for becoming too bloated with collectible variations and lacking enough nuance to keep it interesting.

For this Editorial, I chose to illustrate a Crypto Kitty landfill.

The challenge for this job was incorporating the look of the Kitties within my own drawings, and drawing the sheer volume of cats.

For the job, I took visual inspiration from the classic children’s book, Millions of Cats by Wanda Gåg, and from recent illustrations by the great Yuko Shimizu.

Fun fact: Millions of Cats is considered the first modern children's book. I learned about it from my favorite Illustration History YouTuber, Pete Beard. Check out his videos and give him a follow!

Rick Shambles is Forever Adrift

A long time ago there was a thing called “Myspace” and for some reason, Dark Horse Comics was producing comic book anthologies in partnership with the now-antiquated social media platform.

I was commissioned to illustrate the cover of “Myspace Dark Horse Presents #6: The Year We Make Contact,” which you can see below, but the thing that really got me excited about the job was the chance to write and illustrate my own 2-page comic for the anthology.

My entire senior year at Art Center was spent writing and illustrating a 24 page comic about a guy’s shoes coming untied, which was nominated for an Eisner award in 2010.*

The cover illustration for Myspace Dark Horse Presents Volume 6: The Year We Make Contact

The student painting that inspired the Forever Adrift. story.

I came up with a story called “Rick Shambles is Forever Adrift,” based on a painting I did at Art Center, about an unconfident space hero who uses visualization and other self-help techniques to achieve his self-serving goals (one of my illustration students accurately described him as a “loser”).

You can read the story here on my site.

Process

Below, you’ll see the pencils, inks, and finished colors for the comic.

I recently began reformatting some of my comics to be easier-to-read online.

I was inspired by the Marvel Comics app for the iPad. The experience on the iPad is better than what I was able to achieve here, but I think this a decent alternative.

John Buscema’s cover of Silver Surfer #1

If you decide to download the Marvel app, I recommend purchasing Fantastic Four #1 and my favorite, Silver Surfer #1. Those books look incredible on the app. It appears that the original art was rescanned and adapted for a tablet. They stayed true to the original flat colors that are so mesmerizing.

I didn’t plan on this post becoming a commercial for the Marvel app, but there you go.

Have a read of Rick Shambles is Forever Adrift and let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Frank

Moebius (AKA Jean Giraud) on using photo reference

I was surfing the web recently and came upon an interesting snippet from an interview with none other than French comics legend Jean Giraud AKA Moebius, talking about drawing photo reference

reblogged from raggedclaws.com

[KIM] THOMPSON: You attended art school, right?

[JEAN] GIRAUD: Yes. I began as a self-taught artist, copying other artists; then, luckily, I entered an art school, which freed up my hand and opened my eyes to a degree. It’s very dangerous to work only second-hand — referring only to other artists, that is. My teachers were of the old school: they insisted that in order to transcribe reality with any degree of freshness or personality, the eye had to be confronted with the three-dimensional image. Of course, I didn’t do it enough, and when I met [Belgian artist Joseph] Gillain, that’s what he told me. He said that one could work from photographs in a pinch, but the work wouldn’t have the same intrinsic quality. It’s true: you can be very adept at drawing from photographs, and yet completely lose the scope, the dimension of the original…

THOMPSON: It has a tendency to flatten out…

GIRAUD: Yes, you lose the perspective; there are so many details to transcribe that you get lost within the billions of pieces of information. Working from nature teaches you to synthesize.

THOMPSON: Have you ever worked from photos?

GIRAUD: Oh, yes, when I began working with Joseph Gillain, he taught me how to draw from photos. It’s a very special kind of skill; if you’re too loyal to the photo, it swallows you up. If, for instance, in the middle of a whole page of “personal” drawings, there is suddenly a drawing that is too…

[JEAN-MARC] LOFFICIER: Overworked?

GIRAUD: Not overworked, but too dependent on a photographic vision, it’s as if there’s a sudden hole in the page. You have to take the elements from the photo that you need, and retranscribe them through your personal computer, in order to get a personal vision. The same rule applies to drawing from nature. It’s very difficult, but it’s what enables the artist to bring his vision to a work. Otherwise he’s nothing but a parrot, or an ape. [pp. 86-87]

SOURCE: Jean Giraud, “The Other Side of Moebius,” interview by Kim Thompson, The Comics Journal #118 (December 1987), pp. 85-105.

In my humble opinion, Moebius is one of the greatest comics artists to ever hold a pen. Here are some examples of his art:

Frank Stockton Illustration is now represented by Gerald & Cullen Rapp!

I’m excited to announce that I’m now being represented by Gerald & Cullen Rapp.

Rapp has been around for over 70 years, representing the créme de la créme of contemporary illustration. I’m so excited to be in their stable.

Check out Rapp’s website to see some of the other amazing talent they are working with:

https://www.rappart.com

American Illustration 40

I’m pleased to announce that this illustration was chosen for American Illustration 40!

A previous version of Survival Alone is Insufficient accompanied a review of Emily St. Mandel’s novel, Station Eleven that was published in Entertainment Weekly.

Station Eleven 2021

Full Page illustration for Station Eleven book review in Entertainment Weekly