May 12, 2013

For week #2 of May Mixers (part of my year long Daily Drawing challenge) I am doing some Fan Art with some of my favorite international characters. Today is’s Belgian comic lengend Albert Uderzo with his creation Asterix. Asterix is probably the biggest comic in European history and you can find it pretty much everywhere in the world. I personally read the books as a child and even did a book report on the artist when I was high school.

Uderzo’s writing partner René Goscinny has long since passed, but new books are still appearing with new artists helping out. The characters can even be found in both live action and animated movies and their own theme park in France, Parc Asterix!

The work has also influenced artists, including my pal Alexis Fajardo with his series Kid Beowulf.

From Wikipedia “The series follows the exploits of a village of indomitable Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid, which gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonist, the titular character Asterix, along with his friend Obelix have various adventures. The “ix” suffix of both names echoes the names of real Gaulish chieftains such as Vercingetorix, Orgetorix, and Dumnorix. Many of the stories have them travel to foreign countries, though others are set in and around their village. For much of the history of the series (Volumes 4 through 29), settings in Gaul and abroad alternated, with even-numbered volumes set abroad and odd-numbered volumes set in Gaul, mostly in the village.”

My Daily Drawing for May 2013 are going to be a bit different with multiple themes for the “May Mixer” with a different theme each week.
• See all the May Mixer-International daily drawings here: http://atomicbearpress.com/category/orginal_art/daily-sketch-orginal_art/may-mixer-international/
• See ALL the daily drawings here: http://atomicbearpress.com/category/orginal_art/daily-sketch-orginal_art/

May 11, 2013

For week #2 of May Mixers (part of my year long Daily Drawing challenge) I am doing some Fan Art with some of my favorite international characters. Today is’s Italian comic lengend Hugo Pratt with his iconic pirate character Corto Maltese. The character is one of the most familiar in european comics and has even inspired a clothing line http://www.hugoprattforcortomaltese.it/.

What I love about Hugo Pratt’s art is not just one character or story, but his over all skill as an artist and storyteller. His work is clean and simple seeming with lines that look deceptively simple.

From the official site: “Corto Maltese, a cult favorite in one of the best European graphic novels, is a veritable legend in twentieth century literature. He’s a traveler – a sailor who combines Mediterranean looks with Anglo-Saxon culture. Corto, meaning “quick” in Spanish, was created in 1967 by Hugo Pratt, a native of Venice. Corto is an anti-hero who prefers his freedom and imagination to wealth. He is a modern Ulysses who takes us traveling to some of the most fascinating places in the world.

His adventures are set during the first thirty years of the 1900s, between Venice, the steppes of Manchuria, the Caribbean islands, the Danakil deserts, the Amazon forests, and the waves of the Pacific.”

My Daily Drawing for May 2013 are going to be a bit different with multiple themes for the “May Mixer” with a different theme each week.
• See all the May Mixer-International daily drawings here: http://atomicbearpress.com/category/orginal_art/daily-sketch-orginal_art/may-mixer-international/
• See ALL the daily drawings here: http://atomicbearpress.com/category/orginal_art/daily-sketch-orginal_art/

May 10, 2013

For week #2 of May Mixers (part of my year long Daily Drawing challenge) I am doing some Fan Art with some of my favorite international characters. Today is’s one of the most influential animated films I have seen, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no Tani no Naushika) directed by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli. I first saw the film in a terrible audio dub on VHS in college called Warriors of the Wind, but even then it was something that effected me. It did not feel like the usual Japanese animation (Anime), but something new. The drawing above is my poor attempt to draw the main character of Nausicaa.

The film is really wonderful! Here is the films composer Joe Hisaishi at 25 Year Concert in Budokan playing the theme music. Just magical.

My Daily Drawing for May 2013 are going to be a bit different with multiple themes for the “May Mixer” with a different theme each week.
• See all the May Mixer-International daily drawings here: http://atomicbearpress.com/category/orginal_art/daily-sketch-orginal_art/may-mixer-international/
• See ALL the daily drawings here:

May 9, 2013

For week #2 of May Mixers (part of my year long Daily Drawing challenge) I am doing some Fan Art with some of my favorite international characters. Today is’s Belgian comic lengend E. P. Jacobs’s adventuring team of Blake and Mortimer. I like the retro nature of the comic along with the classic Belgian Clean Line style of art with a mix of realism and sci-fi. The most iconic story is “The Yellow ‘M’” with it’s cover design being spoofed often.

I find that lots of the international comic artists fit into the Franco-Belgian/Bande dessinée tradition.

From the wikipedia (translated) “The series features two main heroes, Sir Francis Blake , a military career that began in the Royal Air Force , and made ??available to the British secret service of military espionage against the MI5 and his friend Professor Philip Mortimer , specialist in nuclear physics , which often find themselves facing their greatest enemy, Colonel Olrik – in fact the third most important character in the series, sometimes accompanied by his henchmen such as the American Sharkey , Razul the Bezendjas or the gangster Jack.
…
In his book, Blake and Mortimer Jacobs 4 , Gerard Lenne noted that all the major characters of the saga Blake and Mortimer is actually divided into three categories: scholars, warriors and traitors, including the three main heroes Mortimer Blake and Olrik are archetypes.”

The stories continue today, but the characters have been better defined and expanded over time. For instance there are more examples (from the materials I find online) that the personal lives of the heroes and their pasts come into play more often. The official site http://www.blakeetmortimer.com/

My Daily Drawing for May 2013 are going to be a bit different with multiple themes for the “May Mixer” with a different theme each week.
• See all the May Mixer-International daily drawings here: http://atomicbearpress.com/category/orginal_art/daily-sketch-orginal_art/may-mixer-international/
• See ALL the daily drawings here: http://atomicbearpress.com/category/orginal_art/daily-sketch-orginal_art/

May 7, 2013

For week #2 of May Mixers (part of my year long Daily Drawing challenge) I am doing some Fan Art with some of my favorite international characters. Today is’s Belgian comic artist Will ‘s (Willy Maltaite) characters from his children’s series Isabelle. Will’s work is one of those where I have really never ready the comics and I mostly know his work from the internet. He is probably known better for his series Tif et Tondu and it’s iconic medieval helmet wearing villain Monsieur Choc.

From what I can desern from the internet, the series is about a young girl named Isabelle who lives with her kind aunt Ursula. Ursula’s brother the warlock Hermés is getting married to the beautiful green haired witch Calendula and Isabelle and her aunt are the only family to attend the wedding. From there Isabelle has fantastic adventures, but her Aunt Ursula is oblivious to all that happens and spends her time baking pies and treats.

What attracts me to Will’s art is the appeal of his designs and timeless quality. I suspect this would be a hard book to sell in the US since parents would object to the really sexy witch Calendula in a “kids” story. I would love to actually see a full album. I looked for some physical books when I was in Montreal last summer, but could find little. I have seen online many watercolors that Will has done that are excellent.

Note: Will does a lot of very sexy women with little clothing along with his regular comic work. If nudity is an issue, be careful when you click the links below.
- Link to Will’s paintings http://vancleef-illustration.com/2011/01/12/paintings-by-willy-maltaite-a-gallery/
- Work posted at ComicArtFans.com http://www.comicartfans.com/searchresult.asp?txtsearch=willy+maltaite
- BDZoom.com samples http://bdzoom.com/48535/interviews/will-2eme-partie/

My Daily Drawing for May 2013 are going to be a bit different with multiple themes for the “May Mixer” with a different theme each week.
• See all the May Mixer-International daily drawings here: http://atomicbearpress.com/category/orginal_art/daily-sketch-orginal_art/may-mixer-international/
• See ALL the daily drawings here: http://atomicbearpress.com/category/orginal_art/daily-sketch-orginal_art/