Frank Frazetta: Painting with Fire

I was sad to hear about the passing of Frank Frazetta, perhaps the greatest Fantasy Artist of all-time. His style was highly emulated but no one came close to capturing the essence of the human figure in the midst of whatever action sequence he was inspired to paint. His use of color and light is stunning.

I found out about Frazetta during college when I was trying my best to learn anatomy and figure drawing as well as how to use a brush to ink with. Frazetta was a master at it all and his work is a great place for young artists to learn some of those important basics. I was especially taken with Frazetta’s Buck Rogers Art which was amazing. Here’s a drawing I did back in college trying to learn from The Master. As you can tell I had a lot to learn and still do. That’s one thing I love about being a comic artist/cartoonist. you never stop learning.

Frazetta did this great documentary a few years back. I never bought it but saw bits and piece of it on PBS or something. If you want to be a comic book artist doing super hero stuff this is a must buy.

Here’s a link to buy it on Amazon.

Frazetta got his start as an assistant for Al Capp who drew the comic strip L’il Abner. I always liked the art in Abner but the story lines always left me cold. Even then you could see the greatness in Frazetta’s work and the line quality was to die for.

This is one of the kind of iconic images Frank Frazetta was famous for. If you aren’t familiar with his work but you swear you”ve seen it before, It was on the cover of a Molly Hatchett record from the 70′s. Frazetta died today at 82. His work lives on which is really what every artist dreams of.

As always comments are welcome!!!

Welcome to my Inner Geek

I’ve been a cartoonist for most of my life. I was born one actually. It was a crayons in the crib kind of thing. I was influenced by the Saturday Morning cartoon shows of the 60′s and having the Sunday Funnies read to me by my grandfather before church which in hindsight was amazingly cool. I knew at a very young age drawing comics was what I wanted to do. Talking my Dad into it took a lot longer, but that’s another story for another time. Suffice to say cartooning and comics are my passion. I live and breathe them.

I’m starting this blog for one very simple reason. I love the art of cartooning. Be it animation or newspaper comic strips or comic books and graphic novels I’m crazy about it all. Over at DrewLitton.com, where I draw sports cartoons five days a week, I keep my thoughts about the profession of cartooning mostly to myself . That site is, after all, about sports and the cartoons that I draw about them. I’m afraid the mere mention of my fondness for Heckle and Jeckle cartoons, or my love of classic Pogo strips will send the average sports fan running for the exits. Whether this fear is imagined or real is immaterial really. I’m trying to brand that site as a blog for sports cartoons drawn especially for sports fans and mixing in other content clutters and confuses I think. So I need an out outlet for my inner geek. I’d much rather attend the San Diego Comic-Con, which I’ve done twice, than I would cover a Super Bowl, which I did three times during my 26 years with the Rocky Mountain News. That statement alone could be considered heresy on DrewLitton.com but here, not so much. So you see my dilemma and my need for a site like this. Consider it therapy if you will. Me, I’m elated to have a place to let the inner geek out. Which I think my wife will be very thankful for.

I know there are a lot more people out there just like me. Looking at the 300,000 people who attend the San Diego Comic-Con every year is evidence enough. I’m hoping all of you will join in the dialogue here. I know so many of you have some great insight on Comics and everything related to them. So I can hardly wait to hear what you have to say.

I’ll post whenever the muse hits and time allows. It could be once week, more or less, depending how swamped I am with work. This site is going to be a hobby for me so I’m going to try and remember that. At this point in life I need less pressure, not more. It will be more fun that way. There’s a cool sign up sheet in the corner, which allows you to get an e-mail whenever I post. There’s no strings an attached. I won’t sell it to, say, the mailing list for Toyota PR. So relax. Sign up. And stop by often. Just be sure to bring your own inner geek with you.