As I mentioned in my Happy Leyendecker Baby New Year! post from last year, master illustrator J.C. Leyendecker is responsible for initiating the tradition of representing the New Year visually as a baby.

Here are a few more of his wonderful New Years babies from the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. Their archive is here and here.

Happy New Year!

Israeli born illustrator and comics artist Asaf Hanuka studied illustration at Emile Cohl, an art institution in France. His illustration clients include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Rolling Stone and Forbes.

His comics work includes collaborations with French writer Didier Desninckx on Carton Jaune! and Hors Limits, and Israeli writer Etgar Keret on Streets of Rage and Pizzaria Kamikaze, which was a 2007 Eisner Award nominee.

Asaf also collaborated with his twin brother Tomer Hanuka on Bipolar.

His illustration portfolio features a variety of his work, which can be stylized, straightforward or comically exaggerated. He employs the comic book art conventions of pen and ink line work filled with color, at times rendered and at other times graphically flat. Occasionally, he will even mix the two approaches in the same image as one of his techniques for controlling the focal point of the image. This is a factor that Hanuka seems to devote particular attention to, also employing tone, color and texture to make certain your eye is drawn to the exact spot in a given image where he wants it to go.

The comics section of his portfolio includes covers and sample pages from several titles, both black and white and color. Unfortunately there are no sample pages from Pizzaria Kamakazi, but the pagess from Carton Janune look particularly interesting, with a textural approach tot the application of color the fits the setting. There is also a news section and a (not very informative) bio on the site.

Asaf also shares the blog Tropical Toxic with his brother Tomer.

Illustrator and comics artist Tomer Hanuka was born in Israel, where he attended an art-oriented high school and developed a fascination for American comic books. After his mandatory three years of military service, he moved to New York and studied illustration at the School of Visual Arts.

He came out of school and right into illustration assignments and now has a client list that includes The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Spin, MTV, Warner Brothers and Saatchi & Saatchi. He has garnered awards from The Society of Illustrators and the Society of Publication Designers.

Tomer has also pursued his love of comics. He and his twin brother Asaf Hanuka self-published Bipolar in 2000. The series was then picked up by Alternative Comics, and has been nominated for the Eisner, Ignatz and Harvey awards. Tomer Hanuka has also been a regular contributor to the Meathaus comics anthology. He has also been working for DC Comics, notably on covers for The Un-Men. There is a collection of his short comics works called The Placebo Man.

His web site opens with a horizontally scrolling selection of images, not as satisfying as a full portfolio, but I’ve found some other links for you and listed them below. There is also a blog that he shares with Asaf.

Hanuka uses the line and color methods of comic book art in his illustration, filling his line work with emotionally expressive color. His drawing approach ranges from straightforward to stylized, and he often delves into the dramatically violent. His usual process is to draw in ink and brush on paper and apply color digitally.

Tomer Hanuka is the subject of an article in the January 2008 issue of Juxtapoz.

[Suggestion courtesy of Jack Harris]

Louis Carrogis, who was known as Carmontelle, was an 18th Century French painter, architect and designer.

He was active at a time when the French court was eager to ease the tedium of their endless dalliances and interpersonal intrigues with new “entertainments”. Carmontelle supplied an ingenious one in a form that may be thought of as a precursor to cinema, a moving image, illuminated from behind.

As a result of his fascination with light and moving images and his skills as a painter and designer, Carmontelle was able to create a striking effect by painting a series of connected transparent watercolor and gouache paintings, on particularly transparent but strong paper, between 12 and 18″ high (30 - 45cm) and as long as 138 feet (42m).

These depicted scenes like luxurious parks filled with beautifully dressed gentry. They would be rolled up and then set in a mechanism that would allow them to be scrolled across the opening of a boxlike cabinet that was illuminated from behind by sunlight (presumably in a darkened room).

Carmontelle would display these moving images accompanied by musicians or his own narration. The effect must have been very TV-like, and particularly appealing when moving views of summer landscapes were displayed in the dead of Winter.

Carmontelle’s device was apparently not popular enough, however, to attract investors, so it went by the wayside after a while. Fewer than a dozen of his transparencies survive.

There is currently an exhibition at The Getty, which has one of his rouleaux transparents, (”rolled-up transparent drawings”) in its collection (image above, detail, with full scroll at bottom). The exhibit runs to June 16, 2008. The Getty has a page devoted to the exhibition that includes an animation of the scrolling image.

The site also includes some other drawings and paintings by the artist, and I list some additional resources below. There are also articles on Carmontelle, the transparencies and the Getty exhibition from the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.

The Getty has published a book to accompany the exhibition, Carmontelle’s Landscape Transparencies: Cinema of the Enlightenment by Laurence Chatel de Brancion (more detail here).

So get out your transparent watercolors and rolls of acetate and see what amusements you can come up with to fill in for the TV writer’s strike.

Robert Tracy is a self-trained artist who works in a variety of media — oil, watercolor, acrylic, pencil and even silverpoint. He also tackles a variety of subject matter — portraits, figures, still life and landscape. Over the years he has developed an approach he calls “romantic realism’.

Unfortunately, to see much of his work you must deal with some scattered resources. His main site has selections arranged by category, though limited in number, perhaps 5 or ten in each category.

Tracy has also just produced a book of his work through Blurb (more on Blurb in a future post), and one of his sites is now devoted to the book, with previews arranged as Drawings, Paintings and Military Art, though the selections are also limited here to just a few in each category.

Tracy is a Marine Corps veteran with two tours of duty in Vietnam, and a number of his works are of soldiers and military subjects from the point of view of a soldier, not the romanticized “military art” of video games and films.

The most extensive presence for his work is his gallery on deviantART. I’m not the biggest fan of the deviantART interface, and the work here seems to be arranged without categories, leaving a scattered arrangement of work from different times, of a variety of subjects, in various degrees of finish and from differing levels of learning and accomplishment. He seems to have little concern for putting his “best foot forward” or editing the content. An early rough sketch might be next to a recent finished work, giving a rather splintered impression of his work. I might suggest jumping several pages in and looking around. There are over 400 works posted, so finding the best pieces can take some digging.

You will find some sensitive, accomplished watercolor portraits of family members and friends, landscapes and still lifes in a variety of media, as well as more concept oriented pieces and studies from the masters. Tracy indicates that he arranged his self-training around studying works of the masters.

The image above, “That Look”, is in drybrush watercolor portrait (possibly of a family member, I’m not certain). The original post is here, click on the image for the larger version.

Tracy also maintains a blog called Illustrated Ideas. Unfortunately a recent change of some kind, blog design, ISP, blogging platform or all of the above, has apparently set the blog back to zero as of this month, with no access to the extensive archives that used to be available. Hopefully this can be rectified, as there were a number of interesting posts that would be nice to have back out on the new blog.

Illustrated Ideas isn’t specifically an art blog, though that has been a strong component in the past. The masthead reads “Art, Military, Politics, Religion”, topics that are likely to rouse strong opinions, of which Tracy isn’t shy.

Whether you agree with his point of view or not, as the new blog gets underway (or if the older archives are made available) you will find his posts on art worthwhile, whether speaking to his own work, process and learning experiences, or in features, similar to those on lines and colors, in which he discusses the work of artists that he admires. (It was through Illustrated Ideas that I was introduced to the stunningly beautiful woodblock prints of Kswase Hasui.)

At over 8 ft by 6 ft (260cm x 185cm), this central panel of a triptych for the Altarpiece for the Saints of Cologne presented viewers with an almost life size tableau of the classic Biblical scene (large version here). It was painted in the 1440’s by the late Gothic German painter Stefan Lochner, also known as Stephan Lochner or Stephen Lochner.

Lochner combines the German Gothic style with influences from the Flemish painters of his time, presenting a scene with strong naturalistic elements, brilliant colors and intense focus on detail. The kings and attendant figures are all dressed in modern (for the time) clothing, rendered with great attention to the nature of the rich fabrics, along with the detailed armor of the knights and the intricate decoration of the gifts. Lochner also devotes attention to the individual likenesses of the supporting cast (presumably of the town’s elders and wealthy).

The Madonna, her head weighted with a pretty hefty and earthly looking crown, is surrounded by dark flying figures that might at first seem oddly bat-like, but are in fact angels, painted with Lochner’s signature stunning ultramarine blue. This pigment was made from powdered lapis lazuli, an intensely blue semi-precious stone that was at the time even more precious then the pure gold Lochner used for the background. (Modern ultramarine blue, called French ultramarine, uses a synthetic pigment discovered in the 19th Century.)

The angels are also unusual in that they are “bodiless”, their blonde heads and childlike arms depicted as solid, but their remaining figures mere wisps of suggested motion.

Lochner may have absorbed influences from elsewhere; scholars suggest that his command of perspective in some images was far enough ahead of his contemporaries in Germany that he must have been exposed to the new developments in perspective that were coming out of Italy at the time.

In his Adoration, however, we are still given a scene that is on that edge where decorative devotional art meets naturalistic rendering, to remarkable effect.

Lochner intended that we, like the Magi, be stunned by the beauty of the moment.

You will find many accounts that insist that Michigan illustrator Haddon Sundblom was responsible for creating the modern image of Santa Claus, providing a friendlier form for the the jolly old elf than had previously been envisioned, at the behest of the Coca-Cola company, who wanted to use him to sell more of their sugary, flavored soda water.

While the latter assertion is true, the former isn’t. The modern image of Santa as a red-cheeked, morbidly obese (according the current surgeon general) and preternaturally friendly old guy in a red suit, with white fluffy beard and cuffs to match, was created by illustrator extraordinaire J.C. Leyendecker. See my previous posts on J.C. Leyendecker (also here, here and here) and Illustrators’ Visions of Santa Claus.

Sundblom, who was also a terrific and currently underappreciated illustrator active in the early and mid 20th Century, didn’t create that image but did go along way toward continuing, refining and promoting the cultural icon to the benefit of the Coca-Cola company, who wanted a family-friendly, all-occasions image for their “soft-drink”, originally thought of as an alternative for “hard” alcoholic drinks and considered suitable only for similar occasions.

Sundblom created a fresh image of Santa for Coke ads each year from 1931 to 1964, featuring the jolly old guy chugging the “not for Summer only” beverage while in his elf labor camp workshop, leafing through the Big Book of Naughty and Nice (wouldn’t you like to see that one) or out on the road on his trans-global hypersonic toy dispersal run (in the course of which he always found time to stop and lounge on someone’s staircase, or lean against their refrigerator, to enjoy “The pause that refreshes”® in lieu of the more boring Milk and Cookies®).

The Coca-Cola company has a page devoted to Sundblom’s Santa campaign, but they get it wrong too, laying claim to introducing the modern version of Santa to the world with nary a mention of Leyendecker or Rockwell, who had been doing their Santa thing in the pages of the Saturday Evening Post for years before Sundblom’s Santa Appeared. (Gee, an American food-product company making unsubstantiated and inaccurate claims? Shocking! For further reference, I point you to an excerpt from Santa Claus: A Biography by Gerry Bowler.)

None of this detracts from Sundblom, however, who made no such claims and who contributed other well known embodiments of products to the 20th Century’s cultural zeitgeist, like Aunt Jemima (who has recently gotten a political correctness makeover and modernization) and the Quaker Oats Quaker.

Sundblom’s career as an illustrator, though overshadowed by his association with the big guy, was long and influential. He provided illustrations for companies like Ford, Maxwell House and Colgate Palmolive, and publications like the Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies’ Home Journal and Woman’s Home Companion. He also did some nicely teasing “cheesecake” pin-up art (thank you, Santa) for Playboy and others.

“Sunny” Sundblom, as he was often called, was influential on a number of notable mid-20th Century illustrators, like Harry Anderson, Art Frahm, Gil Elvgren and Joyce Ballentine.

One of the best sources on Sundblom’s overall career is on the American Art Archives. Leif Peng’s Flickr set is also good.

There are a couple of books available on his Coke Santas (possibly different editions of the same book), Dream of Santa: Haddon Sundblom’s Advertising Paintings for Christmas, 1932-1964 and Dream of Santa: Haddon Sundblom’s Vision.

If you’re good, maybe Santa will bring you one.

Giovanni Fattori was one of the leaders of the Macchiaioli, a group of Italian painters centered in Tuscany in the mid-19th Century, whose dedication to the portrayal of subjects drawn from everyday contemporary life, practice of plein-air painting, use of bright, fresh colors, and application of paint in rough dabs of color, eschewing the blended finish considered normal for acceptable paintings of the time, predated the French Impressionists by some ten years. (See my previous post on The Macchiaioli.)

Like the other painters who came to be known as Macchiaioli, Fattori was influenced by the French painters of the Barbizon school, whose work they probably encountered while visiting Paris for the Exposition of 1855. The Impressionists owed much to the influence of the Barbizon painters as well; though, when asked of his view of Impressionist works later in his career, Fattori was not particularly impressed and still very much preferred the work of the Barbizon painters.

Italy was in the middle of a revolution during Fattori’s early years, and the painters of the Macchiaioli were in the thick of it, fighting to create a unified Italy with an idealism that was to be bitterly disappointed, even in victory. Many of the works from the middle of his career are of military scenes, though more of “in-between” times than of actual conflict, images of soldiers mustering, encampments, horses and wagons.

He later devoted himself more to rural and farming scenes in the Tuscany countryside around Florence, and painted sensitive portraits of his family (or families, he was married three times).

These have the fresh, brilliant colors that would be characteristic of Impressionist works, but married with a deep chiaroscuro and academic approach that was absent in their pursuit of the effects of light.

I find the proportion of Fattori’s paintings particularly fascinating, with strongly horizontal or vertical canvasses giving many of his scenes an expansiveness and visual drama not found in the more traditional formats that were common in his day; like his painting of fellow Macchiaioli painter Silvestro Lega painting en plein air at the seaside, and the calm rural scene along the Arno in the images above.

Fattori became an instructor at the Florentine Academy. One of his students was the modernist painter Amedeo Modigliani.

There is a Giovanni Fattori museum in his hometown of Livorno.

When I first wrote about Zuda Comics back in July, DC Comics’ venture into creating an online comics community and developing a commercial line from it was barely more than a web page and a promise.

In the intervening time, however, the promise has begun to fill out, and there is now a substantial presence, with some 20 or so webcomics running, and more competing for viewer votes to gain a slot in the roster.

Basically, anyone can submit a webcomic, registered site visitors can then vote on the comics. There is also a provision for leaving feedback on the postings of individual comics and a more general message board.

Those whose submissions are chosen to run as features are offered contracts for a certain period, over which they agree to produce a certain amount of material. Unlike a lot of webcomics, there is actual payment and the potential for royalties here, though not at the same scale as in traditional print comics lines.

I have to point out that I have not read their terms and agreements in detail, and those interested in submitting webcomics for consideration should, of course, carefully do so. There are three agreements listed in their FAQ, and submission instructions here. I would be particularly cautious in making sure you understand the rights being assigned and how that is applicable to your ownership of the material.

On the reading side, after more than 12 years(!) of crabbing about how monumentally clueless Marvel and DC have been about how comics can work on the web, I have to admit that Zuda, at least, is getting many things right.

First of all they seem to finally be aware that computer monitors are horizontal, not vertical like a comic book page, and have created a standard size horizontal format within which all of the comics are presented.

The way the comics are presented is also well beyond the usual clueless interface disasters the the big companies think are appropriate for presenting online comics (which are usually focused on preventing you from “stealing” the pages, and shoving ads in your face in the process).

The presentation of the Zuda webcomics is within a very nicely implemented Flash interface. (This is not a contradiction in terms as my previous rant may suggest, such things are actually possible!) I’m not sure who designed the interface, but someone who worked on it had a good grasp of interactive information design and it works very well.

You can advance through the pages of an individual comic with slide-show style arrow controls, supplemented with a pop-up bar of thumbnail images. The interface tells you what page you are on and indicates the total number of pages currently available for that comic. The entire navigation can be tucked away at will. The Flash module even remembers where you are in a story if you click away and return.

The comics can look slightly pixelated in the window at first. This is actually because they are being scaled down in Flash. The comics are posted in high-resolution and they can either be scaled with a zoom slider within the default window, or toggled to full screen mode. In full screen mode only the comic is visible against a black background, and even the navigation bar can be hidden, leaving just a full screen of high-resolution comic page. This is a wonderful feature and my hat’s off to the Zuda team for making this call and carrying it through with such aplomb.

Of the 20 or so comics currently available, there is some variety of subject, approach and level of ability. If you roll over the comic’s panel in the selection page you get a brief synopsis and creator credits, with more detail provided to the right on the comic’s dedicated page. I haven’t had a chance to read through all of them in detail but there are a couple of standouts.

Bayou (image above, top), written and illustrated by Jeremy Love and colored by Patrick Morgan, isn’t afraid to take on topics like depression-era race relations in the American South, mix them with actual character development and throw in characters from fiction like Br’er Rabbit. The story is well paced and nicely drawn, particularly in zoomed-in or full screen mode, where you can appreciate the use of coquille-board style crayon textures. As of this writing, Bayou is up to 47 pages and feels like it’s just gaining momentum.

High Moon (image above, bottom), written by David Gallaher, with art by Steve Ellis and lettering by Scott O Brown, is only up to 8 pages so it’s hard to judge the story, though it seems to suggest “High Plains Drifter Meets the Werewolf”, but the art by Ellis is just terrific. Again, use the zoom or full screen feature to see his expressive line work, shape-defining hatching, solid draftsmanship and emotionally effective use of color and texture.

These two alone are enough to keep me coming back to Zuda, but I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more from this fledgling online comics publisher, and I hope this turns out to be a successful paradigm for the presentation of new comics stories and fresh talents.

Link Collector is just that, a well arranged collection of links to sites for illustrators, digital painters, concept artists, matte painters and comics artists.

The illustrators are primarily science fiction and fantasy, and there is an emphasis on concept art and digital painting. The category labeled “Traditional and Sculpture” seems to refer to traditional media, as opposed to digital, within the fantasy, science fiction and concept art genres, rather than to traditional genres of art. There is little in the way of sculpture yet, but I assume that will take the form of dimensional works in the science fiction and fantasy vein, similar to what one might encounter in the Spectrum collections.

There is a section of Art Resources, with links to other major collections of similar art and illustration, and a growing blogroll. Unlike most blogrolls, which are essentially just lists of links, the listings here, like the listings in the other categories, are accompanied by a short, succinct description of the site and a representative slice of image or a logo, making them much more useful than non-annotated links.

The Link Collector was put together by Leonid Kozienko as part of his Leoartz site; which includes links to his portfolio of digital painting on CGPortfolio as well as his blog. The very brief bio on the CGPortfoio site lists Kozienko’s experience as concept design and illustration for videogames and film. Most of the pieces in the portfolio seem to be experiments and playful interpretations of images from films. The blog is in Russian, but the titles, interestingly enough, are in English; and the images, of course, are independent of language.

Link Collector is available in either English or Russian, and can be toggled between the two with a link at the top. The link I’ve given here is to the English version.

Note: I should give my customary warnings that Link Collector contains links to some NSFW material; and can be a major time sink. Have fun.