The Movie Posters of Drew Struzan

Another recent acquisition: The Movie Posters of Drew Struzan (Running Press). Even if you don't know his name, you know his work- Drew Struzan's rise to prominence as a movie poster artist coincided with the late 1970s "B-Movie-as-Blockbuster" phenomenon. It's hard to imagine E.T., Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker without picturing Struzan's warm-butterscotch illustrations. There's so much accessibility to Struzan's work: even though his portraits are very carefully observed and rendered, you can really see the hand at work- the bleeding water colors, the Prismacolor scribbles, the water spatters and that sketchy, lower-case "drew" in the corner.

J. C. Leyendecker

Another recent acquisition: J. C. Leyendecker (Abrams). Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell were the two giants of the Golden Age of Illustration, although Leyendecker has never matched Rockwell's enduring ubiquity. Both were technical masters, both composed their paintings brilliantly, but Rockwell's small-town subjects were embraced in a way that Leyendecker's swells never were. Regardless of the subject matter, it's hard not to be moved by the lush sensuality of Leyendecker's world, where everything glistens like Bakelite, and the paint goes down in bold staccato strokes, as thick as cake frosting.

The Art of Jaime Hernandez

 

Around here, there are few things more exciting than a new addition to the Inkwell Studios library, and the past few weeks have seen some very cool acquisitions. First up: The Art of Jaime Hernandez (Abrams ComicArts). Jaime and brother Gilbert (Los Bros Hernandez) brought punk rock's do-it-yourself ethos to the independent comics movement of the early eighties with Love and Rockets, a careening blend of superheroics, magic realism, sci-fi and soap opera. Each brother had a distinct style; I was particularly drawn to Jaime's linear minimalism. I always admire the guys who do a lot with a little, and Jaime conveys so much energy and emotion, so precisely, with just a few single-weight lines and areas of black.

Oil Painting...

 

After years of "painting" with pixels, I decided it was time to try the real thing- I took an oil painting class with Tom Rojak at the Buffalo Arts Studio. Here's my first effort. It turns out painting in oil is a lot like painting in Photoshop, except that there's no undo command, it takes forever, and usually when you're done for the night you feel like taking your painting outside and running over it with your car. Tom's a great teacher, though, and it was a lot of fun.