Thursday, June 25, 2009

When I first attended art school in the '70s, one of the hottest books to own among artist was a book collecting images from a group of artists known as "The Studio". (I wish I still had my copy that was stolen.)

The four artist that made up this group were: Jeffrey Jones, Bernie Wrightson, Barry Windsor-Smith and Michael Kaluta, whose Art Nouveau influences are the topic of this weeks items in my web search. For years, before our decor changed, my wife and I had signed and numbered original prints hanging throughout our home of three of these artist, Bernie Wrightson, Barry Smith and Michael Kaluta. I was never able to secure a print signed by Jones.

Each artist had their own visual style but they were all related in some ways. One thing that was common among them were that they were all professional comic book artist. Who at this time were creating original pieces of illustration that were created for the fine-art sake rather than for a commissioned job. Jones had a traditional paint style of classical painters with fantasy images as the subject matter. Wrightson whom I've had the pleasure of meeting and sitting and watching him do his amazing work, in person; used a style that was very similar to 19th century engravers. Smith being a British citizen was heavily influenced by the English artist that were dominant in the Pre-Raphaelite movement. And as I hinted at earlier, Kaluta was very much influenced by Art Nouveau.

All of these artist have played a big role in my work as well as the styles in which they were influenced by. In visiting their sites you will see that they are professional illustrators who have a wide range of subject matter and stylistic content. But if you treat yourself to looking about their sites you will find the influences I mention.
First on our list is Michael W. Kaluta. While being very famous for the images he created of the pulp character, The Shadow, be sure to follow the link to his portfolio containing the "Wings of Twilight" and you will see his Art Nouveau influences.

http://www.kaluta.com/

Next is Jeff Jones. An artist who was once a man but has since all of his successes as an artist, is now a woman. Yes that is correct, he had a sex change. But since we are concerned about his period as a male artist I will refer to him as him and not her. I surfed over to his web site but it seems to be having troubles loading images, instead check out this tribute site to his work:

http://ping.fm/lLybJ

Our third artist is unparalleled in his line work. It is a joy to behold. When looking at his artwork you feel like you are looking at an engraved image. But it is all had drawn. As I mentioned above I met Mr... Wrightson and spent some time watching him at work. On request he sat down took out a sharpie marker and just began hatching away. No underdrawing, no pencil study, nothing. Just a black sharpie that allows no mistakes, and a drawing pad. He produced imagery just like the section of his site I have zeroed in for you today. This takes you into the depths of his site on this link. I did this because he is the victim of a goofy webmaster who has set up his site as a forum. Feel free to back track your way through the site. But I wanted you to see the amazing work from the Frankenstein prints. I own some of these as I mentioned earlier. Be ready to be AMAZED!

http://ping.fm/VomWh

Rounding out The Studio's founding members is the only non-U.S. citizen, Barry Windsor Smith. Smith moved to NYC to draw the first 20 or so issues of Marvel Comics published version of the Robert E. Howard, sword and sorcery character, Conan The Barbarian. Smith came to the states and lived and drew on a park bench in Central park until he was paid enough to get a place to live. Soon after the artist joined in the new group that became The Studio.

http://ping.fm/Tm408

That completes our look at the members of the Studio. Let me know which of these artist you like best and why.

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