Survival of the Shittest!

Inked this at the art materials class. Will probably do the full repaint job over it.

Some Crazy Gladiator Concept

Just messin'

Here are a couple of winter warriors. This kind of imagery preoccupies me for a long time. Would like to do a sort of post-apocalyptic comic in a polar environment.

At the Oscars!!!

Dear all, I'm happy to say that I won the third prize that was awarded to me for a one-page comic at the international comics festival called "Funny Comics Show" that took place in Zagreb this weekend. I submit to you the page that got me this prize, and apologize for not having it translated in English. I also give you some photos to show you the laid-back atmosphere of the
awards ceremony.

This is Mr. Šunjić, a renown comics publisher in Croatia, who was sitting in the jury. The remaining two members of the jury were the renown comic artists Tihomir Tikulin and Goran Sudžuka (artist of "Y-the last man", etc.).


This is the comic. The competition was about doing a one-page comic themed "Cowboys and Indians".

I don't remember what I was saying, its all too blurry to me now.


My wife Valentina got hold of the monetary part of the prize fairly quickly. Apart from the money and an Andy Warhol moment, I received a beautiful calendar with large reproductions of the most famous of all Croatian comic artists, Andrija Maurović.




Here I pose next to Mr. Gallieno Ferri, veteran author of the Italian comic "Zagor", which has for a long time been very popular in Croatia and elsewhere in South East Europe. I was very honored to have Mr. Ferri sign my prize plaque.

Portrait of a sad girl

Charcoal, eraser and piece of cloth are scattered across the paper as if to testify: "Look, I did it just with these here!" Anyway, the problem with this drawing is that I scaled it up to 1.5 times the actual size of the model's head. The trouble here is that it is difficult to track such augmentation consistently with respect to all the details, like: nose, eyes, mouth... Therefore, at this level of aptitude, one should stick to the real scale.

Adrian Helmet

Common in these two otherwise unrelated pieces is the French helmet from WWI. The illo should have gotten out by now in Hungary, haven't checked though.

This one is for Mimi

Mimi pooled me out from my lethargy by making a comment on a previous post, so I decided to post this portrait of the same guy from yesterday's session.


On a dissimilar note, who's this guy???? He's very, VERY good!

Artistically appreciative fucker, aint I.

I am doing comics as much as I can, as more time is dedicated to things such as this charcoal portrait that I photographed with my mobile phone. In only two weeks at the Academy I have already made dozens of portraits and figures. I like it there, even though it made the pace of my life unrelenting.

Getting away with it

Just came across this video of a song that is not so new while browsing through the facebook account of a....dear acquaintance, who nudged me after 5 or 6 years since we last met. Funny thing this nostalgia business.

Trying to color the proper way

I really liked Batman Year 100 comic, not only because of Paul Pope's genius, but also because of the way it was colored, kind of basic, but very effective.

So, I tried coloring one of my pages, to see how it looks. I post both inks and colors.

Facebook

Just a little something I scribbled on my friend's Facebook page

Expropriation

I think I'll include this panel into the story as well, its just that it'll look kinda tiny, as I can submit only one page, which is ambitious for a story that I have figured out. I guess thats the beauty of comics. Its sorta poetry.

Of Horses and Men

This weekend is all about horses and horsemen. It is sort of challenging, but fun nonetheless. Will take part in competition for a best one-page comic themed "Cowboys and Indians" due on 23rd Sept. The competition is a part of an annual comics convention to be held in Zagreb Croatia on 23rd November. Not sure about the story yet, but I want it o feature some classic imagery.

Batmobile rendered

Always wanted to explore the concept of a Batmobile as a 1960s muscle car.



Now back to pencil and ink. I'll get nowhere by scribbling about with my Wacom tablet :).

Ichi, ni, san

This blog has been clean for too long. Here are some female characters from a perspective of a dirty minded Japanese salary man.

Batmobile

Too tired now. Self explanatory.

Superhero Anatomy

I dug out several magnificent books I have on anatomy, especially for more dynamic representation, like in comics, etc. I have Hogarth, plus the one that is called Muscles in Motion by Glenn Fabry. In adition, I have just installed a software app called Poser Figure Artist, that I'm yet to figure out. The purpose of it is adjusting various 3D models in a position you want them to be, and from an angle you want to see them, and then drawing off of them as you would from any reference. I also want to check out those classical superhero comics. I was never fond of them in particular, but to know muscles, anatomy and movement that you often find in these, could be beneficial.

Home is where your art is

Last couple of days I set out to do more life painting in the Pine Tree Bay, but due to bad weather, I stayed indoors and sketched from imagination and photo reference.

Pine Tree Bay Cronicles

Here is a happy little selection of summer sketches and watercolors. As per watercolors, boy was it rewarding to sit or stand there amidst all this splendor and to try to capture some of that beauty.

Strange...surface

I glanced over my blog, and concluded that it contains too much of scholarly stuff, which is quite boring to look at. Now that I've accomplished my short-term goal of getting into Academy, I can give these a rest and turn to brushing up my comic-drawing skills. It is comic artist that I want to become after all. Therefore, I decided to do couple of inks inspired by a tacky Buck Rogers theme on a simple copy paper. Nothing fancy, because I'm on my vacation, and away from home, so no Wacom, no Painter, no Photoshop, just a crappy old computer and a crappy old scanner.

I think that from now on, I'll just post the things with a certain appeal, like comics, and some free-style drawings, while the more scholarly work I'll post somewhere else, like on http://www.conceptart.org/ , etc.

I would like to thank the Academy...

Success!!! I made it through the excruciating entry exam process for the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia, which spanned over a period of almost two weeks of drawing, painting and answering ludicrous questions on the written exam. I ended up being fourth on the list, which was pretty safe as only 8 were being accepted for a government-sponsored education. The following six would have to pay their own tuition, which was something I doubt I would accept since it would be too much of a hassle. This way, it ended up just the way I wanted! Link to the official results (in Croatian): click here.

So thanks to all the people who helped me on my way. Thanks to Tonči Zonjić, whose impressive sketches, studies, doodles and comics inspired me to draw draw draw; thanks to Stjepan Šandrk, an exceptionally talented painter from Osijek, Croatia, who tutored me through the preparation process, along with professor Tannay, Ivana Gagić, Pavle Pavlović, and other staff in the Tanay School for Fine Arts, where for one semester in 2007 I attended my weekly preparatory courses in drawing; and thanks to Ivan Turcin, Animation student at the Academy who also provided great support and guidance.

My thanks also go to the Internet art communities, especially to http://www.conceptart.org/, which opened my eyes to the beautiful world of concept art, illustration and digital art, as well as to the Croatian portal http://www.mi3dot.org/.

Friday the 13th - Day 6 - the final nightmare!

So this is it. The last two pieces I've submitted. Exhausted. Results next Wednesday.

Day Five

Well into painting. Still one more day to go.

Day 4

Hiya, today was the first of the three remaining days of my exam, which are all dedicated to painting. I also had an interview with the members of the faculty. It was interesting, and they wanted to, well, "assess my level of artistic sensibility".

This is the portrait I painted today - acrylics on paper.

Day Three

Well, entered into second round. Today was pretty much the same as round one, save for the written exam that came after the usual portrait+figure drawing sessions. Tomorrow things get more interesting as we get to paint.