Thursday, September 20, 2007

More Enchanted


Okay, back to our regularly-scheduled self-aggrandizement. While I was moving piles of stuff in my office over to other piles of stuff in my office, I found more ENCHANTED drawings. The first are just some character sketches I did while I was bored at work one night. Epok was my favorite character in the story and I was always drawing and redesigning him. I could never get it right and was always tempted to ask Mike to design my characters for me. But then my pride would get in the way (“That’s pride...f***in’ witchoo.”) and I’d go back to the drawing board. Mike also encouraged me to just collaborate with an artist to get it done if I didn’t have confidence in my drawing ability (I didn’t) but, again, that danged pride...

When I did the sketches a few years ago, I had just gotten a bunch of different sizes of Pigma Micron markers. I’d read somewhere that Frank Cho uses them and I really digged his line work. (Who doesn’t?) I asked Mike if he knew about them and he said, “Oh, yeah. They’re great! I love ‘em.” That’s all I needed to hear. Since I was always trying to do everything exactly like Mike did, I immediately went out and bought a ton of them. Later on, I decided the brush marker was really great but that it was a little floppy for my needs. I asked Mike what he thought about it and he said something like, “How should I know? I use Pitt pens when I ink.” Aaargh!!! (Anyone want to guess how many Pitt pens I have now?)

Anyway, these sketches show me two things. First, my style is inconsistent at best. The big Epok is most like my typical style. The full-figure Epok is close but my small figures always fall apart at the end. I’ve never been able to draw small for some reason. Guys like Mike and John Byrne have always made me crazy with envy because they could always control just how much detail was needed to “sell” a small figure as really being there. If you put in too much detail, as I do, it looks weird. Second, I draws sum ugly wimmens. That headshot of Wendy looks like a dude in the process of sexual reassignment. I think it may be the chin. And it unintentionally looks like Ernie Colon drew it which goes to my point about how my style shifts constantly. (And that’s no knock on the great Ernie Colon, who is one of my artistic idols.)

The page art is my first attempt, many years ago, to actually produce the comic. At this point, I wasn’t working from a script and was just winging it. This was going to be part of a framing sequence in which the guy on the porch of the general store is interviewed by the reporter in the Volkswagen about what “went down” in the forest. Later, I ditched this scene in favor of a more “twist-filled” framing sequence but I still liked the reporter angle. I foolishly didn’t do character studies for these two guys in advance so the guy on the porch doesn’t really look too convincing but I like the reporter. He was based on Mike’s friend that he created comics with in high school, Carlton Hill. Charlton was an interesting guy that had a great imagination and wrote a ton of ten-page comics that Mike would then draw. I eventually ended up taking over for Mike when he started trying to break in to Marvel and DC and even got to draw one issue of Carlton’s favorite comic, THE AMAZING PIGGY. (I hope Carlton doesn’t mind me posting that.) Carlton usually let me do whatever I wanted but he was very protective of the Piggy and even redrew a lot of the faces and even an entire page when he felt I hadn’t captured the essence of the book. He also “inked” my pages which, back then, meant he went over them again in darker pencil. Ah, my only artistic collaboration.

I kind of like the page except for a couple of things. I really can’t draw cars for shit and it shows here. I was using a model of a VW to draw by but it wasn’t a GOOD model and I wish I’d worked out the perspective better before I drew the page. I didn’t do any layouts beforehand. Just drew right on the board. Big mistake. Also, those trees in the first panel are weird. The needles on the evergreens must be, like, three feet long! And this was before I’d tried using “real” drawing tools like crow quills or brushes or even the Microns. I think, on this, I ended up using some half-depleted Pentel markers left over from high school and some Sharpies. But, as they say, it is a poor craftsman that blames his tools.

Anyhoo, I hope you like ‘em.

Matt

12 comments:

Adam Hutch said...

Matt,

I'm surpised you don't like that drawing of Wendy. I think it came out really well. She's got a nice glit of evil in her expression. It actually reminds me of a Kevin Maguire face.

I hope you find more Enchanted stuff. It's a great concept.

Anonymous said...

I notice you keep beating yourself up about your artwork.
I happen to like the Enchanted stuff you've posted. I hope you post more.
In fact, I think you should consider working again on it.

craig rousseau said...

dude, you REALLY have to start cutting yourself some slack... or todd and i are gonna drive down and beat you senseless...

don't think we wont.

Lemonstock01 said...

seriously man i'm really impressed. you've got a real cool style. keep it coming!

Scott Weinstein said...

I think you're overly harsh on yourself. That page looks great. And the character sketches are awesome. We're our own worst critics. You know what you think doesn't work. But, I wouldn't have picked up on any of that stuff. Be proud you have work to show. And keep posting. You really do have a great style.

Rich Faber said...

Matt,

I think your comics work is very nice, actually. Stop being so hard on yourself. Seriously, you could definitely do this professionally, if you wanted.

And if you ever want to collaborate again, I happen to know an inker who'd love to ink your work sometime... with a brush and everything...!

(that would be me, by the way...);-)

Best,
Rich

Heywood Jablomie said...

I think this stuff looks great. I totally agree you should keep this stuff coming Matt. It really sounds and looks like an awesome idea. And yes I also agree you're being too hard on yourself, everything looks really good.(I especially love the fact that the text on the other side of the sketches reads though!)=P

Mike

Parker said...

It's good stuff! Just remember, it's not cheating to trace cars or buildings. EVERYONE traces cars. Well, now they drop them in from SketchUp, but same thing.

renecarol said...

Overall I think you did a great job. I like the VW. The aerial shot makes it look a little bit long to be a Volkswagen still a pretty cool looking car. I suck at giving compliments to people but it really does look good.

Brian said...

I know what you're talking about with Wendy's face, but, and here's the real scary part, I take mass transit to work every day, and believe me, there are more than a few women who have "dude" faces.

As for the work itself, I'm with Adam that Wendy reminds me of Kevin Maquire and I really like your Epok.

todd said...

matt--

i'm late logging in here 'cause a bein' in the city yesterday, but what craig said...

damn.
i'm sending a script for our thing over this weekend...

your brother--
todd

Matt Wieringo said...

By the way, thanks, everybody!