Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Portrait of an Artist as a Steel Man.


After toying around with Colossus hurling cars, pressing danger room weights and various variations on similar strength themes I opted to draw Colossus the quiet, sensitive artist.

I've been reading the Essential X-Men vol. II because, well, I bought it and never read it. I'm a big fan of John Byrne's Fantastic Four and She Hulk but just never got into the X-Men! Mostly, and I know this is sacrilege, but I just didn't like Terry Austin's inking.

HOWEVER...now that I've really looked at it (in black and white) I appreciate what he did. There's one particular issue in Vol. I which is inked by someone else and it is hideous. Clearly the inker did not know what to do with John's pencils. That showed me really how strong Austin was at the time.

j.
p.s. Andrew - Hope you dig the drawing.
p.s.s Just in case you can't click on it http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5305/1601/1600/Colossus_tree_sml.0.jpg

5 comments:

Greg McElhatton said...

Wow. Suddenly I truly understand Andrew's love for Colossus.

Andrew W said...

Heh. Gorgeous. Absolutely perfect. Thank you, J! Your instincts are spot on. (Now, how do I get myself one to put in pride of place on my wall? :))

RGB said...

Whenever I think about inkers I always think about Chasing Amy. And that scene in the movie where Jason Leigh is arguing with a fan over the importance on an inker. It always makes me laugh! Anyway, I love your pictures

j. said...

Greg - What finally won you over? The "sensitive artist" or the that Colossus is almost always shirtless? :)

Francois - That's one of those things you're not supposed to think too much about. (But I think he was stuck in his metal body form at the time of the orange shorts, wasn't he?)

Andrew - Tell Chris I'm cool with him passing along my e-mail address :)

Eric - It's an age old arguement, the value of an inker. I think it's only when you see a lousy one that you really appreciate the good ones. I LOVE inking and ain't ashamed to admit it.

Thanks guys,
j.

C.Edwards said...

Bone.

Could you drop me a line? I was wondering if you'd be interested in a short, short, interview-y like thing?

meatcute@gmail.com

-thnx