Pages

Friday, March 18, 2011

Dry Brush Tree, Mattotti

More work in progress. Another compositional element for the scene I'm working on.



I was thinking about how I use a combination of symbols and more rendered elements in my illustrations, and since nothing I draw is truly realistic, I tend to still think of myself as essentially a cartoonist. I'm comfortable with the word, and it distinguishes what i do, and the intent of what I do, from more classic, realistic illustrators, like Robert Fawcett, Or Noel Sickles or Norman Rockwell. I just have different objectives. I think cartooning is a form of expressionism, but for a explicitly narrative purpose: in cartooning the objective is always to tell a story, and every element serves to elaborate on that story. This can be said about illustration in general, I suppose, but cartooning, to me, is a unique distillation of that purpose, using symbols and pictographic idiom.

Mattotti

I'm currently in love with this book:



Mattotti has always been an inspiration, but this is the first time I've been able to see a really big hunk of his black and white work all in one place. Every page is just phenomenal, but I'll let his work speak for itself:





I may even prefer his black and white work to his more popular pastel work, thoough his pastels are amazing as well. He's also extremely versatile, and has illustrated a few children's books, including an excellent version of Pinocchio:



I can't learn enough from Mattotti. He was influenced a lot by Munoz, who is also a favorite:

No comments:

Post a Comment