Artists That Make You Want To Give Up…

[Jim_Campbell]

#1: Duncan Fegredo.

I was reading the first issue of Hellboy: The Storm when Fegredo hit me with a two-thirds of a page panel in which the movement is conveyed so simply, and yet so utterly effectively that it made me dizzy to look at.

It might constitute a spoiler, so I won't embed it in this post, but you can see the image by clicking here.

I am in awe.

Cheers!

Jim

[Darren Stephens]

 Agreed, Fegredos art nowadays is stunning. I'm currently reading 'Hellboy: Wild Hunt'. Amazing artist. My favourite artists of all time (so far!) are Brian Bolland and Jack Kirby. After all these years I can still just sit and stare at thier work in awe. Heh, the title of the thread seems a little extreme, I would never stop drawing because someone else was better than me. I'd have quit years ago! But I get your drift. 

[uncle fester]

#2 Ben Oliver.

I thought I was getting the hang of drawing comics. Then I bought Prog 1627. "Cockroaches". Bastard. Still, it made me go away and sort out a (long) list of things I need to work on, which was a helpful thing to do. 

[Smarty]

Iv'e been a long time admirer of Ashley Wood, and I kinda got it. It looks sloppy and fast but really theres a lot of thinking going on. That was until recently, until i found out that the man does NO UNDERDRAWING. It blows my mind, to be able to lay out a page and draw it straight in ink with such confidence.. I'm not giving up, but jesus, I'm a long way off.

[Dunk!]

Bruce Timm and now Darwyn Cooke.

I remember picking up an American comic mag (Comic Scene I think it was called, similar to Fangoria) for the exorbitant amount of £7 when I was 19 just 'cos an image of Batman Animated by Bruce Timm adorned the cover.

My soul both sank and rose. It was great to see such a style, but gutting to see it wasn't jumping from the nib of my pen.

Since then I've learnt about the Fleischer studio look and all the other artist's that came before, but for that moment I thought I was looking at the Sistine chapel of comic/animation art.

[Bolt-01]

Dunk!, seeing your current pages I can really see where you get that from. Bruce timms Batman was awesome.

[Proudhuff]

Serge Clerc made me give up

[radiator]

When I got the Dredd Restricted Files 01 earlier this year I got that horrible sinking feeling looking at all the Mike McMahon colour strips. They were so perfect, the knowledge that I would never be able to do anything a fraction as good made me want to cry!

I have a bit of weird thing with Jamie Hewlett - I love his work so much that I often actively avoid looking at any new stuff he comes out with, or studying it in any detail. His style is such a big influence on my own but I don't want to unconsciously imitate it (there are plenty of talented artists on DeviantArt who slavishly copy his style which I don't see the point of!) - I want my own style to be unique and not influenced too much by any other artist, but folks still frequently say my stuff reminds them of Hewlett!

I regard Eduardo Risso's work (especially on 100 Bullets) as pretty much perfect in every way.

Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (the manga) is an incredibly daunting body of work - it boggles my mind how any one person could produce such an incredible amount of perfect artwork. I can only assume that he must have had a team of assistants helping him, but it's still awe-inspiring.

[davethomson]

I nearly gave up art when I picked up my first issue of Heavy Metal and saw Gess and Stephs art on Ultimate Paranoia 1: Ghosttown Gangsters. I still consider it the finest painted comic art ever, shame the story made little sense(though that could be a poor  translation on HMs part).

[pauljholden]

When I see someone do something amazing, it just sort of makes me want to go out and make up my on. What makes me want to give up is seeing some really substandard art selling like gangbusters...


That fegrado panel looks amazing, and makes me want to go out and try and do something just as cool*

-pj
(*I'll fail, but that's not the point -but "your mistakes are your style" so that's ok)

[pauljholden]

(Though, the way he can draw that marvellously bouncy car makes me want to put my head into my hands and weep...)

-pj

[In Orbit Every Monday]

When I got the Dredd Restricted Files 01 earlier this year I got that horrible sinking feeling looking at all the Mike McMahon colour strips. They were so perfect, the knowledge that I would never be able to do anything a fraction as good made me want to cry!

Mike's work for the 81 and 82 annuals is just sublime – then there's also all of the fully painted Titan covers. Which are quite frankly awesome.



I've learnt a lot just by responding to and emulating some of his approaches. I owe a huge debt to him, his draftsmanship, his colour theory and his composition. Just mint.

[Jim_Campbell]

(Though, the way he can draw that marvellously bouncy car makes me want to put my head into my hands and weep...)

It's the way the shadows turn into motion blur, and the way contours and the sweep of the road pull your eye into the picture. You read it left to right, top to bottom -- the right hand crash barrier leads you straight to the ogre-thing at the same moment that the shadows dissolve into motion blurs, and then car comes right to left across the direction of travel and literally skids across the panel.

It's just phenomenal.

Cheers!

Jim

[Van Dom]

Yeah that is indeed some awesome looking work. Must get my hands on this book!

[Peter Wolf]

"Its not how good you are - its how good you want to be"

I find this happens when i look at artwork by Ron Smith but it doesnt make me want to give up because i wouldnt expect to be as good as Ron Smith as its far too technical and if anything its more like technical drawing.I wouldnt even attempt to try and draw like Ron Smith.

Sometimes you need to accept and recognise your limitations and what your talents are.

The only other artist who i used to look at and think how the fuck do you do that is Belardinelli and too a certain extent i was envious of the talent on show.I was never put off the idea of drawing myself because of this because instead its the very reason i started drawing and inking myself* because it was a challenge to see if i could learn to draw and ink in the same style myself as i have made no effort at all to develop my own style and its not something that i am very interested in right now.

I just wanted to study and teach myself someting new with no real idea wether i would succeed or not.

*Actually it was one of the competitions here that was my first attempt at drawing as well.

I want my own style to be unique and not influenced too much by any other artist, but folks still frequently say my stuff reminds them of Hewlett!

I hadnt thought about that before but now you point it out i can see the influence very clearly.