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Published On: Oct 15, 2004 10:50 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Oct 15, 2004 10:50 PM
LETTER TO AN ART STUDENT
This is a letter I wrote in response to an
art student's questions. Thought it might be useful.
Dear
Rocco,
Thanks for your letter, and thanks for being into my work. It always amazes me to see how the work gets out there and how it affects people.
I think that you are making an excellent choice in deciding to pursue drawing and painting as opposed to just “Comic” drawing. Kent Williams and I both made that decision while we were in school at Pratt Institute and we’ve never regretted it. If you really learn to draw, I mean really draw, there is nothing that can stand in your way. And the study of paint will be one of your most frustrating, yet most rewarding as well. Yes, I’m still teaching at Pratt (I teach Junior and Senior Illustration) and I may well be there when you attend.
First I will answer your questions and then I will include a reply to a letter I received from an Art student in England which is much more in depth and may answer even more questions for you.
1. Who were your major influences?
My list of influences is so large and so diverse that it would take reams of paper to put them all down. I’m influenced by both fine artists and illustrators, as well as writers and filmakers (all of which are “fine artists” in my opinion). Some of my all time favorites are (and you will find more on this in the other letter): Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Leonard Baskin, Monet, Heinrich Kley, Kathe Kollwitz, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi, Milton Caniff, Jeff Jones, Frank Frazetta, Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth, Harvey Dunn, Hugo Pratt, A.B. Frost, Marshall Arisman, Barron Storey, Berni Wrightson, on and on and on.
2. What is your favorite medium to work in and who was the teacher that taught it to you?
That is a very tough question, mostly because I couldn’t really say which was my favorite. Something always seems to be my favorite until I actually start doing it, then I want to be doing something else. I have to say that Watercolor is the easiest for me because I worked and worked with watercolor under the false assumption that it would teach me how to oil paint. As a result I got very good at it, then found that I had to struggle with oils. I’m constantly being told that watercolor is the most difficult medium to work in, but I’ve never found it so. Oils I believe to be the most difficult and yet the most substantial medium. There is something about paint that is difficult to pass up. And I’m constantly struggling with oils, but as much as I’m frustrated by them, I’m equally in awe of them and happy with many of my paintings.
Then, on the flip side, pen and ink is something that is totally lost these days. Very few people seem to be able to get a grasp on just plain old good drawing. If you can’t draw, you can’t paint. Painting is drawing with the paint, plain and simple.
As far as who taught any of these to me . . . that is as diverse as the first question, literally. Each and every name up there, and then some, taught me what I know. If you look, really look at an artists work you can see how they achieved the piece. Everything is there for you to see. That’s the beauty of art, and artist is laid bare. If you cannot draw, it shows. If you were feeling down, it shows. If you were happy, it shows. All these things are visible in the line, the paint, the mood of the piece. So I learned by looking at others work, emulating the way they saw, the way they placed a line, or painted. In school I learned quite a bit from my teachers, and even more from my fellow students.
To learn to paint, Kent Williams and I would just go out and paint landscapes all the time. We would take little road trips into Pennsylvania or Delaware or Upstate New York to paint. Landscapes are wonderful for that. They are totally about paint. You must create a language with paint in order to paint a landscape, it is totally abstract. A great way to learn how to paint.
Pratt Institute, in their Fine Arts Dept., is very modern. Almost no figurative painting going on there. However I’ve been in many meetings with the head of that department to remedy that situation. By the time you get there you will be able to get what you need.
3. When you were little, did you ever get discouraged and felt that you could never achieve your goal?
When I was little? How about now? You will be forever getting discouraged! That’s part of the whole thing. You need that contrast. If you didn’t get discouraged the achievements wouldn’t seem so great. But yes, I’m always getting discouraged even now. But I’m one of these people that firmly believes that if you want it bad enough it can be yours. Through hard work you can literally move mountains.
4. Do you have a favorite work of your own. Is there anyone else’s work that you like?
There are many favorites of my own. They all are favorites for varied reasons, but the one consistent reason is that I enjoyed doing them. There are some pieces that just seem to happen with little or no help from me. Those are the best, the joys of painting and drawing. You look down at the finished piece and it is as if you are waking up out of a dream. It’s as if you are seeing the piece for the first time, and that someone else did it. The one’s that take little effort always seem to have a life and energy all their own. I’m extremely happy with Enemy Ace and the Sketchbook (No Man’s Land) of all the preparatory work that went into Ace. There are several paintings that I would consider favorites as well. One thing to realize, there are more pieces that don’t work out than do. That’s because we set such high standards for ourselves, as you will too. But don’t despair! The reward is, truly, in the doing. Once it leaves your drawing table, or your easel, and makes its way in the real world, it doesn’t belong to you. And that’s okay, too. You need to make more works to fill the gap.
As to the second question: Yes! This ties into your very first question. But, I also like lots of my contemporaries. Kent Williams’ work I love. Kent and I go way back, we taught each other how to paint and we still teach each other how to paint. Kent is like family to me. Dave McKean, Kent, and I are working together on a publishing company wherein we’ll be able to publish our own books, paintings, music, etc. We would not be able to do this if we did not respect and admire each others work. Also, in order to do this, we have to be totally honest with each other about where we see our strengths and weaknesses, and to point them out if we feel the need. It is difficult, we all are easily bruised, and we are not always in agreeance with each others views, but we feel that makes us stronger.
I like Frank Miller’s work, Dave Mazzuchelli, Mike Mignola, Mark Chiarello (he also went to school with Kent and I, along with John VanFleet, Scott Hanna, etc.), Attillio Micheluzzi, Mattotti, Fritz Scholder, on and on again!
5. What advice do you have for students who are working towards becoming illustrators and/or painters?
First, take a good look at the world around you. The job you have at hand, besides just getting the proper technical skills, is a personal voice. Tell me what you see. An artists job is to see differently, but to show us the common language of what he/she sees. Each person is unique and has something else to say, always. Some, in arguing against figurative work, will say that it’s all been done. Well, it’s not been done by me. And if Gustav Klimt or Whistler, or Monet had believed that we would never have had such beautiful paintings from their hands. We all see something differently, and that is reason enough to explore.
Next, I will say that good painting is good painting regardless of what it will be used for. So really learn to draw, really learn to paint. This cannot be stressed enough. They are skills, they are craft, but along the way, when you have mastered certain aspects of these things, your spirit is released. You will no longer struggle with how to speak, only with what to say.
Don’t have blinders on! If you want to be a figurative painter that does not mean that you don’t look at all art around you. Everything has something of value. Everything! Realize that there is good and bad in all things, even paint. Don’t ignore a school of thought merely because it doesn’t comply with your own. Delve into it and see if there isn’t something there for you. I think that you will find there is. Paint is paint after all. They just have a different way of seeing, and speaking, that’s all. A closed mind is bound to be repetitious and boring, feeding off of the same ideas and information.
Read, write even. But most importantly, don’t be afraid to feel. Drawing and painting is feeling. When you sit down at the breakfast table or go to a diner, and the eating utensils are laid before you, knife and fork on the napkin and the salt/pepper shakers over to the left, glass of water to the right. What is the first thing that people do when they sit down? They invariably rearrange the placemat, adjust the silverware, move that glass of water a quarter-inch over. Why? Because it feels wrong somehow, and they must make it feel right. That is what drawing is. It is constant feeling. You should be like the altimeter in an airplane. The altimeter is a thin wire that hangs exposed in the underbelly of the airplane. It measures wind velocity and temperature and relays these measurements to the crew. You should be an exposed nerve that when it has felt something, tells the rest of us what we already know. You reassure us, you may scare us, you may uplift us, but you remind us all that we, too must feel. That we are human. That beyond the colors of our skin, beyond the countries of origin, or our religions, we are human.
Anyway . . . enough preaching! I hope that this answers your questions, and most importantly, makes you want to continue in the direction you have chosen for yourself. I applaud anyone who makes the decision that you have made in this day and age. You have set a course for much struggle, and sacrifice. But you’ve also set a course for so much enjoyment, a larger world. Can you believe people will actually pay me to play?! Isn’t that wonderful?! I make my own hours and I call the shots. I work from my home and I rest when I want to, work when I want to. I’m responsible and don’t let it slip, I take my job seriously! But it’s not really a job for me. I love what I do. And that, Rocco, is the bottom line. You must love what you do. You must enjoy it, at least 80 to 90% of the time. If you don’t, then maybe it’s not for you. Art can be fun. It can be a lot of other things too, but most important: IT CAN BE FUN!!!
Thanks for your letter, and thanks for being into my work. It always amazes me to see how the work gets out there and how it affects people.
I think that you are making an excellent choice in deciding to pursue drawing and painting as opposed to just “Comic” drawing. Kent Williams and I both made that decision while we were in school at Pratt Institute and we’ve never regretted it. If you really learn to draw, I mean really draw, there is nothing that can stand in your way. And the study of paint will be one of your most frustrating, yet most rewarding as well. Yes, I’m still teaching at Pratt (I teach Junior and Senior Illustration) and I may well be there when you attend.
First I will answer your questions and then I will include a reply to a letter I received from an Art student in England which is much more in depth and may answer even more questions for you.
1. Who were your major influences?
My list of influences is so large and so diverse that it would take reams of paper to put them all down. I’m influenced by both fine artists and illustrators, as well as writers and filmakers (all of which are “fine artists” in my opinion). Some of my all time favorites are (and you will find more on this in the other letter): Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Leonard Baskin, Monet, Heinrich Kley, Kathe Kollwitz, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi, Milton Caniff, Jeff Jones, Frank Frazetta, Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth, Harvey Dunn, Hugo Pratt, A.B. Frost, Marshall Arisman, Barron Storey, Berni Wrightson, on and on and on.
2. What is your favorite medium to work in and who was the teacher that taught it to you?
That is a very tough question, mostly because I couldn’t really say which was my favorite. Something always seems to be my favorite until I actually start doing it, then I want to be doing something else. I have to say that Watercolor is the easiest for me because I worked and worked with watercolor under the false assumption that it would teach me how to oil paint. As a result I got very good at it, then found that I had to struggle with oils. I’m constantly being told that watercolor is the most difficult medium to work in, but I’ve never found it so. Oils I believe to be the most difficult and yet the most substantial medium. There is something about paint that is difficult to pass up. And I’m constantly struggling with oils, but as much as I’m frustrated by them, I’m equally in awe of them and happy with many of my paintings.
Then, on the flip side, pen and ink is something that is totally lost these days. Very few people seem to be able to get a grasp on just plain old good drawing. If you can’t draw, you can’t paint. Painting is drawing with the paint, plain and simple.
As far as who taught any of these to me . . . that is as diverse as the first question, literally. Each and every name up there, and then some, taught me what I know. If you look, really look at an artists work you can see how they achieved the piece. Everything is there for you to see. That’s the beauty of art, and artist is laid bare. If you cannot draw, it shows. If you were feeling down, it shows. If you were happy, it shows. All these things are visible in the line, the paint, the mood of the piece. So I learned by looking at others work, emulating the way they saw, the way they placed a line, or painted. In school I learned quite a bit from my teachers, and even more from my fellow students.
To learn to paint, Kent Williams and I would just go out and paint landscapes all the time. We would take little road trips into Pennsylvania or Delaware or Upstate New York to paint. Landscapes are wonderful for that. They are totally about paint. You must create a language with paint in order to paint a landscape, it is totally abstract. A great way to learn how to paint.
Pratt Institute, in their Fine Arts Dept., is very modern. Almost no figurative painting going on there. However I’ve been in many meetings with the head of that department to remedy that situation. By the time you get there you will be able to get what you need.
3. When you were little, did you ever get discouraged and felt that you could never achieve your goal?
When I was little? How about now? You will be forever getting discouraged! That’s part of the whole thing. You need that contrast. If you didn’t get discouraged the achievements wouldn’t seem so great. But yes, I’m always getting discouraged even now. But I’m one of these people that firmly believes that if you want it bad enough it can be yours. Through hard work you can literally move mountains.
4. Do you have a favorite work of your own. Is there anyone else’s work that you like?
There are many favorites of my own. They all are favorites for varied reasons, but the one consistent reason is that I enjoyed doing them. There are some pieces that just seem to happen with little or no help from me. Those are the best, the joys of painting and drawing. You look down at the finished piece and it is as if you are waking up out of a dream. It’s as if you are seeing the piece for the first time, and that someone else did it. The one’s that take little effort always seem to have a life and energy all their own. I’m extremely happy with Enemy Ace and the Sketchbook (No Man’s Land) of all the preparatory work that went into Ace. There are several paintings that I would consider favorites as well. One thing to realize, there are more pieces that don’t work out than do. That’s because we set such high standards for ourselves, as you will too. But don’t despair! The reward is, truly, in the doing. Once it leaves your drawing table, or your easel, and makes its way in the real world, it doesn’t belong to you. And that’s okay, too. You need to make more works to fill the gap.
As to the second question: Yes! This ties into your very first question. But, I also like lots of my contemporaries. Kent Williams’ work I love. Kent and I go way back, we taught each other how to paint and we still teach each other how to paint. Kent is like family to me. Dave McKean, Kent, and I are working together on a publishing company wherein we’ll be able to publish our own books, paintings, music, etc. We would not be able to do this if we did not respect and admire each others work. Also, in order to do this, we have to be totally honest with each other about where we see our strengths and weaknesses, and to point them out if we feel the need. It is difficult, we all are easily bruised, and we are not always in agreeance with each others views, but we feel that makes us stronger.
I like Frank Miller’s work, Dave Mazzuchelli, Mike Mignola, Mark Chiarello (he also went to school with Kent and I, along with John VanFleet, Scott Hanna, etc.), Attillio Micheluzzi, Mattotti, Fritz Scholder, on and on again!
5. What advice do you have for students who are working towards becoming illustrators and/or painters?
First, take a good look at the world around you. The job you have at hand, besides just getting the proper technical skills, is a personal voice. Tell me what you see. An artists job is to see differently, but to show us the common language of what he/she sees. Each person is unique and has something else to say, always. Some, in arguing against figurative work, will say that it’s all been done. Well, it’s not been done by me. And if Gustav Klimt or Whistler, or Monet had believed that we would never have had such beautiful paintings from their hands. We all see something differently, and that is reason enough to explore.
Next, I will say that good painting is good painting regardless of what it will be used for. So really learn to draw, really learn to paint. This cannot be stressed enough. They are skills, they are craft, but along the way, when you have mastered certain aspects of these things, your spirit is released. You will no longer struggle with how to speak, only with what to say.
Don’t have blinders on! If you want to be a figurative painter that does not mean that you don’t look at all art around you. Everything has something of value. Everything! Realize that there is good and bad in all things, even paint. Don’t ignore a school of thought merely because it doesn’t comply with your own. Delve into it and see if there isn’t something there for you. I think that you will find there is. Paint is paint after all. They just have a different way of seeing, and speaking, that’s all. A closed mind is bound to be repetitious and boring, feeding off of the same ideas and information.
Read, write even. But most importantly, don’t be afraid to feel. Drawing and painting is feeling. When you sit down at the breakfast table or go to a diner, and the eating utensils are laid before you, knife and fork on the napkin and the salt/pepper shakers over to the left, glass of water to the right. What is the first thing that people do when they sit down? They invariably rearrange the placemat, adjust the silverware, move that glass of water a quarter-inch over. Why? Because it feels wrong somehow, and they must make it feel right. That is what drawing is. It is constant feeling. You should be like the altimeter in an airplane. The altimeter is a thin wire that hangs exposed in the underbelly of the airplane. It measures wind velocity and temperature and relays these measurements to the crew. You should be an exposed nerve that when it has felt something, tells the rest of us what we already know. You reassure us, you may scare us, you may uplift us, but you remind us all that we, too must feel. That we are human. That beyond the colors of our skin, beyond the countries of origin, or our religions, we are human.
Anyway . . . enough preaching! I hope that this answers your questions, and most importantly, makes you want to continue in the direction you have chosen for yourself. I applaud anyone who makes the decision that you have made in this day and age. You have set a course for much struggle, and sacrifice. But you’ve also set a course for so much enjoyment, a larger world. Can you believe people will actually pay me to play?! Isn’t that wonderful?! I make my own hours and I call the shots. I work from my home and I rest when I want to, work when I want to. I’m responsible and don’t let it slip, I take my job seriously! But it’s not really a job for me. I love what I do. And that, Rocco, is the bottom line. You must love what you do. You must enjoy it, at least 80 to 90% of the time. If you don’t, then maybe it’s not for you. Art can be fun. It can be a lot of other things too, but most important: IT CAN BE FUN!!!
Posted: Fri - September 26, 2003 at 12:34 PM