PETAR MESELDŽIJA ART

Authenticity and fairytales

2012-02-24T11:24:00.000+01:00

For a number of years I have been dreaming of illustrating the Serbian fairytales. While flipping through the books on fairytales illustrated by Ivan Bilibin, Arthur Rackham or John Bauer, I would often wonder how to tackle such a challenge. A few years ago I did illustrate one Serbian fairytale for a Norwegian publisher, as a part of the collection of fairytales from all around the world. In fact I was offered to illustrate two fairytales, but due to my busy schedule at that time, I declined the second one and did only the pictures for the shorter tale. I was so eager to do this job that, instead of painting a one page and a half page illustration, which I was commissioned and paid to do, I did a double page and a one page illustration. Unfortunately, the book was never published.

As it is the case with the most of our dreams, if we dream them long enough, they will eventually come through, in one or another form. Last summer a respectable publisher from Serbia with an appropriate name Čarobna knjiga, which means Magic Book, asked me to participate in a major book project on Serbian fairytales. There are in total 11 illustrators involved in this project, the book will have 224 pages and will be published in Serbia in September this year. No doubt, a major and rather prestigious book, that is intended to set a new standard for that kind of illustrated books, as far as the Serbian market is concerned.

Due to my agreement with the publisher, I am not able to show you the finished paintings (in fact I am still very busy creating them), but I can show you some of the preliminary sketches and studies.

One of the illustrations from the Norwegian project.

You probably noticed that I did different sketches of the same character, which means that I take this task very seriously and that I am not easily satisfied with the first design. One might say that I search for something that I am apparently not able to struck instantly. The thing I am mostly concerned about at this stage of my work on this particular project is the authenticity and the national character of my designs and paintings.

When it comes to illustrating the national themes, one inevitably has to deal with the historical and ethnological authenticity. The specifics of a certain culture like traditional clothing, architecture, various artifacts, human physiognomy, landscapes, and all other things that have to express the national aspect of the story in question, suddenly become an important issue. But while it is quite obvious that one has to be as authentic and as accurate as possible in terms the costumes and props when depicting a specific historic moment , it is something quite different when you deal with fairytales, myths or legends. Although all these stories are mostly a product of fiction, never the less they are firmly rooted in a certain cultural frame. The question I have been asking myself since I have started the work on this book, is how authentic and historically accurate one has to be when dealing with a folk tale, a fairytale. It is clear that a certain doses of authenticity is required, because for instance, a knight from an English legend has to look as a proper English knight, otherwise it has not much sense to call it an English story. At the same time too much history in the fairytale pictures might kill the magic.

How did a Serbian medieval knight, or prince, looked like? How does his castle looked like, what kind of dress did he wear and what kind of designs decorated his clothes? These are quite normal questions, but the answers are not easy to find. After the mighty Ottoman Turks invaded and gradually conquered medieval Serbia and almost all of the Balkans at the beginning of 15th century, the radical and thorough change took place. In the subsequent 5 centuries of the Turkish rule much of the medieval Serbian culture was lost, destroyed and reshaped on the basis of the conqueror ‘s culture. Apart from some indications in the old manuscripts, the more or less canonized depictions on the frescos in the medieval churches , and the poetic and romantic writings in the old epic poetry, there are virtually no solid indications of what a Serbian prince and his world looked like. Generally speaking the Serbian medieval culture was primarily influenced by the Byzantine culture. But, there are indications that the Serbian rulers have imported clothes and armor from Italy and Hungary. Some Serbian kings had married west European princesses, as well as the princesses from the surrounding kingdoms, who inevitably brought some of the fashion from their native cultures, influencing to a certain degree the Serbian court. Besides, it is known that the Emperor Dušan’s personal guard consisted of the German mercenaries, who were dressed as the western soldiers and knights from that period (see the paintings of Emperor Dušan by Paja Jovanović). So, when a fairytale starts with: “Long time ago there lived a king who had three sons…”, you know that you have to place the story in the pre-Turkish times and that you have to deal with the insufficiency of the reference material.

A warrior, fresco from the 13^th century church

But (fortunately there is a “but” here) we are dealing with a fairytale, which in my opinion does not have to be exactly historically accurate in terms of clothing and props (it even sounds a bit silly – a historically accurate fairytale, right?). However it is necessary to show a sufficient amount of basic elements that would suggest the national character, and to depict the rest as suggestive and imaginative as possible.

As long as we are suggesting or showing the right direction, and as long as we infuse our designs with enough imaginative and evocative material for the reader’s mind to be captured and inspired by, we are on the good road. It is all about pointing the “finger” towards the right symbols and archetypes. Our preconditioned and programed mind would do the rest.

Perhaps a good example of this can be found in the sources of inspiration that I have used while designing my King Marko, the main character from The Legend of Steel Bashaw. Because of the nature of this old tale, it is obvious that this king comes from the obscured pre-Turkish times and therefore has to reflect something that the imagination of the public will unquestionably relate to the Serbian medieval noble knight, although as I just said, nobody knows how these knights exactly looked like.

The sources of inspiration I used while designing King Marko were:

- Blue trousers are inspired by the paintings of Paja Jovanović.

- The design of his breastplate was inspired by the old coins that were found at the archeological location of the Russian city of Novgorod.

- King Marko wears a traditional Serbian shoes, that probably did not exist in the middle ages, and if they did exist, a king would surely NOT wear them.

- He wears a yellow tunic under his armor that comes from the famous Rembrandt’s painting “The Night watch”

- The general design of his armor is inspired by the relative complexity of the armor of the Byzantine warriors/knights.

- Marko’s exaggeratedly long mustache indicate a feature on the man’s face that was so common in the Balkans in the past. My grandfather, for instance, who was born at the end of the 19th century, for the most of his adult life had a long mustache. As an old man (he died when he was 96) he looked like an iconic bard from the Serbian epics.

That’s it. Until now, I haven’t heard anybody complaining about King Marko not being authentic enough.

So, my conclusion is that as long as the sum of the details and symbols in our designs and compositions points out towards the right direction and brings the desirable associations and emotions to the surface of the reader’s/spectator’s mind, without damaging the magic, and maintaining and supporting the required illusion (the suspension of disbelief), we are achieving our goal as illustrators of this kind of stories. After all, as illustrators, fantasy illustrators in particular, we are a kind of dream makers. At its best, we help create dreams that make up the foundations of reality.

Dream well

Quilt project

2012-02-12T12:19:00.000+01:00

A few months ago, while I was at IlluXcon, LizAnn Lizotte approached me and ask if I would be willing to participate in a quilt project. She asked all artists who were present at the show to do a sketch, or a painting, on a little square of cotton cloth. She would then put these painted patches together and make a quilt. When the job is finished, Pat Wilshire will auction it off to raise funds for art student scholarships.

Other artists of note included in the project are: Justin Gerard, Donato Giancola, Raoul Vitale, Omar Rayyan, Vincent Villafranca, Matt Stewart, Jordu Schell, John Harris, Chris Moeller, Allen Williams, Jeremy Caniglia, Eric Velhagen, Tom Taggart, Didier Graffet, Soutchay Soungpradith, among others.

So, I said yes, and brought my piece of cloth home, in order to make a quick oil sketch of…something. The size of the cotton patch was about 4 ½ X 4 ½ inch, or 11 X 11 cm. The deadline for delivering the painted patch was the beginning of January, but because of my busy schedule, I was not able to meet the due date. Then, at the beginning of February, when I was asked if my little sketch was finished, I felt bad about not keeping my promise and decided to “punish” myself by making a little painting, instead of making just a quick sketch in color. So, I did this little painting of a silly giant.

I was surprised to discover how much fun I had while making this little painting. The cotton cloth was very finely woven and it was surprisingly easy and joyous to apply the oil color to it. I than realized that I could do some little experiments and try to find out how this miniature format would fit me. The experience was very refreshing and insightful and I decided to do more of this kind of little silly paintings. If my busy schedule permits it, I might do a couple of them and bring it with me to the Spectrum Live show. So, if you have always dreamed of having an original Meseldzija in your collection, but did not have enough funds to finance this dream, this is your chance. With the help of just a couple of hundred bucks you might persuade me to sell one of these little paintings to you.

See you in Kansas City in May!

Conan Commission, part 4

2012-02-02T22:29:00.001+01:00

Here are the new progress shots of the Conan painting. A few days ago I somehow managed to bring the painting to the edge of disaster, when I tried to paint the background. I needed to define the color and the values of the background first, in order to know how to tackle the rest of the painting. It just did not work out. I got more and more desperate as I started to realize that my initial intention to paint the background lighter than the foreground, was not a good idea after all. So, at the end of the exhausting day, I finally decided to make a radical change and to rearrange and repaint the background.

The painting looks still quite messy and far from being finished, but at least now I know how to proceed with it.

Some paintings are destined to have a relatively smooth and more or less clearly defined path. Others are unpredictable and have a stubborn character. The paintings with the less “tamable” character tend to cause some headaches and sleepless nights, never the less, they often help us to transcend the dusty and established routes, and our cliché-thinking, that from time to time need to be shaken a little, in order for us to grow and to bring our work to another level. I guess that not everyone likes the turbulences that the change often brings with it, but if we want to be completely honest, we have to admit that the change (together with the transience) is the only permanent and certain thing in Life. It will never disappoint us by its absence. So I say, don’t be afraid, embrace it instead, as much as you can.

Uroš Predić (Orlovat 1857 – Belgrade 1953)

2012-01-27T14:29:00.001+01:00

Uroš Predić, one of the greatest Serbian painters, was born in 1857 in Orlovat , a village in the region of Banat, to the family of Petar Predić, who was a priest, and his wife Marija. After finishing the grammar school in Pančevo, in 1876 he enrolled in the Academy of Arts in Vienna. Once settled in this magnificent capital city of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Predić devoted himself to his studies very seriously. He studied under the respected Austrian artist Christian Grippenkerl, who was also the professor of Paja Jovanović. Upon graduating, Predić was accepted into the professor’s “personal studio” and into a special school of the Academy, where he was given a position of an assistant. He also assisted the Professor Grippenkerl on the frieze with thirteen scenes of ancient history, in the Herrenhaus Hall of the new Parliament building. Unfortunately those pictures were destroyed in the bombing of 1944.

After some time he gave up his position as an assistant at the Academy and decided to go back to his homeland. During the next 10 years, depending on the jobs he had, he spent his time in different places, like Orlovat, Belgrade and Novi Sad. In that period he painted several important works, that would become one of the most loved and known paintings from the history of Serbian Art, paintings like “ Jolly Brothers” and “An Orphan upon His Mother’s Grave ”.

Jolly Brothers, 1887

His first and quite remarkable exhibition was held in Belgrade in 1888, and after that he became a very known and respected painter in Serbia. In 1889 he won the competition for painting the iconostasis for the monumental new church in the town of Novi Bečej. From 1889-1894 he painted more than 60 paintings (icons), making a great contribution to the beauty of the lavishly engraved altar screen, which became one of the most remarkable Serbian iconostases of the last couple of centuries.

The iconostasis in the church of Novi Bečej

After finishing his work in Novi Bečej, Predić firmly decided not to accept any future commissions from the churches. He intended to further pursue a career of a painter who makes the paintings of people and for the people, something that he did in the 1880ies. However, the illness and the subsequent death of his brother, and Predić’s deep concern for his brother’s family, among other things, made him reconsider his decision and forced him to accept the offer to work on the iconostasis in another church, which was a secure and well paid job. “Fulfillment of human duties offered an ample compensation for the abandonment of all ambitions of youth”, wrote Predić later in his Autobiography. In 1894 he moved to his village of Orlovat, and lived there with his mother for the next 15 years, which he later described as “the best fifteen years of his life”.

During his long and prolific life, Predić painted a great number of religious paintings for the numerous churches and private clients, becoming the greatest Serbian iconographer of the modern age. Predić also became a great portraitist and created a large number of portraits of kings and queens, wealthy people, politicians , scientists, artists , family members and friends. He loved his work tremendously and even at the age of 95 he daily had his painting brush and paints in his hand. After he broke his hipbone in spring, 1952, his health deteriorated and he died the following year on February 11, 1953.

Uroš Predić restoring his icons, 1931

I have always loved the paintings of Uroš Predić and felt emotionally connected to his art. His paintings, I think, possess a certain intimacy, warmth and the emotional depth, the qualities that come from his love for his art, dedication , persistency and hard work. I must say that I sometimes miss this kind of emotional involvement in the paintings of Paja Jovanovic. His paintings are often grand, visually impressive and superbly executed, but at the same time they sometimes lack the emotional depth, which I find in the paintings of Uroš Predić. However, I am a great admirer of both artists and I am grateful for having their paintings around me while growing up and developing my artistic skills and insights.

This blog post about Uroš Predić, and the previous one about Paja Jovanović, are a token of my gratitude and a homage to these great painters.

And I thought it was time to announce the existence of their beautiful art to the wider world.

Enjoy

St. George, 1907

Bosnian Refugees, 1889

An Orphan upon His Mother’s Grave, 1888

The Maiden of Kosovo, 1919

The Girl at the Well, 1818/1936

A Nude, 1917

Iconostasis in the Grgeteg Monastery, 1900/1092

Christ, the icon from the Bečej iconostasis

Madona with Christ, Almaška Church, Novi Sad, 1905

Madona with Christ (detail), the icon from the Pančevo Church, 1909

St. Dimitrije, 1907

St. George Slaying the Dragon, 1930

St. Nicolas rescuing the shipwrecked, 1932

St. Nikola and Patriarch Lukijan, 1910

Bishop Irinej Ćirić,1923

An Angry Girl, 1879

Moravian Girl, 1879/1880

Milan Savić, 1900

Marko Murat, 1919

Queen Natalia Obrenović of Serbia

King Petar I Karadjordjević, 1921

Conan commission, part 3

2012-01-16T00:27:00.003+01:00

It’s been a while since my last Conan commission update (click here if you have missed the previous updates). I wish I could show you more but, as I already announced, there are some other jobs that I had to attend to. However, since a few days ago I am working on the Conan painting again. Beside tackling some other parts of this composition, I tried to define the final position of the Conan figure as well, especially the position of his leg and his arm. Because of the specific reasons, that I will explain later when the painting is finished, I wanted to keep Conan’s left leg as stretched out as possible.

Here are a few images to illustrate the progress and the slight changes in the Conan figure that happened during the process, and as you can see, much of it is not finished yet. But anyway, for you who are interested in how I move from the underpainting to the next step, here you go.

Paja Jovanović ( Vršac 1859 – Vienna 1957)

2012-01-12T10:33:00.003+01:00

Paja Jovanović is one of the greatest Serbian painters. Uroš Predić, another great painter, is perhaps the only artist from the Serbian art Pantheon, who can match, to a certain degree, Paja Jovanovic in terms of the technical excellence and the impact of his paintings on the Serbian people and their culture. (I will write about Uroš Predić in the near future).

Paja Jovanović was a greatly talented, virtuous painter, nationally and internationally very successful, rich, praised and adored, although later in his life his art was criticized and dismissed by some of the 20th century art critics as outdated, dry, staged, detached from real life and a sterile example of the Academic Realism. Whatever the point of view of the scholarly art establishment, the fact is that his art was loved by the people. It has been said that, during a certain period, there was almost no Serbian home that did not have a reproduction on the wall of one of Jovanović's famous pictures. (Nowadays the situation is quite different...)

In his long and prolific life, Paja Jovanovic created a large number of paintings, and although he also gained popularity as the remarkable portraitist, immortalizing many kings and queens, the politicians, the wealthy people and the artists, he is after all best known for his genre-compositions and works with the historical content. Although classified as the works of the Academic Realism, these depictions of the important moments from the national history, and the representations of the folkways, give more or less idealized, almost romantic, view of the history and the reality of life in the Balkans during the second part of the 19th century. Never the less, these images had a great appeal to the people of his time (they still do, as you will probably see for yourself while looking at the pictures below), and rooted themselves deeply within the national psyche. In a way they represented the powerful symbols of iconic, almost epic proportions, offering the guidelines to the national spirit that was, in those days, seeking its visual manifestation.

Wounded Montenegrin, 1882 (Paja Jovanovic was still a student of 22 in Vienna when he painted this painting, his first master piece)

However idealized, or unrealistic these images might appear, I think they should primarily be seen as the works of art, often technically brilliant, that deals with symbols and archetypes. As we know, the symbols are never meant to be the accurate historic, or journalistic accounts of the specific moments in time and space. Their function is rather to embody a certain universal idea, or the unifying aspects, and to communicate them to the consciousness in a way that enables the emotional and spiritual recognition and acceptance of their message. Many of Jovanović’s paintings, and their subsequent history, show how powerful and evocative these symbols can be.

Fencing, 1882 - 90

However important or crucial to life, or to society, when taken out of the right context, all things tend to become less relevant; they lose their power and meaning. Therefore, my strong conviction, especially when it comes to less exact, or less “measurable” aspects of Life, like Art, is that it is outermost important to see things within the right context. When it comes to judging the artistic achievements of Paja Jovanović, this was apparently a difficult task during the 20sth century because of the dominion of the Modernistic Dogma, among a few other things, like politics, etc.. Nowadays, after being freed from its possessive and mighty grip, the world of art, and the art loving public in particular, is again allowed to enjoy and rediscover the forgotten qualities of until relatively recently despised forms of art like the Academic Realism, and alike. The fact that a serious, full scale monograph about life and work of Paja Jovanović has been published in Serbia just two years ago, more than 50 years after his death, is an example of the impact of the various dogmas on the way many people saw his art. The good thing is that there are now two Paja Jovanović books in the bookstores; one written by Nikola Kusovac and published by Belgrade City Museum (text is in Serbian, with only the summary in English); the other being published by “Radionica duše” and edited by Momčilo Moša Todorović (text in Serbian and English).

In spite of all the criticism, whether justified or unjustified, that the work of Paja Jovanović had to endure during the 20th century, and having in mind his remarkable and imoportant position in the Serbian art and culture, he definitely deserves these monographs. As Mr. Kusovac stated in his book abuot Paja Jovanovic: "...Still, no Serbian painter, before or after Paja Jovanovic, has ever influenced the fine arts education, culture and, most of all, the patriotism of his people to such extend and so powerfully..."

Decorating of the Bride, 1886

Alas, when I was an art student in the eighties, there was no book full of glorious images of Paja Jovanović’s art. Therefore I often used to visit the museums to analyze and to try to reveal the secrets of his paintings, or better said a limited number of them that I had access to. I must say that, in those days, it was not very popular for an art student to be interested in such an art, and to seek the inspiration in something that was considered to be old-fashioned and conservative. But, in spite of the mockery, I stayed close and fateful to Jovanović’s art. Paja Jovanović was my artistic hero. Thanks to the guidance and help that I have found in his art at the beginning of my art career, I have become what I always wanted to become – a good painter, truthful to his artistic vocation and his personal vision.

Paja Jovanović in his Munich studio, 1889

At the end, because there are not many hi-res images of Paja Jovanović’s work on the internet, and in order to show you some of his greatest paintings, I was forced to scan the images from my books and prints. You will certainly notice which images I am referring to.

More about life and work of Paja Jovanović you can find here or here or here.

Enjoy!

Migration of the Serbs (The First Serbian Migration occurred during the Great Turkish War under Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević in 1690), 1896

Crowning of Emperor Dušan, (in 1346), 1900 (This is a hudge canvas, 390 X 589 cm. Jovanović painted a few versions of this painting)

The Wedding of Emperor Dušan, around 1900

Uprising of Takovo ( The Second Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire in Takovo, 1815), 1898

Return of the Squad of Montenegrins from the Battle, 1888

Furor Teutonicus, black and white reproduction, so called heliograph,1899 (the whereabouts of this huge canvas, about 20 square meters / 216 square feet, is unknown)

Rooster Fight, 1897

Fencing Game, 1890

Albanian resting, around 1890

Traitor, 1885

Falconer, 1890–95

Two Guards in front of a Gate, 1888-89

Snake Tamer, 1887

Mihailo Pupin, 1903

King Aleksandar Karadjordjević, 1930

Jožef Gorup, 1903

Muni, the Artist’s Wife in the Salon, 1930

Portrait of a Lady from Vienna, 1905

King Ferdinand of Romania, 1925

Mrs. Hudson, 1911

Portrait of the painter Symington, 1902-03

Djordje Jovanović, Sculptor, 1905

A Nude on Red Cloth, 1918 - 20

Restoring the Migration of the Serbs

Diablo III: Book of Cain – the drawings

2011-12-30T09:10:00.002+01:00

A few months ago I wrote about my participation within the book project named Diablo III: Book of Cain. Because the book was not released at that moment, I was not allowed to show the three drawings I was commissioned to do. I promised to post the drawings as soon as the book is released.

Well, the book is now available for purchase, and these are the drawings…

Tyrael battling against Tal Rasha

Tal Rasha

King Leoric and Archbishop Lazarus executing peasant

This is how the printed drawings look like.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T20:04:00.002+01:00

It seems to me that one of the greatest challenges in Life is how to find, and maintain, Peace within ourselves and in the World.

Perhaps the following quote might offer us a durable solution to this problem:

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

So, Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it,

and Happy, Peaceful and Creative New Year to All!

Christmas present, oil on paper, 1991.

The giants are coming

2011-12-20T09:08:00.004+01:00

“ From the deep, murky abyss of the forgotten past, moving slowly and inevitably like the future, the Giants were coming.

A huge mountain of gigantic figures moved steadily like an immense wave, shattering the landscape upon which they walked. Everything they set their feet on was reduced to rubble and dust. Hills were flattened, mountains crashed, forests swept away, villages and towns erased from the face of the Earth.

People, mad from fear and despair, fled towards the mountains, hoping to find a hole in the ground and save the only thing they were left with, their bare lives. Animals run, flew or crawled franticly, trying to escape the approaching horror. Ancient trees stood their ground proudly, waiting for the inevitable to happen. Leafs trembled silently and without motion, in their green hearts.

Then, the whole wave of escaping creatures came to a standstill, suddenly, as a gigantic figure appeared in front of them among the highest mountain peaks. Another giant, even a bigger one. He stood motionlessly and looked towards the approaching wall of the titans and dust. His white long beard, flew freely in the mountain wind, falling onto the tree tops of the forest that covered the mountain slopes, and then rising again towards the sky dispersing the clouds like the flocks of starlings. His eyes, blue and red as the sky at sunset, were shooting fearsome arrows across the valley that stretched itself between the two mountain ranges.

Than he opened his mouth and released a deep, powerful voice, that seemed like it came straight from the very core of the Earth:

“ STOP! YOU CANNOT PASS, HERE. GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM…!

The mountain of giants slowed down and eventually stopped. The crushing noise that followed them faded away. For a moment there was a profound silence in the air, and on the ground. Then, from across the wide valley, the answer came rolling like a thunder:

“MOTHER EARTH HAS CALLED UPON US TO PURIFY HER COUNTENANCE. MOVE ASIDE…!

The white bearded giant raised his mighty hand and said:

“I AM SVJATOGOR, THE SON OF THE MOUNTAINS. I PROTECT THEM AND ALL THAT LIVES BENEATH AND ABOVE THEIR SURFACE. GO BACK…!

“MOVE ASIDE, SVJATOGOR…!

“GO BACK…!

Silence again. A long, deafening silence. Even the mountain wind stopped his everlasting dance around the high peaks. People stopped breathing. Animals froze. Trees stopped moving their branches …………..And then, the giants unlashed their attack on Svjatogor. Like an immense unstoppable wave they threw themselves on the lonely defender of the mountains…”

Text © Copyright Petar Meseldzija

--------------------------------------------

This is the beginning of the story that accompanies the drawing. The entire story will be published in my new book on GIANTS. The book is still in progress.

Svjatogor - defender of the mountains

The drawing was initially commissioned by a collector from Canada, and it was this drawing that triggered the creation of the story.

Conan Commission, part 2

2011-12-08T11:07:00.001+01:00

The underpainting – This is always a fun part for me. It is relatively relaxing because I don’t have to think about the color, or the brushwork. My only concerns during this stage are the FORM and the VALUE arrangements. I find this moment very exciting and inspiring, for the world of the future painting starts to reveal itself for the first time. You see a kind of magic evolve in front of you, as the white shapeless gesso surface turns into a suggestive two-dimensional world. True magic, indeed. But that’s the essence of Art, after all. In its core, it still echoes the ancient magical ritual.

These are the colors I use for my underpainting. From left to right: titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, burnt umber, permanent red-violet and cobalt blue.

The underpainting in progress.

The finished underpainting, and a detail.

The real work starts from this point on.
I leave the relative safety of the “harbour”, and “sail” towards the unpredictable open waters of the “Ocean”. Before that I might address Minerva ( the Roman goddess of poetry, wisdom, art, magic, etc.) in a quick prayer, asking her to help me and my little “ship”, to reach the other side safe and sound.

Each painting is (should be) a new adventure, a unique act of discovery.

As Marcel Proust, a famous French author and critic, said: “ The only true voyage of discovery … would be not to visit new landscapes, but to possess other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to see the hundred universes that each of them sees”. (Also often seen translated in the shortened form: “The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes).

Conan Commission

2011-12-02T11:06:00.001+01:00

For many years I wanted to do a Conan painting, but never got the chance to realize this dream. As a young adult I passionately read the Conan comics, especially those that were done by John Buscema, a master draftsman. I was also very much impressed by Frazetta’s Conan, but I also regarded a few of the Conan paintings by Boris Vallejo as one of the best.

A few months ago a private collector asked me whether I would be willing to do a Conan painting for his collection. I said YES, of course, and soon after that I did a little rough sketch of the scene that had to depict a moment from the story of “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”. Well, as you probably already know, “to depict” a scene from a story, means in my case “to interpret it”, in one or another way.

I decided to present you with a series of posts about the development of this commission. I intend to lead you through all the stages of the process, as the work on the painting progresses. But, I have to ask you to be a little patient because this project might take some time, for I have to do three different projects at the same time.

So, let’s get started.

This is the rough sketch of the composition. After I became sure about the general positioning of the characters, I went in search of the reference material. The appropriate reference photos and props will play a very important role in this commission, for one of my main objectives this time will be the “naturalism”. This task of using the naturalistic approach within a painting that deals with fantastic, is a tricky thing. Although not the only way of depicting the world of Fantasy and Mythology, the appropriate stylization of form and atmosphere seems to be the most often chosen path by the artists. Anyway, in the coming weeks (if not months), we shall see how far this painting will let me go in my pursuit of this aim of naturalism. But I have to say that, although an important aspect, the naturalism is not the final station of my Conan journey. The right atmosphere of the painting as a whole, is (should be) the ultimate goal.

The study of the Snow Giants done after I made a several photos of the Vikings from Germany, during a Viking Festival that was held in Archeon, a fascinating theme park here in the Netherlands.

The final preliminary study of the scene, or better said the characters, because the background has not yet been defined. In order to collect the appropriate reference material for the background, I will have to travel to the North Pole…(just joking, a library around the corner would be a perfect solution).
The Conan figure was done more or less from memory, because I had no reference photos. Unfortunately I have some problems with finding a nicely shaped male model for my Conan. Any volunteers…? I pay 20 Euro per hour if you are an amateur model, and I pay nothing if you are a friend, except for the unforgettable cup of Turkish coffee and a glass of Serbian Sljivovitsa, or a bottle of good Belgian beer (we do this after the photo session), and a delicious diner.

The same preliminary study with the Conan's leg slightly shifted to the right to achieve a better balance of the negative space.

A detail from the final preliminary drawing.

The final tracing of the drawing. This is going to be transferred onto the wooden board. The next step is underpainting.

End of part 1

IlluxCon Lecture, part 2

2011-11-20T14:54:00.001+01:00

Emotion in Art

This image is taken from Christopher Burdett’s blog

…….

In order to explain properly these three stages of infusing an art piece with the emotional content, I will have to tell you something about the genesis of my book The Legend of Steel Bashaw, for as far as I am concerned, it perfectly reflects all the mentioned stages.

In 1991 the civil war broke out in Former Yugoslavia. Although the area where I lived was not directly hit by the war violence, just about 80 km / 50 miles away, the fierce fighting was going on. Because it was a bloody, dirty civil war, and because I thought that I was not born to hold the rifle in my hands and destroy (or be destroyed), but to hold the painting brush and to create instead, I decided to leave the country. So, I quickly packed some things, clothes, a few paintings and drawings, took some money that I previously earned by making comics, and left my parents’ home. A few hours later I was sitting in the train that was heading towards Budapest, the capitol city of the nearby country of Hungary.

So, unexpectedly and just within a few hours, and with much pain and anxiety in my heart, I was forced to leave the first 26 years of my life behind; my parents, brother, girlfriend, friends and about everybody and everything else that defined and made up my life. Besides, I did not know whether I would ever be able to return and see them again.

A few days later I came out of the train at the Amsterdam Central Station in the Netherlands. I have never been in the Netherlands before, I did not speak the language, I did not have any relatives or friends there to help me, I did not have place to stay, and I had very little money in my pocket.

This was the beginning of my new life, and although I was afraid and extremely sad, I had to react quickly and make sure to find a place to stay, and to find the way to survive in this new surroundings, that were quite alien to me at that time.

However I struggled and fought for survival on a daily basis. The next 5 years were the hardest and the most dramatic years of my life. It was not only very hard to survive physically, but also I was going through an emotional hell.

Fortunately I was able to find some job relatively soon, and for the next two years I was doing commercial art. And although I did my best and worked very hard, everything in my life was uncertain. I somehow managed to earn enough money to buy some food and to pay my bills. During these years I have learned well what poverty, uncertainty and anxiety are.

There was only one thing in my life I could rely on; it was my work, my art. However, after two years of very commercial and badly paid work, I felt the urge to do something only for myself. I was also very homesick and was starting to have problems with my identity, as most of the emigrants do, I guess.

You come to a strange land and bring with you the sense of yourself that was built upon the life experience and the things you have learned from your surroundings in your homeland. Eventually you find yourself in a completely new situation and you realize that your old identify is not compatible with these new and unknown circumstances. You wrestle with this emotional issue and eventually have to reconsider who you are, and to reinvent yourself and your identity in order to be able to function properly in your new life.

You who never have been in a similar situation have to believe me that it is a big emotional struggle and a painful issue and problem that, I believe, many emigrants never manage to solve entirely and properly, and therefore never become whole again as a person. You stay kind of spilt for the rest of your life, for one part of you actually has never left the place you came from and has been stuck in the past, while another part does its best to integrate into the new life.

In order to help myself deal with this problem, and to find out what my true identity is, I decided to illustrate a very known and popular Serbian folktales called Bas Čelik (or Steel Bashaw).

By the way, Edmud Dulac, the famous French/English illustrator has illustrated this folktale in 1916, within his collection of fairytales from the allied nations.

1 - So, we have here the first of three stages – my emotional involvement with the subject, and even more than that – a strong urge to dive deep into this subject and therefore help myself solve the problem of identity, which implied profound identification with the subject.

2 – For a number of years I stayed in emotional contact with my subject by digging through the history, ethnology, literature, art, etc., of my people and my motherland. By doing so I strengthened and examined my relationship with my national identity. It was an important journey into my inner self, and it was elating, as well as painful. Traces of these emotions were brought into the paintings through the compositions, design patterns and the brushwork.

I do not remember when and how, but after a while the national aspect of this inner journey slowly shifted towards the more universal dimensions and, although I stayed connected to that national part through a kind of invisible inner cord, I kind of drifted away towards the world of archetype and mythology. Strangely, I slowly realized that I was able to feel pretty comfortable and at home out there. My wounds started to heal.

3 – Because I was working on Steel Bashaw book for number of years (in fact it took me 15 years to complete it, including many breaks of which the longest one took 7 years), my vision and my technique developed and changed together with the changes in my thinking and feeling. And as my technical skills grew, my ability to express my emotions through painting grew as well. Towards the end of the project I felt more and more liberated and self-confident, and that helped me express myself without (or with significantly less) strain in my paintings.

Now I will try to demonstrate how I use my painting technique to express emotions.

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Here are some photos of the painting demo, including one short video, made by my wife Anita, Morgan Bantly and Mark Harchar.

I did the underpainting before my trip to the US.

IlluxCon 4

2011-11-18T16:48:00.005+01:00

Illuxcon 4 has passed and left us with loads of wonderful impressions, memories, photographs, inspiration and a wish to return to Altoona the next year.

Illuxcon 4 was an extraordinary experience and a very successful show for me. I saw many beautiful and inspiring artworks, had wonderful conversations with many fellow artists and visitors (it’s pity I did not have enough time to speak with more of them), made some new friends, sold some paintings, drawings and many books, and I even had my first public lecture and painting demo during this amazing event. It was truly unforgettable and I will surely be back the next year.

I totally agree with Donato Giancola's observation that“…The one biggest drawback to this event is that it is not long enough!...”

A special thanks goes to the organizers Pat and Jeannie Wilshire, who have put together yet another impeccable show; to Morgan and Jean Bantly, our most dear friends and wonderful people, who selflessly helped us in so many different ways; to my dear fellow artists and friends Donato Giancola, Justin Gerard, Dan Dos Santos, Jesper Ejsing, Daren Bader, Raoul Vitale, Garry Lippincott, Eric Fortune, Thomas Kuebler, Omar Rayyan, Marc Fishman and Mark Harchar, who inspired me with their art, thoughts and insights; to Gregg Spatz who is a first class art collector and a great guy; to the kind people who bought my “Giants – Bull Fight” painting; and to Katie Langford, for a wonderful present!

In fact, I want to thank all of you who were so kind to visit our booth, to buy a book and to talk to us and express your feelings and thoughts about art we had on our display. It’s much appreciated! I have certainly enjoyed every and each conversation.

For those of you who were not present at my Illuxcon lecture, but might be interested in what I had to say during the presentation, I am offering you the written version of this lecture. You can find the first part of it at the bottom of this post. The second part will follow in a day or two.

Opening the crate full of paintings, with Jean Bantly

Morgan and Jean Bantly "framing" the Eowyn painting

Our booth, with Anita and Jean

Anita, my wife, faithful companion and my invaluable assistent, watching over our booth

The show seen from the balcony.

Donato Giancola's booth

A part of the exhibit

Jesper Ejsing's booth

Steve Prescott at his booth

Daren Bader's booth

Lucas Graciano at his booth

Raoul Vitale, with his son and wife, at his booth

Tyler Jacobson at his booth

Anita and Jean talking to Omar Rayyan

Somebody made a good joke, with Daren Bader, Jesper Ejsing and Ryan Pancoast in the background

With Katie Langford and her amazing giant present

Katie's giant and her 2D model

Illuxcon Lecture, part 1

Emotion in Art

“I think, therefore I am” –Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650).

Rene Descartes was a French philosopher, writer and mathematician who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the father of modern philosophy, and much subsequent western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. Descartes was one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution.

I have no intention to deny this ingenious idea, which greatly influenced the thinking of the modern era, and therefore defined our own approach to life, the human being and of course art. But as we know, thinking, or ratio, is not all we have or need in life.

So, I say - I feel, therefore I am.

It has been said that the complex emotions define a human being perhaps more than any other aspect of him. People need emotions in order to connect, and because Art is created by people, Art needs emotion to connect with people.

When it comes to Art, emotion plays a key role. It has often been proved that Art without emotional content is like food without taste. I don’t want to marginalize the importance of an idea in Art, but I believe that the emotion is more essential. Generally speaking most of us react more to emotions than to ideas. Even when an idea is very appealing to us, it is in fact the emotion that goes with the particular idea, that draws our attention toward that idea. In a great piece of art, emotion is what touches us deeply and moves us profoundly.

Well, the theory is nice but it has not much sense unless it has been proven in practice. Therefore a question that present itself is how do we infuse our artwork with emotion?

I will try to explain this by dividing it in three parts, or stages:

1. Get emotionally involved with the subject matter you paint. Identify with what you
paint. A nice example of this identification with the subject matter is to be found
among the icon painters.

An icon is a holy picture which has primarily liturgical function. Although a product of art, its function, first of all, is to allow contact between the transcendental world and our own material world. Some call the icons the windows through which the inhabitants of the transcendental worlds look at us. On the other hand, these painted "windows" help us to get in contact with the transcendental level of existance. So, a painter of icons is a monk whose function is to be the medium between these two worlds. Therefore it is expected from him to submerge himself in the religious life and to become as “clean” as possible, in the spiritual sense, so that the information that comes from above to us through him, or through his icon, is as clean and as pure as possible. He prepares himself by prayer and meditation, in order to align himself spiritually with the transcendental, and to perform his task properly.

If we now project this principle to non-religious art, we might be astonished by the similarities between an icon painter and the usual “true” artist ( by true artist I mean the artist who lives his art very much like a good monk who lives his religion.)

Many masters from the past have emphasized the need of getting in contact with, or even temporarily becoming, the subject that the artist wants to depict in his artwork. This is a crucial point in making art, and good art in particular. Art is conceived from within first. It exists in the spirit and needs material means, like the paint or the art technique, to express itself in the material world. So, the art technique is a tool, or a medium, through which Art is incarnated in our world. However, all of us here have, at least once, encountered a painting that is brilliant on the surface (technically brilliant) but somewhat hollow from inside.

Of course the components of the process of creation are many, they are interconnected and entangled, and it is not that easy to define the borders between them.

Anyway, we have to try to see these things in the right perspective. Technique is extremely important simply because it represents the bridge between the world of ideas (emotions) and the material world. But art doesn’t reside in technique only.

2. Stay in emotional contact with your painting’s subject by visualizing the painting before you start your work. Make conscious contact between the painting and your past experiences with the subject matter you paint, as much as possible. Go back to the source of inspiration.

For instance, I

· listen to the music that helps me stay in contact with the source of inspiration, or source of emotion (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Edward Grieg, Antonin Dvorak or Alexander Borodin, especially his pieces like Prince Igor –Polovetsian Dance, or In the Steppes of Central Asia).

· try to recall my childhood or youth memories of, for instance, big trees, forests, rivers, faces, certain situations, etc., and the emotions that went with them (I meditate and contemplate on these subject matters)

· look at the old photos

· read books

· study nature, architecture, folklore

· I bombard my mind with large amounts of appropriate images, until it starts to create the most vivid pictures, and I start seeing them when I close my eyes

· analyze the work of the artists that inspire me

These things help me to stay in touch with a particular emotion(s).

If you do these things, than the next step will happen (partly) on its own.

3. Express the emotion through your art technique. Choose an appropriate technique. In order to express emotions freely and without restraint through the chosen technique you have to master this technique first. These days there are many books, web sites and blogs that can help you to achieve this goal. Just choose the most appealing master, or technique, and practice hard. After 10 to 20 years, depending upon your talent and how hard you work, you will become a master in your own right and be able to express your emotions freely and without restraint, focusing only on the expression through your technique. But beware of the trap; if you linger too long on technique, you might never make the step towards the free expression in your art.

Fortunately, what happens in practice most of the time is that while we are developing our technical skills, we also develop our expression and gradually become cognitive of our own path, who we are and what we want to achieve as an artist. Only, in the beginning the emphasis is on learning and developing the technical skills, unless you have chosen a form of artistic expression wherein the technique doesn’t play an important role. But now, I am mostly referring to the illustration art.

(end of part 1)

A Dream

2011-10-22T07:37:00.000+02:00

I don’t know if these words will be for you – the right words, on the right place, at the right time, or the wrong words, on the wrong place, at the wrong time, or any other combination in between these two extremes. You have to decide for yourself.

------------------

Some time ago I had a strange dream. I was walking along the steep path that led towards the hills and a mountain behind them, when I came across a man who was descending down the same road. When we approached each other he said:

“Hello there! It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it!

“Yes, a very pleasant day, a perfect day for hiking”, I replied.

“Every day is good for hiking, though not every hiking path is good for you. Talking about hiking, how is your latest painting progressing?”

I probably had that funny expression on my face of somebody who was suddenly struck by a great surprise, for a wide and friendly smile appeared on his face.

“Do we know each other, sir? How did you know that I was an artist?”

“Well, perhaps it’s my job to know. Sorry, I can’t tell you more about that”, he answered, and then quickly added, “ but there is something else I can and should tell you”.

“I know that you are enchanted by the technical side of creating Art and the impact it makes on others. Therefore I perfectly understand why you are on your way to the top of this mountain. This mountain, in fact, is not built of rock and soil, but of skillful drawing, lucid picture compositions, appealing color combinations, intelligent use of light and breathtaking brushstrokes. It contains ideas of promoting your work and selling yourself and your art. Likewise it is partly composed of the wishes that you might one day be able to say - I have worked for this or that prestigious company. And at last but not least, it contains hopes for filling your piggy bank with glittering coins, your ears with flattering compliments and your shelves with golden awards.

You say “I am hiking on this road”. No, my dear, you are not hiking. The truth is that you are dancing the everlasting dance in a vicious circle.You are dancing a perilous dance of vanity and idleness. Above all, most of the time you are dancing to somebody else’s music. And although you claim that this music contains some notes of your own, it is still being composed and played by others. You might say after all: “well, I am just a dancer and need some music to dance”. But you are wrong, for you are much more than a mere dancer.

However, once you have finally climbed the steep and tricky slopes and have reached the highest peak of this mountain, you will discover that there is even a greater mountain in front of you. This mountain will be covered in mist, and although you will not be able to see the peak, you will sense its presence behind the curtains of fog. You will then know that there is a splendid peak that is waiting to be conquered by you. You will be attracted by this newly discovered mountain. In order to reach its invisible peak you will have to rely on your own intuition and your previously gained insights. There will be no charts or maps to show you the way. You will have to create them for yourself. And because most of others did not dare to leave the comfortable position on the lower mountain peak, there will be not many whom you can turn to and ask for advice.

And when you ( if you) reach this higher ground, there will be no one to witness your great achievement, except for the mountain itself. If you in the meantime did not manage to realize who you are and how good you are, you will be in trouble, my friend.”

“I believe I know these things; why you are telling this to me?”, I replied in an angry manner.

“Believing and knowing is not the same. Besides, who says I am telling it to you only?

He then lightly touched his hat and went down the road. I stayed behind puzzled by his words and asking myself who this guy was. The conviction that I have previously seen his face quickly grew in my mind.

”Damn it” , I finally realized, “ it’s William Blake!”.

Then I woke up. My eyes fell on the book that I read last night just before I fell in sleep. The book’s title was: William Blake, The Complete Poems.

William Blake, painted by Thomas Phillips in 1807.

Death Dealer commission, part 10

2011-10-16T12:40:00.000+02:00

Afterword

While I was working on the Death Dealer commission many people were reacting on the posted sketches. Some comments were positive and encouraging, other were critical about one or another aspect of the sketch and often very much attached to the personal taste of the commentator in question. Nevertheless, all of them were useful in one or another way and they contained an important lesson.

Thank you all for your comments!

While the work on this commission was going on, I decided not to react to the comments because:

Firstly, I did not know how this commission will turn out (the possibility of a failure was hanging above my head, and I think I was the only one who was absolutely not sure about the outcome of this commission. I think most of the people who left a comment where sure that the final result will be “fantastic”. I wish I had the same amount of optimism about my own work as they did).

Secondly, I was hoping that the posted sketches, and the final drawing, would give the best answer to most of the questions and comments.

All in all, this was a very useful experiment and a great experience. Apart from the insights that I have gained about the way others perceive us and our creations, as well as becoming more aware of my own faults, the most important conclusions of this commission were the following two things:

Am I satisfied with my own work? Did I achieve my own objectives?

And, is the client pleased with the results?

Well, having in mind that I was drawing somebody else’s character and have been “visiting” somebody else’s world, I must say that I am satisfied, although I realize that there are a few things that I could have done better.

As for the client ( in this case it is Gregg Spatz from the US, an art collector with great passion for art and a sophisticated taste), upon seeing the final drawing he wrote to me: “…the drawing is exactly what I had expected from you and maybe even more…”.

At the end I would like to point out an important thing. Because Death Dealer is a famous Frazetta character, some people expected me to approach the drawing as Frazetta would do. My Death Dealer drawing is in fact an homage to the Master, rather than a copy of his character. I am not (and don’t want to be) an epigone of another artist. I am an independent creator with his own vision, and his own abilities.

I think it is better to be a lesser-Meseldzija, that a lesser-Frazetta. One Frazetta in this world is more than enough. What we need ( generally speaking) are new visions, new approaches, new roads that will lead us to Rome, so to speak.

Have a great day!

Death Dealer commission, part 9

2011-10-14T22:00:00.002+02:00

(Com)mission completed!

New book project

2011-10-13T10:11:00.002+02:00

I don’t get too often excited about my own work, but this time I am excited about a new project. Recently I started to put together my new book whose working title is Giants. I have been mentioning something about it in my previous blog posts. Since a few days ago this idea has started to get a more concrete form. As far as I am concerned ( I still have to talk about it with the publisher) this book will have at least 64 pages, possibly even more ( 80 to 100 pages, depending on the layout) and will contain many drawings and sketches, as well as few paintings. The book will also tell yet unknown story about Giants, the story that will reveal the true nature of these mythological creatures, their life and the ultimate tragedy of their existence .

Here is a preliminary idea for the book cover, and one of many drawings in progress.

Diablo III : Book of Cain

2011-10-11T08:51:00.005+02:00

While you are waiting for me to finish the Death Dealer commission, and while I am trying to finish a few urgent jobs first so that I could go back to the drawing table, I would like to share the latest news in the meantime.

A few months ago I was having my well-deserved vacation and enjoying the warm and relaxing South Europe summer, when I got en email from Blizzard Entertainment. They asked me whether I was available and willing to participate within a book project named Diablo III : Book of Cain. The group of artists who were already working on this project included such notables as Alan Lee, John Howe, James Gurney, Iain McCaig, Brom , Jean-Baptiste Monge, among others. My job was to do 5 detailed drawings. Great commission, no doubt, the only problem was a tight deadline. After my vacation, when I got back in my studio, I had only 7 days to finish 5 detailed drawings. It was an impossible task, especially because the subject matter was new to me. However, after a few emails we came to the conclusion that I should do 3 instead of 5 drawings.

After a week of hard work I completed the assignment and I hit the deadline. The client was pleased with the results (well, after a few corrections) and I was pleased because they were pleased and because the work was done on time. Yet another commission with a happy end, although the end of it would be even happier if I had enough time to do all of 5 drawings. Well, perhaps next time I will be more lucky with the deadlines…

Diablo III : Book of Cain is published by Insight Editions and will be available in November 2011.

If you want to learn more about the book or to preorder it, please go here

And the drawings…? Unfortunately I am not yet allowed to show them on my blog. As soon as the book is available for purchase I will post the drawings.

Cheers!

Death Dealer commission , part 8

2011-10-06T21:39:00.001+02:00

The final drawing in progress (detail). By the way, I was commissioned to do a drawing, not a painting.

Death Dealer commission , part 7

2011-10-04T22:20:00.000+02:00

Today I have tried to put all the elements together, and although the composition is not yet entirely to my liking, I hope that this will be the last preliminary drawing.

Death Dealer commission, part 6/2

2011-10-01T15:12:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I received this interesting email and I thought you might want to read it…

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Hi Petar,

You don't know me. I'm Henrik Pettersson (carnalizer on the internet). I've been watching your Death Dealer sketches closely as I'm a fan of both you and Frank. I have no idea if you feel you need or want feedback, but I just wanted to show what I thought was "not so Frazetta" about you sketches. They are awesome in their own right and if anyone can pull of a good FF these days it's you.

Here goes. Sorry about the abuse of you sketch. First is how I perceive your Death Dealer sketch(es), second is how I feel FF got it.

I'm sure you are aware. I can sense you're after a very specific moment of tension. The pose is good and the anatomy fantastic, but I don't think it's what Frank would have chosen.

Please don't be offended by my mail. It is in utmost well-meaning.

Best regards,

Henrik Pettersson

Death Dealer commission , part 6

2011-09-29T14:42:00.000+02:00

Due to a very urgent business I had to abandon the Death Dealer commission for a few days. But today around noon, when nobody was watching, I went to my studio and did another quick sketch…

Death Dealer commission , part 5

2011-09-27T13:19:00.005+02:00

Well, I don’t like Monday. You never know what Monday is going to bring you. Last Monday brought me this sketch which, as a composition, is embarrassingly close to Frazetta’s Death Dealer 2 painting.

I could not resist the temptation and had to try my inferior hand on this iconic pose.

Death Dealer commission , part 4

2011-09-24T20:36:00.002+02:00

(Yesterday)

Yet another attempt to get the right posture, with just the right amount of explosiveness. Not too much, not too little... And although I liked the subtlety of the pencil work of this drawing, I had to abandon it because it still did not feel right.

(Today)

I think I GOT it right this time…This evening, while waiting for my diner to be ready, I did this little sketch. Although I gave myself a free day, I could not forget about the drawing and I kept seeing Death Dealer in my mind. One of these inner pictures showed me the way…However, I think I should wait until tomorrow morning, for the morning is wiser than the evening, in order to see whether I actually have captured the right movement, or not…If yes, the rest of the drawing shouldn’t be a problem… I think…

A-

B-

Death Dealer commission , part 3

2011-09-23T00:08:00.000+02:00

Here is another version of the same pose. And I’m still searching for the right one…

Death Dealer commission , part 2

2011-09-22T10:11:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I did the further study of the character and tried to explore the possibilities of the chosen pose. I intentionally left out the remaining compositional elements in order to focus on Death Dealer only, and to squeeze out the maximum of the dynamic movement from this relatively static pose. This is the big trick and the most important objective of this composition, and I am not yet done with it.

Death Dealer commission , part 1

2011-09-21T10:51:00.000+02:00

For you who are anxious to know what is going on on my drawing table, I decided to post a series of entries that will follow the development of a commission I am working on at this very moment. It is a Frazetta’s Death Dealer drawing commission, inspiring on one hand, intimidating on the other. I find myself on the Master Frazetta’s grounds. This is enough to give me a feeling of inadequacy, which is not a very good mental state to start a commission with. However, in the next couple of days I will try not to embarrass myself and hopefully produce something that will do justice to this famous character and his creator.

At the same time I am offering you a seat in the front row and hope that you will enjoy the show, although at the moment I do not know what kind of show you are about to see; an embarrassing comedy, a disappointing horror or an inspiring adventure story. Well, we shall see…

This is the firs rough thumbnail sketch drawn quickly on an envelope.

The next quick thumbnail made with pencils on a proper sheet of paper.

First two rough sketches based on the thumbnails. The idea about the future composition starts to develop itself and the forms and details start to appear.

Apart from a few reference images of Death Dealer, this is the only reference that I use at this stage. It is a drawing of an athlete that I did some years ago. It helps me focus on the anatomy and the movement.

Strip Festival Breda

2011-09-18T10:45:00.002+02:00

A few days ago I came back from a comic convention, named Strip Festival Breda, that has been held in the charming city of Breda, in the Netherlands. I was attending this convention as a member of the Flesk Publications group of artists, alongside such notables as Gary Gianni, Mark Schultz, William Stout and Craig Elliott. This was my third convention in the last two years and it was certainly one of the most pleasant, refreshing and inspiring events I have ever attended.

A section of the Flesk Publications booth. From right to left: Gary Gianni, Craig Elliott, John Fleskes, Mark Schultz and Guido de Bue.

Mark Schultz talking to a fan. Craig Elliott and John Fleskes are behind him. It the background the collection of the Flesk books and Craig Elliott’s prints.

The convention itself was very nice, the fans were numerous, some kind, some shy and some a little pushy. I was told that the main difference between the European and the US conventions is that, in Europe, the artist is expected to answer to (almost) all the fans’ requests and to do the sketches for free, whilst the US artists often charge for the convention sketches. Being always eager to improve and to learn new things and ways, and inspired by my US peers, I decided to apply this principle to my European fans. I did a little sketch if somebody bought a book, and I refused to do a sketch in the sketchbook of a fan if he/she did not want to buy a book. There was only one fan who wanted to pay for a more elaborate sketch. So, it was fun and I enjoyed it very much, in spite of the fact that I was very busy doing sketches for two days (just like the other four artists) in order to accommodate the wishes of my fans, and not to leave anyone without at least a quick sketch. As a consequence I did not get the chance to see the convention. However it was really great to be there, to see the fans, to talk to them, and to taste again that remarkable atmosphere of an art convention.

Gary Gianni sketching.

Craig Elliott doing one of his girl sketches.

But, for me, the best part of this event was the time I spent with these four fellow artists, talking to them during the show, or at the dinner table of one of the cozy Breda restaurants, or in the hotel lobby, or even better, in a café while drinking a glass of good Belgian beer (mostly Leffe Blond, or Leffe Bruin !) and recuperating from a rather stressful day of much sketching and talking. The camaraderie and the friendship that I was fortunate to experience while with them, the wise lessons and the useful advises that I got from them (for these guys are true masters, each in their own field, and as such they are a huge source of precious knowledge and experience); all these things contributed to the creation of an unforgettable atmosphere. I have learned many important things just by listening to their stories and through observing them create their art. It was priceless!

Beside these four man blessed with various talents, and kind and generous personality, there were a few other persons that made this event possible. Firstly our publisher John Fleskes, ever sensitive and omnipresent, in the best possible way, who brought us together and made sure we felt comfortable and happy. His insights and his attentiveness have always impressed and inspired me. Needless to say, without him the Flesk team would not be able to come together and the Breda experience would probably never happen in our lives!

William Stout doing one of his zombie sketches.

Me, doing a Tarzan drawing.

The Flesk Prime: Mark Schultz, Craig Elliott, Gary Gianni, Petar Meseldzija and William Stout.

And last, but not least, there are a few other individuals whose passion for art, dedication, perseverance, extreme generosity and hard work, made this extraordinary experience possible. In fact it was they who invited Flesk to attend the show, together with the artists, and organized our part of the event in a way that was impeccable and impressive. So, Mark Thelosen and Guido de Bue - Chapeau and Salut, guys!

Good friends: Mark Thelosen, Petar Meseldzija and John Fleskes.

William Stout

Craig Elloitt

Gary Gianni

Mark Schultz

Petar Meseldzija

Well, you know, most of us artists spend much of our lives alone in our studio, and when this kind of opportunity is presented to us, I think we should embrace it. Who else is able to understand and support us better than our “brothers in arms”, especially when it seems that we “vibrate” on the similar, if not the same, wavelength together with them.

At the end, I guess you could conclude that one of the main points of this post is – in order to feel happy, content and inspired, you need a friend, a comrade, or a kind of professional soul mate. You need to share your passions with them. You need to enrich their lives, and to let them enrich yours. I think this is a very important aspect of being an artist. We need each other in order to grow better and less crooked. We need each other’s shadows, for when in the shadow, we will work (grow) harder in order to get out of it. My father always told me that when you want to plant a birch tree in your yard, you should plant three of them together, saying that it helps them grow better. I never found out whether this was really true or not, but I always liked that idea.

Cheers!

Strip Festival Breda 2011

2011-09-02T20:22:00.002+02:00

If you are from the Netherlands, or from one of the neighbouring countries, and you are a comic/illustration fan, you might find the following information interesting!

Flesk Publications, Elliott, Gianni, Meseldzija, Schultz and Stout to Appear at Strip Festival Breda

Craig Elliott, Gary Gianni, Petar Meseldzija, Mark Schultz and William Stout will join Flesk Publications at the Strip Festival Breda show in The Netherlands this September 10-11, 2011. The event will be held at the Chasse Theater in the city's historic downtown.

Flesk will have their full line of books at the show, including Flesk Prime, a compendium featuring all five artists appearing at the show. The Flesk Publications stand will be rife with additional exclusive new titles, including Mysterious Islands by Gary Gianni and the Naughty and Nice Teaser by Bruce Timm. Free catalogs, promotional fliers and posters will also be on hand.

An exclusive giclee print "An Evening with Flesk Prime" featuring art from the five participating artists will be made available. Each print, using the finest archival inks on premium stock, is signed by each individual and is strictly limited to an edition of 50, with only 25 being available for sale to the public.

Each artist will be available for autographs and discussion. They will also have original artwork and unique items for sale.

The Artists:

Craig Elliott works in the animation industry as a visual-development artist, character designer and concept artist. He has worked primarily for Disney and DreamWorks, designing animated films such as Hercules, Mulan, Treasure Planet and The Princess and the Frog and Rio. He is the subject of an upcoming collection from Flesk Publications, The Art of Craig Elliott.

Gary Gianni has adapted and illustrated a wide variety of books, including John Henry, Kidnapped, Moby Dick, The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, The Complete Conan of Cimmeria, and more recently, Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road. His comics work includes Classics Illustrated, The Shadow, and The MonsterMen. Gianni currently serves as illustrator of the Prince Valiant Sunday comic strip.

Petar Meseldzija is an illustrator and fine artist. His previous works include thirty-three illustrations for King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and ten covers for books of children's fantasy literature for Scholastic. Petar's own book The Legend of Steel Bashaw was published by Flesk in 2010. Most recently Petar contributed to a book project about the creatures of Serbian mythology, titled Banished Demons.

Mark Schultz is an American cartoonist, illustrator and writer. His most well-known work Xenozoic Tales has been adapted to television as the animated series Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. He is currently in the process of producing illustrations for his novella Storms at Sea. Mark is the current writer for the newspaper strip Prince Valiant.

William Stout is one of America's foremost fantasy and film artists, dinosaur muralists and illustrators. Stout has contributed to over thirty films including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Walt Disney's Dinosaur and Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. His Flesk books include Hallucinations, Inspirations, Prehistoric Life Murals and Dinosaur Discoveries.

Making his second appearance at the Strip Festival is John Fleskes, president and publisher of Flesk Publications. His previous books include collections on James Bama, Franklin Booth, Steve Rude and a two-edition set on the works of Joseph Clement Coll. His upcoming books include Edwin Austin Abbey: Drawings and James Bama: Personal Works.

"The warmth and friendliness of the Dutch people during Mark Schultz and my visit in 2010, along with the beauty of the city, encouraged us to come back again this year--and bring a few of our friends along as well," shares John Fleskes. "We look forward to another incredible trip."

Generous support for the appearance of Flesk Publications and each artist has been provided by De Stripspecialist, the finest comic book store in Breda.

Full details and sample pages for all Flesk Publications titles and the most recent news can be found at fleskpublications.com. All titles mentioned here and more can be purchased on our online store. Additional information can be read on publisher John Fleskes' blog at fleskpublications.com/blog

John Fleskes

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“…Publisher John Fleskes cordially invites you to join Craig Elliott, Gary Gianni, Petar Meseldzija, Mark Schultz and William Stout in a dinner prior to Strip Festival Breda 2011 which will afford the appreciator of fine illustration a chance for relaxed one-on-one repartee in an atmosphere of convivial wining and dining. Strictly limited to 15 guests to ensure a quality experience…”

In case you want to learn more about this special event go to http://fleskpublications.com/blog/2011/08/23/an-evening-with-flesk-prime-petar-meseldzija-mark-schultz-william-stout-gary-gianni-and-craig-elliott-thursday-september-8-2011-breda-the-netherlands/

Hope to see you in Breda!

Cheers!

Petar

The Giants are coming, part 2

2011-08-27T00:17:00.001+02:00

Every now and then I draw a sketch of a giant. These clumsy guys have developed a bad habit of popping up in my mind without any prior announcement, like knocking on the door, or saying politely - “Is there anybody there here…” You know, the giants usually speak quite poor English. it is as almost as bad as mine.

Photo shoot spin-offs

2011-08-11T08:13:00.000+02:00

A few years ago I did a photo session for a couple of paintings that were intended for a gallery show. I rented a few costumes, hired a professional photographer, and asked my wife to be the model. The photo session was intense and long, and it was quite tiring for the model. Now and then she rested for a while in a beautiful old chair. The scene with the model dressed in a nice costume and seated in that beautiful red chair was very tempting. I could not resist its appeal and had to ask the photographer to make a few shots of the scene.

Later on at home, I took another few photos of my wife in another costume. These photos inspired me to do a series of paintings that I named “Resting model “ series. While working on these little paintings I primarily concentrated my attention to the rendition of the various textures and drapery. In fact it was a very useful exercise that helped me further unravel the “secrets” of the various textile materials and their textures. One of the questions that was often on my mind was how different is, for instance, the silk from the satin, and how to depict this difference in a two-dimensional painting and make it clear and convincing. This is a skill that the old masters were so damn good at.

Croquis

2011-07-31T10:10:00.000+02:00

Croquis drawing is quick and sketchy drawing of a live model. Croquis drawings are usually made in a few minutes, after which the model changes pose and another croquis is drawn.

The short duration of the pose benefits the model because they don't need to keep their poses for a long period. This also benefits the artists because it helps them concentrate on the essential elements of the pose. With this type of drawing and posing, an artist simply does not have time to draw all the details, so they learn to ignore them and concentrate instead on the important elements…

The word croquis comes from French and means simply "sketch".

Perhaps you are familiar with this explanation of the word croquis , not only because it comes from Wikipedia, but also because you already practice this kind of drawing (or have been practicing it in the past) and therefore know the meaning and the benefits of it. Making croquis is a very important way of developing and maintaining your drawing skills.

I took it very seriously several years ago when I joined a sketching club. We meet every Monday evening to do the quick sketches of a live model. This practice has helped me to regain my drawing skills, which, by the way, have declined dramatically due to a shock that I have experienced twenty years ago. Years later I found the cure to this particular problem in the mentioned sketching club.

The croquis and sketches from below were done during the Monday evening drawing sessions. Some of them were done in five to seven minutes, and some of them in ten to fifteen minutes.

The Rescuer

2011-07-19T08:49:00.000+02:00

The Rescuer, Oil on Masonite, 60 x 43 cm / 23,6 x 16,9 inch, 2011

This painting, titled The Rescuer, has been commissioned by Pat and Jeannie Wilshire, who are the driving force behind the IlluXCon show. The painting will be used on the IlluXCon 4 promotion materials. The other two commissioned artists are Eric Fortune and Mark Zug. The original painting will be on display during the IlluXCon 4 show in Altoona in November.

Apart from being extremely kind people, Pat and Jeannie are internationally recognized collectors and historians within the genre of fantastic art. They are responsible for the creation and administration of the IlluXCon symposium of fantastic art.

“ IlluXCon is dedicated to the validation of the original painting as more than a means to an end and, through that validation, the recognition that the art of the fantastic deserves to be brought out from the shadow of literature and publication, its creators permitted to stand beside their peers in other artistic schools, and their works accepted to hang side by side with the best of all the past generations of artists…”. I love this statement! If you are not familiar with this extraordinary event, you can learn more about it on their website http://www.illuxcon.com/

As for The Rescuer, I have decided not to include any explanation of the process this time, but rather to let the picture(s) tell the whole story.

Giant in front of the gate!

2011-07-13T11:08:00.003+02:00

TUUUUUUUUUU….!!! The sound of the gatekeeper’s horn was desperately piercing through the air above the roofs of tightly packed houses inside the city walls.

“Giant at the gate! Giant at the gate! - a few boys where shouting while running through the narrow streets toward the little town’s central square. It was Saturday, the market day, and the square was packed with farmers, market vendors and all sorts of people who came to the town to sell, or to buy, the local products. Upon hearing the word “giant” the crowd froze, and for a long moment they stood motionlessly looking towards the city ramparts and the gate.

Through the morning fog and the settling dust, they just could discern a massive shape that resembled a tower. At first they thought that it was one of the city’s towers near the gate, but soon they realized that if this was a tower, it was unknown to them and a quite strange one as well, for it was covered with a long white hair, and it was moving.

Finally realizing that the tower is in fact a huge giant, they suddenly, all at the same time, started to run in all directions. Men shouted, women screamed, children started to cry. The market booths were thrown upside down. Vegetables , fruit, eggs and chees, all were scattered all over the marketplace. Dogs bluffed, horses neighed and hens flew over the heads of the panicking market vendors. Not being able to decide who to safe first, their goods or themselves, they run in circles mostly with the hands stuck in their hair….

This is a passage (not yet corrected and polished by a native speaker) from one of my new book projects about Giants, titled The Giants are Coming. It is a kind of a side project (one of many side projects that I tend to complicate my life with), that I work on from time to time, especially when I get tired from the more "serious" stuff. I found out that, for me, the best way to deal with that kind of tiredness is the combination of three things: a good stroll through the nature, a good glass of cold Belgian beer (after a day of hard work, of course) and a piece of paper on which I can scribble another silly giant.

About the drawing – It started as a homage to John Bauer, a brilliant Swedish illustrator and painter, who has died much too young. Than the drawing got out of hand and I found myself writing a story inspired by this funny and unpretentious composition. Later on I decided to offer it as one of the proposals for a watercolor commission that I am about to start with. In any case, it will be also a part of the book on giants, as I just have mentioned.

Dragon Chase

2011-07-07T21:41:00.000+02:00

Dragon Chase, Oil on MDF board, 56 X 100 cm / 22 X 39,4 inch, 2011

The commission was clear – three women + one or more dragons + one or more dogs. They are all companions, and traveling to a central gathering. When the client asked me to do this painting, there was a number of artists who were already taking part in this project: Donato Giancola, Raoul Vitale, Todd Lockwood, Steven Hickman, Julie Bell, Bob Eggleton, Boris Vallejo, Scott Gustafson, Matt Stewart, Heather Theurer and Ruth Sanderson. All of them were doing a variation of the main theme, therefore the different environments, different dragons, different nationalities, and different types of dogs were required.

I was given the opportunity to choose between the two scenes: an icy polar scene at night with the Aurora Borealis, or a scene where the travelers camp near or in a graveyard. However, the client was open to my suggestions for the environment and the types of women and dogs.

When I started to think about both the icy and the graveyard scene, I felt that nothing moved inside of me, which is often a bad sign, for it meant that I was not inspired, in spite of the fact that I found the general concept of the project very appealing. So, I tried to come up with an idea that would be inspiring to me, an idea that will create the feeling of excitement which would stay with me for the biggest part of the work on the painting. I then closed my eyes and started to envision a forest scene, letting all sorts of images to ascend from the depths of my mind to its surface. When in this kind of meditative state, I often see vivid pictures in front of my mind’s eyes, pictures that are so much more vivid than any painting I have produced until now or will ever create, I am afraid. As soon as I open my eyes and start sketching them, they are gone. Therefore I am often forced to sketch these images with my eyes closed. Anyway, while doing this “pictorial meditation” of a forest scene, the image of a dragon flying low through a dense forest just popped up in my mind.

This is a very poor depiction of what I have seen in my mind. However it was sufficient to “catch” the idea and to “freeze” the emotion that went with it. The idea of a chase followed quickly after. I then did a drawing of the scene (this time with my eyes widely open, of course), by using some photo reference, as well as drawing from imagination, looking at the sketch and remembering the image I saw in my mind.

In order to be more precise about what this scene is all about, I will have to explain the genesis of the painting’s title. The initial, working title was Dragon Chase, for I envisioned the scene as a dragon hunt scene. But then I remembered that they are all companions and therefore do not kill or eat each other. “Damn it”, I thought…

However because this is all about friends having a pleasant time with each other during the long trip, and in order to keep all the composition elements in place, I turned the basic idea of a hunt into the concept of a friendly race, and renamed it Dragon Race. Later on I finally chose to call it Dragon Chase anyway, purely because of the sound of the words, in spite of the fact that the word “chase” often implies a hunt situation.

I than started to realized that this new concept offered me a new set of challenges. The question that presented itself was: what do I actually want to say with this new concept, what do I want to show?

Gradually it became clear to me that my main goal with this painting was to depict a situation wherein the requested elements/characters from the composition interact with each other in a specific way and are connected by one common thing, or a feeling. That feeling, I thought, should be a feeling of joy of freedom, movement and speed.

Although it seemed at first a little strange, even a bit ridiculous, I in fact intended to depict a universal aspect of the mental state of the human being, as well as these two animals in question, regardless of the nature of the surrounding environment, something that, one could say, belongs to the domain of psychology rather than the fantasy. In other words, I wanted to depict the feeling of joie de vivre, or cheerful enjoyment of life. I guess I needed to infuse the painting with that kind of content, to add an extra layer to the painting’s story, in order to inspire and amuse myself during the process of its creation, and to give myself the feeling that this is not just a superficial depiction of a scene from the story, but rather something….well, more!

As for the technical side of this painting, the low horizontal composition was chosen to emphasize the dynamic movement and to imply a claustrophobic feel of the forest, suggesting that, although it seems obvious that the flying dragon is quicker than the rest of the company, however the complex pattern of the tree brunches, roots and boulders prevent him to fly full speed, giving his slower friends, his “opponents”, more chance to ketch him, or to win, whatever the point of their game is. By introducing a situation of confronting horizontal and vertical lines / forms (tree brunches, position and the movement of the characters) I tried to emphasize the general movement in the painting, and by doing so to accentuate the feeling of speed and joy. In other words I first of all tried to present the spectator with a certain feeling. This was my primary objective. The other elements and layers of the picture’s story were of the secondary importance, although some of you might see it as to be the other way around, which is perfectly ok with me, for if the painting is good, it must offer more than one door for entering it.

Have a creative day!

Flesk Prime

2011-06-30T17:38:00.000+02:00

Good day to you all!

I have an announcement to make today. There is a new and exciting book coming out in July from Flesk Publications, titled FLESK PRIME.

This is what the publisher says about it in the introduction:

“ Flesk Prime serves as a fresh look into the imagery of five exceptional artists: Craig Elliott, Gary Gianni, Petar Meseldzija, Mark Schultz and William Stout. The essence of each craftsman is captured here to satisfy their fans as well as individuals who are enjoying their first glimpse. The section on each artist begins with an introduction and a biography written by Flesk publisher John Fleskes. The five were invited to handpick their pieces for inclusion, to showcase the best representation of their work. Furthermore, new quotes have been obtained to capture the artists’ own thoughts. Each chapter shows the dynamic range of styles and illustrations and unique diversity of these five creators…”

The book is only available direct from Flesk Publications ! If you want to learn more about the book and to purchase it, please go to Flesk Publications

Needless to say, I am proud to be a part of this beautiful book alongside with some legendary names from the comic/illustration field. I hope you will forgive me this act of lack of modesty…

Cheers!