Art Inspiration: Tony Moore

I would say that one of my influences on my current style would have to be on Tony Moore.
I ready Robert Kirkman's first volume of the Walking Dead comic series and I really enjoy seeing Tony Moore's art style. I liked the simple gray tone artwork while it used realistic proportions. While incorporating exaggerated facial expression and head shapes. I feel that his art style like make me think of the walking dead because I have also ways of affiliating zombie themes with dark and realistic styles aimed at adults. However there I found it to be quite a contrast where there were realistic elements in he character's anatomy but the expression the characters made it feel a little bit cartoonish with it being aimed at that audience demographics. I particularly like the approach does to make the heads show unrealistic and exaggerated traits while maintaining a realistic proportions in the overall anatomy of the character. Some of the thing I like was the ways he drew heads and the eyes. they are not larges but small in relation to the realistic proportion of the human head. The use of expressions helps make the body language more readable as expressions in realistic styled comics are not so readable. In his work, there is great sense of detail and emphasis the line work despite the limited lighting and colouring in the comics pages. However he does other work. His male characters can have large square chins and jaws. The line work incorporated exaggeration style allowing the drawings to be more dynamic. When he draws animals he incorporates more realistic proportions bust allow room for expressions. He works using traditional inks and markers but he has also done proper colouring. He uses the soft tones to suggest lighting and depth to his two dimensional drawings.



The style has been adapted to The Walking Dead games by Tell Tale games (2012).

Deadpool #1 Cropped Preview (Moore 2012)

Tony Moore – The Walking Dead (2013)

Fear Agent (Moore and Sollazzo, 2008) 

In an online interview with Optimiumworld (2008) he talks about his processes and techniques and uses. When inking Tony Moore used sharpies pens when focusing on negative drawings and to make small corrections in his work. He uses traditional method sinking his work. He explains his production process when creating a comic page. First, he reads his client’s brief/script then creates a 2 by 3 inches drawing. Second, we then scans into Photoshop to adjust the panel and gutter layout. The reason he works in a small scale is to allow to him to concentrate more on the story itself and not on the minor details. Third, after he has printed out the sketch onto a 10” by 15” inch sheet, he goes over the printed lines in pencil. There have been occasions where he just does the penciling then gives it to an inker. Once the inking is complete he scans them onto the computer. Here I manged to do a small test to see if I could apply his style to my work.

Tony Moore Visual Style Test

References

Moore, T. 2016. Original Art. [online] TONY MOORE ILLUSTRATION. Available at: http://www.tonymooreillustration.com/shoporiginalart/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2016].

Moore, T. 2013. Tony Moore – The Walking Dead. [image]. Available at: http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1044856 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2015].

Moore, T. 2012. Crop-Deadpool_1_Preview41. [image]. Available at: http://geek-news.mtv.com//wp-content/uploads/geek/2012/10/crop-Deadpool_1_Preview41.jpg [Accessed 30 Nov. 2015].

Moore, T. and Sollazzo, A. 2008. Fear Agent. [image] Available at: http://alexsollazzo.deviantart.com/art/Fear-Agent-90723765 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2015].

Thibault, J. 2008. Masters of Ink #10 - Tony Moore answers 12 questions - Optimum Wound. [online] Optimum Wound. Available at: http://www.optimumwound.com/masters-of-ink-10-tony-moore-answers-12-questions.htm [Accessed 25 Jan. 2016].

Thibault, J. 2008. Words and Pictures with Jacen Burrows - Optimum Wound. [online] Optimum Wound. Available at: http://www.optimumwound.com/words-and-pictures-with-jacen-burrows.htm [Accessed 25 Jan. 2016].

Thibault, J. 2008. Masters of Ink #10 - Tony Moore answers 12 questions - Optimum Wound. [online]. Optimum Wound. Available at: http://www.optimumwound.com/masters-of-ink-10-tony-moore-answers-12-questions.htm [Accessed 30 Nov. 2015].

Kirkman, R. and Moore, T. 2004. The Walking Dead. 12th ed. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics.

The Walking Dead: Season One. 2012. [computer game]. Xbox 360. Telltale Games.

Digital Tutors Lesson: Line Art in Illustrator

Last night, I sat down and watched a lesson on Digital Tutors to look for tips on how I can  improve my line art skills in Illustrator. I have been used to applying simple brush but I wanted to look at others ways to make effective line work.

• The width tool create width points and then modify them.
• The Alt key and modify the point of the width
• duplicate using the alt key
• can save it as a stroke profile
• sue the pen tool to create paths on the drawing
• Use pathfinders to make interesting shapes.
• One way to make like work is to make a shape using the pen tool then duplicate that shape then scale it down. 
• Make some minor adjustments to the rescaled shape depending on  the light source.

Scott McCloud Quotations

The following Quotes are from Scott McCloud's novels about Comics. I may use these for my Dissertation.

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (1994)
"the invisible world of senses and emotions can also be portrayed either between or within panels" (McCloud 2006 p.121)

"just as pictures and the intervals between them create the illusion of time through closure, words introduce time by representing that which can only exist in time - sound." (McCloud 2006 p.95)

"our eyes have been well trained by the photograph and by representational art to see any single continuous image as a single instant in time. " (McCloud 2006 p. 96)

" The panel acts as a sort of general indicator that time or space is being divided" (McCloud 2006 p.99)

Scott talks about how a panel if I bleeds into the edges of the page it can give the scene a timeless atmosphere as it established s the location. (McCloud 2006 p.103)

"Now if pictures can, through their rendering represent invisible concerns such as emotions and the other senses"

"then the distinction between pictures and other types of comic like language which specialize in the invisible may seem a bit blurry."(McCloud 2006 p.127)

" one represents a visible phenomenon, smoke while the other represents an invisible one, our sense of smell. (McCloud 2006 p. 128)

Scott McCloud discuss that a visible indication for an emotion can develop from their context into a invisible meaning such as a sweat bead.(McCloud 2006 p.130)

Making Comics by Scott McCloud (2006)
" We want two things from our audience. we want them to understand what we want to to tell them -- and we want them to care enough to stick around 'til we're done." (McCloud 2006 p.8)

" and to achieve that first goal, you'll need to learn the principles of communicating with clarity--"

"-- and to achieve the second goal,you'll need to learn which elements of a work can persuade your audience to stay with you."(McCloud 2006 p.9)

Silent Comic Links: Shirley Hughes

Shirley Hughes is a well known comic artists who wrote her fist adult comic called "Bye Bye Birdie". I found this comic to be quite surreal based on the premise and some of its imagery which I found out of the ordinary. The comic itself was a black and white silent comic.
I discovered her work in Waterstones many years ago and what I found very interesting about the comic was who it looked like it was made in the early twentieth century in additional to the surreal imagery. What I found quite interesting was how it was all wordless and that there is an extent on the pacing of the panels and the moments of the pictures.




http://red-oasis.com/radiochatter/?p=506

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/bye-bye-birdie/id626299956?mt=11

Final Week Status: Visual Development

I have been unable to continue with additional work for the project. Just a few days before the day I submitted my coursework I caught a sore throat along with some restless nights. Therefore, I was not able to make enough process as I had hoped. I had a meeting with my supervisor, Brian and he showed a positive response to my research proposal so it looks like I've done it well.

The first thing that Lynn spoke to me about was the way the head of Dagon design appeared.The design was for a creature which had its jaw and teeth on the top of its head. In a different perspective it looked like a fish's head looking up. She was telling me that there was not definite way to determine which was ways the correct direction of the creature. I did not understand fully what she meant by this she referred the duck and rabbit illusion where there was not definite way for the object to appear.

She gave me the idea of using the holidays to practice my art style and use a thinner brush while I created my drawings. While I was not sure about this, I did try some tests and found out that it actually helped me. Her advice allowed me to figure out how I could overcome this challenge. Nevertheless the idea of having no definite appearance for the way a creature appearance acne could fit the them that Lovecraft has featured in his works. I could keep the idea but include some additional feature to give a more clearer definition of the ambiguous illustration my design gives off.

While I have chosen several inspirations for the rat style I should undergo some tests  and determine what would be the mos appropriate visual style. This led to a mixture of approaches.

Lovecraft related Sketches

I attempted to apply a surreal and exaggerated visual style.

Shading Iterations

Character Figure Tests

Visual Style Experimentation