Animation Illustration Art

Book Review : Mail-Order Mysteries by Kirk Demarais

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:28:00 +0000

Good Old Times

This is a fascinating book that collects mail order advertisements that appeared in between the stories in popular comic books during the 60s and the 70s.

The advertisements reflects a time when there was a charm for simple things, yet mysterious and fun. The products included anything and everything that would kindle the wild imagination of the mostly young adolescent readers, and wanting them to order them right away.

Be it a larger-than-life monster, or an army of toy soldiers, spy pens, gags, magic tricks or an instant money maker(!) or the ultimate gadget the X-ray specs, these ads had everything a kid ever wanted.

This book collects almost all of such ads, in a rock solid hardbound cover. The pages inside are very thick and this book is made to last. The style brings back the pulp comic book look and feel, yet in a rugged fashion. Very well made.

The author classifies the ads nicely into a few interesting categories..

Super powers

War Zone

House of Horrors

High Finance

Better Living

Top Secret

Trickery

Oddities

Each ad is presented with the picture of the ad along with following nice and hilarious analysis,

'We Imagined'

'They Sent'

'Behind the Mystery' (for some items)

'Customer Satisfaction'

This is an awesome recollection of the days gone by, for those who read those books and were part of the pulp comic book era, and a fascinating read for those who came in late.

This is an extract from my review at Amazon.com, You can find more of my reviews here.

Ну, погоди! - Just You Wait! : Russian Cartoon You cannot forget

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:23:00 +0000

Back in the days of Black and White Television (That would be late 70s in India) the State run TV channel Doordarshan would telecast some very funny 'foreign' programs. It included Around the World in Eighty Days, Charlie Chaplin and among other such things, a very funny Russian cartoon, where a Wolf would perpetually try to catch a Rabbit.

And there would be this catch phrase that symbolizes the pursuit of the wolf..Just You wait!

Thanks to the Omniscient Net, I figured it was the program called Nu Pogodi in Russian, this was a very popular cartoon made in Russia during late 60s, 70s. I was surprised to know they were in full color glory.

There were 20 episodes made in all, majority of them in the seventies, and then episodes continued to be made at irregular intervals up until 2006!

One particular episode the, 3rd in the series, "Road" May 29, 1971, was repeatedly broadcast, that I could remember every single movement in the episode. I used to wonder as a kid, how all the various details were taken care of, all by drawing, one frame at a time.

Its almost like yesterday that I was watching this scene where the rabbit appears almost caught, and the wolf stands precariously on a pile of drums.

It was this particular shot of the road roller monstrously running towards the camera, and how the action lines made it appear it to move so dynamically, that drew me into the magic of animation. I cannot believe I am looking at this after nearly 35 years, and it appears as if it happened moments ago.

The magic of memory, the Illusion of Life :)

And finally the wolf running .... "Just You Wait".

Watch it in all its glory now ...

Book Review : Pen & Ink with Watercolor by George Olson

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:14:00 +0000

Simple, Concise and Packed with information

Pen, Ink and Watercolor is a very interesting medium. It fuses the bright and brilliant watercolors with the direct and detail oriented pen and ink, to create some of the stunning illustrations.

This book provides all the information, tools and methods to get one started on a wonderful journey of exploring this medium.

The author is obviously an accomplished artist, showcasing elegant art work, at the same time maintaining a certain simplicity, that is essential to follow the book.

5 stars simply for sticking with Crow quill through out. Nothing can come close to this versatile tool, which is more like a feather made out of metal.

Book deals systematically with drawing, pen and ink and color.

For pen and ink, it talks about the various nibs, holders, practical tips, warm up exercises, strokes, building tones etc. Though these are specialized topics more extensive covered in few other books, this is very nicely presented in a crisp and essential manner.

Drawing is a vast subject, but well covered composition, proportions, perspective etc. along with capturing the detailed textures.etc.

Colored inks and watercolor wash are taken up next, presented with a lot of variety and application.

Plenty of examples, all made using the tools and methods mentioned in this book, and a very systematic concise approach makes this a great book!

This is an extract from my review at Amazon.com, You can find more of my reviews here.

India's first Open Source Film

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 17:23:00 +0000

Open source content development is increasingly seeing traction in creative areas such as films. The availability of software tools that are comparable to Hollywood Studio class, has created a new possibility for creative content creation.

Blender is a 3d sophisticated 3D software platform that is capable of and has proven to be able to produce 3d Animation films end to end.

The Blender institute's open movie project has seen the coming together of some brilliant minds, from across the globe and create 3d films and a highly interactive 3D game with stunning quality both in artistic content as well as technical.

The stunningly spectacular movie the Sintel, is hard to believe to have been shot entirely using open source software, and primarily using Blender.

Chamba Swathanthra Cinema Project is the first such initiative from India aimed at creating an animated short using open source tools, and social networking and license it according to Open source Initiative.

The project is currently in pre-production, with the script completed. Its a great script well suited for some amazing animation and special effects.

Folks from all corners of the world are welcome to contribute and participate in the various departments and creative areas, such as Character design, Environment design, Story boarding, Modelling, Texturing, Rigging, Animation, Sound and Music, Editing etc.. to name a few.

This would offer a great platform to learn the exciting process of animation film making , and the use of sophisticated software such as Blender. Experts in any of these departments can contribute to make this project a success and a showpiece of collaborative creativity.

Blender Introductory Workshop in India

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:30:00 +0000

ICFOSS (International Center for Free and Open Source Software) is conducting a Two-day introductory workshop on Blender.

This is a great opportunity for folks to get introduced to the Blender interface , and get to model, create and render a scene completely hands-on.

Date and Venue
16-17 September 2011
Travancore Hall,
Technopark,Trivandrum

About the Workshop

This introductory workshop is meant for professional animation artistes, digital media professionals, students, and teachers. As a hands-on workshop, participants are expected to bring their own laptops.
A fee of Rs. 1,000 per participant will be charged for the two-day session (Rs. 500 for students). Working lunch and tea will be provided for participants.

About Blender

Blender is a FOSS-based 3D graphics application, available for multiple Operating Systems.Blender's features include 3D modeling, texturing, rigging, skinning, animating, rendering, particle, water, smoke & other simulations, video compositing, and the ability to create interactive 3D applications, video games, animated film, or visual effects. It can be downloaded free of cost for any of the supported platforms. Blender has been used in numerous
applications including full-length movies. It provides an extremely cost-effective, efficient and complete solution to most common 3D animation requirements.

Attending
Seats will be allocated on a
first-come-first- served basis. Kindly
contact ICFOSS for more details.

International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS)
VII Floor, Tejaswini, Technopark
Trivandrum - 695 581, Kerala, India
Tel: +91 471 2700013
Email: info@icfoss.in

Book Review : Chandamama Art Book

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 23:10:00 +0000

Chandamama is a classic children magazine from India known not only for its unique story telling, but also for the stunning art work. The magazine has been engaging and captivating the imagination of the young and the old for over six decades in thirteen languages.

Recently the folks at Chandamama have done great justice to artists by bring out a two volume book , Chandamama Art Book, containing their art work , in a large (9.5 x 12.5 ) hard bound format, reproduced in great detail and quality, on very high quality art paper.

Each volume contains about 200 pages of the finest illustrations from India. A page is dedicated for each illustration, and on the left side a brief synopsis of the story is give to set the context.

Volume 1 has art work from Sankar, Chitra and MTV Acharya.
Volume 2 covers Vapa's art, and an interesting section that compares art work of these artists, for the same story. (In six decades I guess you do repeat stories in different contexts, and interesting to note how they recreated them rather than reprinted them)

Sankar's iconic rendering of the Vikram and Vetal... there were 700 stories in all that he illustrated for.

Chitra's own style and palette... Story of Troy

Another from Sankar's beautiful works ...

Here's one of MTV Acharya's masterstrokes..

And the uniqueness of Vapa ..

I have never seen most of these illustrations in such splendor, since when they published it, they were either cropped, or were in pulp paper and never in such original form.

Here are the interesting illustrations comparing the different takes ...

This is not only a feast for the eyes, but great reference for artists.

For me the relationship with the magazine ever since a kid was Summer and the four names that get attached to each one of those gorgeous drawings. Sankar, Chitra, MTV and Vapa. Each artist had his unique style as well as a palette, which one can identify instantly.

They were equivalents if not more of the Alex Raymonds, Norman Rockwells, Hogarths, and Al Dornes and the likes.

The magazine itself was on par with the mighty Classics Illustrated, though it was not in a comic book format.

Most of the pictures would be in monochrome wash with pen drawings, the covers however would be done in full color. Combined withe these beautiful drawings capturing the olden days and the folk tales that were spun in a simple yet enchanting manner, Chandamama would offer hours of entertainment, in a world that had no TV or internet.

For those who want to relish the golden age of Indian illustration, Chandamama has an Archives site. Check it out to read in full the magazines all the way back to the 50s !

Myers School pen, a Gillott 404 Clone

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:05:00 +0000

Bob Hurford has an excellent set of articles on dip pens at IAMPETH. He begins a tour of flex pens with the Gillott series of nibs as a bench mark and how all manufacturers had similar series of pens.

For example Gillott's 404, 303, 290, 170 had equivalents in Esterbrook 358,357,356, and 355 , Similarly Hunt had the 56, 22, 99 and 100 and so on..

These are a rarity these days., and Joseph Gillott being the pioneer of steel pens in the early 19th century, has a special place for collectors. A full box of Gillott 303 would typically go for $300 if one can be found. Esterbrooks are relatively inexpensive.

In his article Bob mentions how these pens were copied and imitated by several manufacturers. Recently I chanced upon a box of nibs in Ebay, curiously titled 'OLD ENGLAND SCHOOL PEN 404 '. I took a chance and got the box containing a full gross.

...and bingo ! They were as expected, clones of the 404 ! They are of great quality made of bronze and came from none other than Myers and Sons, another famous pen maker from Birmingham.

Here are the 404, 358 and Hunt 56(also curiously called a School pen) ... amazingly similar.

Needless to say this is one of the best class of dip pens, with solid construction, a reasonably good flex, and the interesting ridge allows more ink to be picked up during the dip. The Gillott though has considerably more flex than the others. With the right ink and a good solid wood holder these are a pleasure to write or draw.

Of these the Speedball Hunt 56 is the only pen manufactured to this day.

The Virtual Paintout : Google Street View

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 05:27:00 +0000

The Internet is providing avenues for creativity in remarkably new ways. One that is recent and relevant to artists and connoisseurs as well as anyone who likes to do art travel (without the hassles) is The Virtual Paint out.

The self taught American painter Bill Guffy's innovation is based on Google's Street View. The idea is simple. Each month Bill identifies a location in Google maps. A location reasonably large and interesting enough to explore. He provides the details on the website on the 1st of every month.

Artists around the world can log in, get the details, and go explore the location using Street view walk through. Then choose a location that they like, and make a painting/drawing/sketch of it and submit to Bill.

What a way to explore a new place, and create new art.Here are the past locations explored by the Virtual Paint out artists.

Bill mentions that only photos from Google Street view are to be used, and confirms that these are officially usable for art creation, that can be commercially sold. :)

So far some amazing locations have be explored and its a treat to look at all the wonderful art that has been produced. Its a great new way to do virtual travel. One can pick a painting that is posted , look up the location and start exploring.

Here is my attempt of a beautiful beach front in Jersey, using a vintage Hunt 512 and Pebeo Incre De Chine.

This is a great and zero cost way of exploring the world in a new way, with the camaraderie of fellow artists.

Hope you check out the site, and start travelling, painting and exploring.

Thanks Bill for this lovely idea!

Macniven and Cameron Waverley Pen

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:14:00 +0000

As I explore the exotic world of dip pens, each day I discover something amazing. One such gem of a pen is the Waverley from Macniven and Cameron.

As part of an assorted set of nibs that I got on Ebay, this nib has a very unique design. The plume of the nib is bent in an interesting manner, perhaps to hold that extra bit of ink, and also a very smooth point that prevents paper from catching the nib.

Dipping it into a bottle of dense black Pebeos Incre De Chine, which also happens to have a nice sheen, the pen produces very thin strokes smoothly. There isn't a great amount of flex, though I could get a good bit of variation in width. The pen is very feathery and felt like I was drawing with a metal brush, having a nice bit of springy-ness.

An interesting story related to this specific nib is that, Sir Walter scott, used this pen for a series of novels, known as the Waverley novels. They were named after this pen, since he used them to write the stories!

I was so attracted to this Waverley, I went ahead scouted for more and got lucky. I found an awesome seller in France who sold them by the gross, in its original tin box ! How much better can that get?!

The slight upturned point that resulted in a smoother pen tip, has resulted in the name Waverley being associated with any nib that is of such design. There are fountain pen nibs that have the same design and are known as Waverly pens!

For me though, I would like to stick with these lovelies!

Noodler's Flex Nib Pen

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:26:00 +0000

I finally got it! After a long wait for the pens to be available and placing my order at two different sources, I finally got hold of the much talked about pen.

I filled it up with my brand new bottle of Rotring brilliant blue, and started to put ink to paper. This is quite an amazing pen. has a great range of line width, writes absolutely smooth, and it is pretty small, and compact and is very comfortable to use.

I have been using dip pen nibs to get the feel of what flex nibs are all about, and the difficulty with dip pens being they run out of ink so often. The Noodlers flex is a delight. Fill up using the in built filler, with your favorite ink, and then you keep going on and on...

I have seen folks use indelible black inks such as the Noodler's Bulletproof Black, and Platinum Carbon Ink. I will probably hold off till the newness of the pen goes away before attempting to do such a thing.

To get this flex from a fountain pen was something very different to experience. The Rotring ink is a very beautiful blue, didn't come out well in the mobile shot above. Its a Violet-ty brilliant blue.

Folks with experience using vintage flex fountain pens must be able to critic the Noodler better. My comparison is based on dip nibs, which are quite a different thing. What I love about dip pens, are the really super thin points they can have, and the high amount of flex.

For instance an Hunt 100 nib, can produce an almost invisible line, that can flourish into a very thick swell, and back to the hairline again, without dragging along from the swell. That adaptability, is missing, partly due to the ink. The India ink has a certain density, that allows the flexibility of line width, which goes from hairline to a swell and back to the super thin immediately. fountain pen inks are generally more fluid, and hence cannot swing back to the thinness without dragging out a little from the thick stroke.

What is amazing about the pen is that , this time around all the pens got sold in first few days. and the clear demonstrator version sold out at Gouletpens in like three minutes !! I can believe it. The other source for my Noodler's flex is good old Greenman508 who by the way seems to have couple colors left at the time of this writing, and so does ISellPens.

It was almost like First Day First Show. Great to see a fountain pen creating such as flutter.

I think this is a great pen, to create some amazing writing and drawing. And if anything it can serve as a great means of practicing penmanship, before graduating to dip pens and India Ink if needed.

Dip Pens

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:24:00 +0000

I had briefly written about how great dip pens are. I am just now beginning to discover how amazingly superior the dip pens are.

I was introduced to dip pens through a Gillott 303 when I was a kid and learning art as part of a mail based art study program. The dense black India ink and the simple yet super fine nib was very intriguing. Time went by, I forgot all about it.

Following my recent exploration of pens, I got hold of a few fabulous sets of nibs thanks to Ebay and dedicated forums such as the Fountain Pen Network and Stutler's Sketching Forum.

We have come a long way from the quills of birds, to bamboos, to dip pens, to fountain pens, and on to ball point, Gel, Felt tips and so on. While there is an apparent progression in terms of more ease of use, portability etc, the flexibility and amazing line quality of the dip pen eludes all modern day pens.

Due to the simplicity of the mechanism, and the absence of any restriction whatsoever on the shape and form of the nib, they came in a wide variety of shapes.

Dip pens were primarily made in Birmingham, beginning the early 1800, which was also known as the first manufacturing town. In its hay days, each pen factory in Birmingham seems to have produced around 30,000 pens(these nibs were called as pens in those days), and it employed women and simple hand press tools. This resulted in a amazing drop in price leading to the access to writing tools for the masses which some attribute to the increased literacy and literature.

Though the days of dip pens are long gone, there does seem to be available a limited supply of the nibs.

Though these nibs were primarily made for writing, pretty soon the drawing community began making use of it. Engineering drafting as well as pen and ink artists began to make use of it increasingly.

The dip pens also came in great flex, which aided in ornamental writing, which had great variation in line width. there were business pens that were pretty stiff with uniform lines. There was also a variety called the Manifold nib which was hard enough and used to produce as many as five carbon copies.

Then there were the so called School pens. Which were generally medium point, and for the beginner.

Joseph Gillott and Esterbrook were two companies that produced some great pens for drawing. Gillot's # EF, 303 , 170 and #1 Principality offered a complete solution for the artist. they together offered very fine, very flex to medium fine and medium flex. Esterbrook had equivalents 356, 357, 358 and so on.

Gillot was the pioneer in mass production of steel nibs, and Esterbrook brought that to the United States. Carl Barks the famous Donald Duck cartoonist used an Esterbrook 356 for his inking.

In the hay days, the dip pen nibs were made in several countries, beginning in England, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Russia, United States and all the way to India, Japan, China and more. Today one can still obtain nibs made from a variety of countries. Outside of the famous name brands there are plenty of interesting nibs.

Nibs generally came in a gross. 12 dozen per box. The reason being these were more commonly used in public places such as the Bank, Post office etc., and an average consumption would be about a gross a year. Some say, due to the fact that these nibs corrode easily if not maintained, even an individual needed more than a handful over a period of time.

While the Gillot and Esterbrook nibs for art work were of a certain size, there was a much larger Falcon variety. This had the shape of the beak of a falcon, came in large size and could hold tons of ink. Esterbrook, Perry & Co and almost every manufacturer made them, and they are such a delight.Today dip pens are still manufactured primarily in the Manga world. Companies such as the Tachikawa, Nikko and Zebra makes clones of the most popular art nibs of the yesteryear. These are made of stainless steel and most likely last longer. The most popular being the G-pen.

Best source for these nibs is Ebay, while there are also several specialized stores such as Pendemonium. If you are lucky you might pickup a gross for under 5 dollars!

My favorites so far are Perry & Co Falcon, MacNiven & Cameron Waverly, Zebra G, Gillott 403/303 and Brause 230EF -- And this list keeps changing :)

This is just the tip of the iceberg. As more NOS nibs from around the world arrive, I shall report my findings more.

For learning more in depth about dip pens one should take visit to IAMPETH.

Beautiful Handwriting and the Secret of the Flex Nib

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:13:00 +0000

Ever wondered how those beautiful written texts of the past were written? There is a certain charm in the manner in which these were written, there was a rhythm, there was a graceful flow, a very expressive tone, and when looking at them now, produces almost a mystical look.

Often time we wonder , maybe it was the talent of the writers, with such gifted handwriting, which probably is too difficult to acquire. No question about the talent of the hand that wrote those beautiful texts, but no matter how hard one tries, unless the tool is right it will never be as good.

Apart from the style and grace of the hand, the variation in the width of the strokes is the key ingredient and the secret behind the expressive variable width is the Flexible nib of the pens that was used to write them.

Of course these were not written with modern ball point pens or roller gel pens. Even the flat edges Calligraphy pens can only come close. In olden times pens were in the form of nibs set in a holder and dipped in bottles(ink wells) of ink and used. The simplicity of the mechanism also meant a flexibility in the kind of ink one can use. The ink can be pigment based (opposed to modern dye-based inks) and hence can be very dense and non-feathering, waterproof and indelible.

Apart from that advantage, the nibs can be of varying types. very thin to thick, and from very stiff to very very flexible. The Flexible nibs again varied from Flex, to semi flex and no flex and everything in between.

These flexible nibs were capable of producing lines of varying thickness based on the amount of pressure exerted on them. some nibs such as the Hunt 100 is so thin, yet totally flexible that it can produce very huge swells if pressed even slightly. Some such as Gillott 404 and Gillott 303 had manageable amount of flex.

Using these a very interesting and varied types of text can be produced. The style and grammar of such handwriting evolved and one can see styles such as Spencerian or Copperplate as being more popular.

As dip pens gave way to fountain pens (we are still talking of 'ancient' times), the flexible nibs became a speciality. It was a challenge to produce flexible nibs that can work inside a fountain pen's feed mechanism. Gold was the most suitable since it can flex without breaking, and also at the same time resistant to corrosion, since fountain pens stayed wet even when not in use. Hence it became expensive to have flexible nib fountain pens, and slowly the flex nib along with the fountain pens faded away from public memory.

Of course it did not fade away from everyone, and there always existed a set of individuals passionate about handwriting, flexible nibs, and what not, and they continued the tradition, however with limited supply of vintage flex nib fountain pens, which became more and more expensive and certainly into the hundreds of dollars.

One always had the choice of using a dip pen. but it always comes with its own disadvantages, such as lack of portability and increased maintenance. The increased interest in Manga, has re infused the enthusiasm in dip pens , and there is a specialized set of nibs from Nikko, Tachikawa and Zebra such as the G-Pen, which offer great flex capabilities. One can still get Gillott, and from other manufacturers such as Leonardt, and Brause.

Most recently the intriguing company called the Noodler's Ink company has introduced a beautiful flex nib fountain pen that has satisfied the cravings of a flex nib enthusiast, at a price that won't pinch the pocket.

All of these is recent knowledge to me, and it was a great liberating experience to take a flexible dip pen, dense India ink, and produce some very interesting vintage style text with expressive strokes.

Some of the resources that helped are the Fountain Pen Network, Russ Stutler's Sketching Forum and countless blogs from great folks.

If you want to know all about Penmenship, the only place you ever want to go is IAMPETH. And of course you need your choice of dip pen, or fountain pen with a good flex nib and a bottle of beautiful ink, and endless supply of paper.

Next time you want to send a handwritten note, or a little note on the tiny little card on the gift, you are better equipped.

Made in India : Wality Airmail pens

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:33:00 +0000

While in pursuit of fountain pens that I can use for drawing and sketching, I got myself what looked like an ordinary pen in an artstore. My primary (rather only) use of a fountain pen is for sketching and drawing... having used the Rotring Artpen, Lamy safari, etc, this did not look slick. But it had its own old world charm.

The pen is a simple eyedropper clear demonstrator. Meaning.. no cartridges to fill, no piston convertors to use. simply open up the barrel and fill it up by pouring from your bottle :)

When I filled it up with a black ink from Camlin called the Permanent black, and put pen to paper, I was blown away. Its a fine tipped (Japanese-Fine) nib, and was wet. It drew beautiful precise lines. flowed as smooth as silk. The ink though not that dense, came out dense because of the F nib.

This is now my daily sketch pen. I can fill up the huge barel with almost 3 cc (maybe more) of ink, and keep going for ever.

After doing some research I found that this pen is made by a company called the Airmail pen co. in Mumbai and they have been at it for more than 50 years! They have quite a range. The one I had purchased in known as Wality 70 JT and it is Huge! it also has a variant where the barell is covered except for a window to show the ink. Though I love the fully transparent version, where I could see the ink swishing and splashing around likes the waves on the beach.

Now comes the sweet part. This pen cost me Rs. 100 ( $2) and a bottle of black ink that cost me Rs. 12 (30 cents). My best buy in Fountain pens.

Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:03:00 +0000

India Ink is the traditional ink used by illustrators for ages for the purpose of waterproof application. These are pigmented, and/or Shellac based inks that are certainly not suitable for fountain pens.

This would mean we need to resort to the classic dip pen. Using a dip pen is in itself a joy that cannot be equated with any other form of pen. but thats a different story.

Using dip pens means they are not portable, needs maintenance of ink, work space, inkwells, spills etc.

Fountain pens on the other hand are awesome for their maintenance free and portable nature. They are available instantly, all the time and can be used away from the desk. fountain pens have a feed mechanism that controls the flow of ink from the ink container to the nib and on to the paper. This requires certain property of the ink, so that it does not clog the feed system. Most fountain pen inks are washable, non waterproof ink. While this is great for line art, sketching etc. it becomes impossible to apply a watercolor wash on top of this.

Enter the Platinum Carbon Fountain pen, and the Platinum Carbon Ink!

This pen comes from the famous Platinum , one of top three Japanese pen makers. The ink is waterproof India Ink equivalent, contains minute carbon particle that creates the dense black color. The pen, has a larger feed and flow channel that prevents this ink from clogging it. This is an amazing combination that produces waterproof black lines instantly.

One can apply color washes immediately and not a single feathering, or smearing of the ink. In the quick sketch above, I applied color wash immediately and I was surprised not to find a single smear, bleed or feathering !!.

Artists have successfully used this ink in other regular fountain pens as well.. such as the Rotring Artpen, Pilot 78G and the "crowd sourced" TWSBI diamond 530.

The carbon pen comes with a Extra Fine nib, and since this comes from Japan, this should be categorized a Extra-Extra-Fine. But the flow, and fine nib is simply amazing.

Rotring ArtPen

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:52:00 +0000

Recently on a visit to San Francisco, I chanced upon the Rotring Artpen at the newly opened Blick superstore in Market Street, and the name Rotring ringing a bell I picked up a Sketch EF (Extra Fine) along with few cartridges of brilliant Black.

The unique design of the pen with a brush like handle, very light weight(just about enough weight) makes the pen interesting (Not to mention the beautiful metal box).

The performance of the pen itself is amazing, the EF nib, creates amazing line quality, writes like silk, and the ink... its brilliant. The Ink is dark, and does not bleed or feather and creates crisp lines. The surprise came when I added a dash of water from my newly aquired Niji waterbrush.. and I was stunned. It created a rich textured wash, with several tones, and pretty deep for an ink.

Back in Chennai I checked out local art store for more of these Artpens. Unfortunately the digital revolution has diminished patronage for fine art pens, and all I could get was a stash of old stock of what are known as Rotring Rivettes. Though not called Artpens these are fine fountain pens, though meant for the beginner. I also obtained brilliant brown ink cartridges and loaded these up....and I was simply blown away. This is one of the best browns, deep and rich.

This has opened up a whole new medium. Glenn Vilppu talks a lot about how fountain pens and non-waterproof ink can be such a liberating medium for sketching.

Rotring with its inks are the perfect tools.

For the record, the Rotring Artpens come under different types..
Sketching (EF, F),
Lettering (M,B), and
Calligraphy.

The ones relevent for sketching are the EF and the F.

Couple of great resources on Pen and Ink as art form..
The Fountain Pen Network
The Sketching Forum

Comic Con comes to India - 1st Annual Indian Comic Con

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 03:35:00 +0000

For the first time in India a Comic Con is to be held. Feb 19-20 in New Delhi at the Dilli Haat !

The 1st Indian Comic Con, signals the coming of Age of the Indian comic industry. Having a long tradition of story telling and rich tradition of visual arts, and a long history of comic book publishing, it was long due to have a convention, where artists, writers, publishers and the connoisseurs got together and shared their goods.

Amar Chitra Katha, Diamond Comics, Vimanika are some of the known names to participate, along with a possibly large number of independent publishers.

The staple of Indian comic reader had been Tintin, Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Disney comics, Asterix, Om-papa, Lucky Luke, British comics such as Steel Claw and the likes. This changed with the great induction of Indian creativity through the evergreen classics from Amar Chitra katha. ACK set an never before seen standards for bringing the rich story telling tradition of India to the hugely popular medium of sequential art. There is now a renewed interest in Graphic story telling with more original and independent content coming out from local artists and writers.

Hope this comic con sets a precendent and lead to more flourishing times for the Indian comics industry.

Blender

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 02:48:00 +0000

Blender, the free open source 3d content creation suite has come a long long way, and has proven to be a Hollywood class toolkit with some amazing showcase movies.

The opens source movie, the Big Buck Bunny exhibits the outstanding capabilities of Blender and ofcourse the talent of the artists involved.

Blender lets you do anything and everything including,

Modelling
Rigging
Animation
UV Unwrapping
Rendering
Shading
Physics and Particles
Imaging and Compositing
Realtime 3D / Game Creation

and lot more.

There are some amazing tutorials, books and videos to get started.

Here is a one that I found can get you upto speed real quick, especially the powerful use of keyboard shortcuts and cominbation of mouse is shown in this video that takes us from a single box to a fully modelled human figure in about an hour.

You can view or download it at Tutsplus.com.

Compared to expensive tools such as 3DS Max, or Maya, Blender gives a huge advantage not only in terms of cost, but an amazingly productive interafce which is very intiutive once past the learning curve.

Book Review : Elements Of Pop Up: A Pop Up Book For Aspiring Paper Engineers : David A. Carter

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 06:04:00 +0000

Right On The Money

This is an outstanding book of reference for the pop up paper engineer.

There are plenty of books, that talk about the materials, what pop ups is all about, a few design ideas, and which give a few different components that go into popups. Some deal with a project building step by step. These are similar to several books on learning to draw, paint etc., where a series of samples are given, and by doing them, one learns to do exactly that particular piece. These books were teaching 'How to draw cars', 'How to draw people', 'how to draw animals' etc.. where the focus was on the cars, and people and the animals.. The real need for a learner to master the subject and make it their own is to know the foundation. what is need is a 'How to draw'.Period.

Then there were special books created by teachers such as Glenn Vilppu, Kimon Nicholaides, Bruce McIntyre, who came along and presented the 'elements'. Once we master the elements of any subject, we are well equipped to 'creating' an endless variety.

This book, true to its title deals with the elements. Like the alphabets and words of a language, the book contains page after page of simple elements, increasing in complexity. There are plenty of different elements that are presented using parallel and angle folds.

Simple elements such as box, cones, cylinders, armature, tents etc. are presented, and explained in detail. The book presents the 'elements', and all we need is the creativity to go build what we want to, using these elements. This is the classical approach to understanding this subject. Very well made book.

Also, the book takes us into the realm of paper engineering, with wheels, cams, pull-tabs and such.

The highlight of the book is that, all the elements that are dealt with are demonstrated with a working sample pasted on the book, along with detailed descriptions. There are 44 elements that the authors deals with in this large format book. 32 focussing on pop ups, and the rest based on wheels and pull-tabs. The templates or 'dies' for all these templates are available for free download from the author's website, which would be an amazing add-on.

This would be an essential book in the po-up engineer workshop.

After purchasing half a dozen books, I was looking precisely for one of this kind, and am glad I found it.

This is an extract from my review at Amazon.com, You can find more of my reviews here.

Manhua : Judge Bao (Juge Bao)

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:45:00 +0000

I came across this French comics series titled Judge Bao(Juge Bao). The art work was simply too stunning to pass.

Written by Patrick Marty and beautifully illustrated by Chong Rui Nei, this is published by Les Editions Fei. ChongRui has rendered using amazing black ink and pen work.

This series titled Judge Bao, is based on the 10th century official in Ancient China, who was known for his impartial judgements.

There are three volumes published so far, each running to around 160 pages in an oblong format.

Also there appears to be a beautiful collector's edition, containing all three, available later this year at BDnet.

Book Review : The Figure: The Classic Approach to Drawing & Construction by Walt Reed

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:26:00 +0000

Constructive Figure Drawing : Start To Finish

This is a very easy to use, clear and practical guide to constructing the figure from imagination.

"Classic approach" here simply means the methods that have been handed down from the Masters of the renaissance, where art and science came together. For instance, ideas of perspective, which are analytical and mathematical, were applied to art to create realism.

Similarly the constructive approach is based somewhat in the lines of geometry, and attempt to reduce all objects and forms to be a composition of a few basic forms. This resulted in the usage of sphere, box, cylinder etc. to construct any three dimensional figure, including of course the human figure. There were no hard and fast rules as to what these basic forms were. Some would use cones, cuboids etc.

This book is a very clear exposition on the use of constructive approach to drawing the figure.

The Figure is analyzed using the basic forms first, to get a sense of proportion, relationships etc.

The idea of using two glasses (glasses with which we drink water etc.) as the two parts of the body: the upper torso and the pelvis, is amazingly an effective tool, in studying the relationship of these two major forms of the figure. same is done to study the upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs.

The book aids in seeing the figure as made up of these simple forms, which results in clear understanding of the underlying structure which is easy to cast into memory, and can be applied both in life drawing as well as drawing from imagination.

There are parts of the book that deals in details about the body and the movable parts. the possible movements of individual parts, in relation to the others, such as how much the arm can swing, or the degree of freedom of each part of the leg, are invaluable lessons, that are very explicitly laid down using the simplified figure.
Eventually the book takes us to an application of anatomy, though not a anatomy book, this teaches how to use a simplified skeleton to setup the figure and move towards more realism.

If we go through this book, one can be assured of getting a "solid" understanding of the figure, in very simplified terms yet powerful enough to create stunningly realistic figure from imagination.

One would learn from the book, apply this knowledge when drawing from life or photo reference, and then internalize that knowledge and start creating figures purely from imagination.

Walt Reed was part of the amazing Famous Artists School of the 50-60s. The Figure drawing lessons in those courses are pretty much what is contained in this book. I would think this book contains a bit more than those lessons, more reference images, and more instructions.

This is a must have in the figurative artist book shelf.

This is an extract from my review at Amazon.com, You can find more of my reviews here.

Osamu Tezuka : Buddha

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:52:00 +0000

Osamu Tezuka, famously known as the God of Manga, has created a masterpiece in this monumental series of 8 volumes on Buddha.

The epic series captures the sum and substance of the life and times and the philosophy of Buddha, in simple beautiful and elegant graphic style of Manga.

The Eight volumes are,

1. Kapilavastu
2. The Four Encounters
3. Devadatta
4. The Forest of Uruvela
5. Deer Park
6. Ananda
7. Ajatasattu
8. Jetavana

The story is an adaptation where Tezuka takes certain liberties with respect to characters, storyline and time lines. This results in a rather refreshing retelling of one of the most important stories of all time.

This is a great set of books to read for the story and the philosophy and the beautiful art of Tezuka. Also, this is a great master class on the art and science of Manga! What better way to learn to create Graphic novels?

There are of course several editions, and translations of the original Japanese version. Also to make it easy to read and make life easy for the translation process, the original book was simply mirror imaged! to enable English readers go from left to right. Not sure if that's a great idea though.

There are at least three different English editions, one the nice and seductive hardcover, with beautiful white dust covers and the three Buddhas shining on the spines. the other is the paperback version of the same, and there is one more paperback edition made using pulp like economical paper available in India and south east Asia.

Pacific Comics Club : Golden Age Reprints Phantom, Mandrake and More

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:24:00 +0000

There was a Golden age for everything. The early twentieth century was the golden age of various things. Aviation, Science, and among other things the golden age of newspaper comic strips.

For several decades beginning the 30s various strips came into existence, and had a wonderful run, with readership running into the millions.

The great art work of masters such as Alex Raymond, Ray Moore, Wilson McCoy, Sy Barry, Dan Barry, Phil Davis, Leonard Starr, Milton Caniff, Gene Byrnes, Hal Foster entertained newspaper readers all over the world. Some of the stories that came from their pens and brushes were The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Steve Canyon, On Stage, Reglar Fellers, Prince Valiant to name a few. The Golden era slowly got forgotten and gave way to other forms of entertainment. Though he American public had largely forgotten this era, these strips were extremely popular around the world, with reprints in the form of collections, coming up from various publishers.

A few years back, when I finally got time to get back in touch with these beautiful stories and artwork, and was disappointed with the absence of popularity in the United States, I discovered a wonderful source for these golden era reprints.

It is Tony Raiola's Pacific Comics Club. The online store has a treasure chest of the golden age goodies. Tony is a passionate comic strip fan/collector/publisher who has been running this since the 60s in France, Italy and later in the United States. Several popular strips have been published by Pacific Comics in wonderful format, very carefully reproduced, highlighting the clear artwork of the masters. They also carry similar reprints of hard to find strips from other publishers.

I asked Tony for his thoughts and he opines..."American newspaper strips were more popular in Europe than here in the States , just like western movies. What happened is that European made compilations and books from the strips, instead the American had a few reprints in Famous Funnies, etc. In Europe Flash Gordon ,the Phantom , Mandrake were very popular .The fact is that after the '50s the American concentrated their efforts on comic book business forgetting the strips and creating superheroes."

I agree with him and made me think about the huge popularity of Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon and the likes in India. Where there was a large fan base and Indarjal Comics had a fantastic run.

I wish Tony the best and continue to offer several of the long forgotten Golden era comic strip master pieces.

Drawing from Reference and Copying the Masters

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:55:00 +0000

As one goes about learning to draw, one realises at some point the importance of drawing from reference, or even copying.

The urge to draw typically comes from observing great art. Whether it is story illustration, comic art, animation, or the academic, each one of us get inspired by specific art to begin with.

It can be Michelangelo's realistic figures, Herge's simplicity and elegance, Alex Raymond's magical drama with lines, Leonard Starr's cinematic panels, an so on. But these specific individual artists and their art serves as the motive for us to learn to draw.

Learning to draw consists of learning the elements of drawing. One has to know how to use the two dimensional medium to represent the real world, and create a believability with the tools of the medium. Leaning to use the elements such as the gesture, line, tone, principles of perspective, composition, etc are mastered in an attempt to create realism. We learn how to begin a drawing, how to develop it, and how to complete or render it to the detail desired.

But learning to write is more than learning the alphabets and words. A rich vocabulary and strong grammar is necessary, but not sufficient. This is when one starts to read!

Similarly as an artist, after learning the foundations of drawing, and learning a medium or two, such as the pen and ink, or watercolor , one needs to "study" the masters. Choose a select band of masters of interest, and copy the art. This will hone the skills all around. Use of line, composition, drama, action, expression, style, all of these can be improved by trying to replicate the masters to the dot.

A combination of generating original art, and copying and analysing the masters, will accelerate the development as an artist. While copying art, one has to analyse it for the principles and elements of art and learn from it.

Copying masters is not only an aid to improvement, but is such as rewarding activity, since the great amount of learning and the genius can be appreciated at a greater detail than when simply observing it.

Great artists always used models for their work, and used heavy reference material. Copying the Masters is a compulsory part of any serious art curriculum. One can learn about this from the artists of the renaissance, to the masters of the times, such as Herge, whose reference material teaches us the relevance of it. So does Alex Raymond, Milton Caniff and others who used models for their work. A recent book on Norman Rockwell tells us how he created his illustrations, by creating the scene completely in reality using models, posing them and photographing them and using it as a reference!

So, while in the journey of learning to draw, if one hits a plateau, its time to go out and sketch from life, or pick up the favourite artist and simply copy!

Drawing Lessons @ Animation Illustration Art

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:53:00 +0000

A new companion website containing learning resources is now available.

You can access it by clicking the "Lessons" Button at the top of this blog, or by visiting Learning @ Animation Illustration Art .

The Idea of Learning @ Animation Illustration Art is to offer engaging, structured learning resources that will build proficiency, confidence and flair in the art student.

The objective is to provide a knowledge base consisting of a wide range of short effective courses for students of all levels.

Lessons will be available in various areas of interest such as Drawing and Composition, Rendering in media such as Pencil, Pen, Brush, Monochrome and Color Wash, Digital Painting/Vector Illustration, Story Illustration, Sequential Art, and Animation(Classical and Digital). and is built progressively, one on top of the other at an easy pace. The courses are absolutely functional, which will start equipping you with the knowledge and tools from day one, that will get you set on a creative, artistic and rewarding pursuit.

FOUNDATIONAL DRAWING

The First set of Lessons focus on Foundational Drawing. The student will learn from the very basics, about materials, how to hold a pencil, various means of creating strokes, capturing the essense and different aspects such as gesture and form, of any object and eventually learn how to compose a complete picture.

Objective: By the end of this set of lessons on Foundational Drawing one should become confident and proficient in drawing anything from observation.

LESSON PLAN

* Beginning To Draw
* Gesture Drawing – Capturing the Total
* Contour – Capturing the Details
* Shape – The Second Dimension
* Form – The Third Dimension
* Modeling – Creating Form with Line
* Chiaroscuro – Creating Form with Tone
* Procedure – A General Approach
* Perspective – Foreshortening
* Composition – Creating a Complete Picture

The Lessons, Beginning To Draw and Gesture Drawing are now available! More to follow soon.

Jacques Martin - A Ligne Claire Master - The Adventures of Alix

noreply@blogger.com (Ganapathy Subramaniam) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:46:00 +0000

One of the collaborators of Herge and a true master of the Lignare Claire school, Jacques Martin produced some fantastic art during his times outside of the Tintin Albums.

His greatest output is the series The Adventures of Alix. Beginning with the first album, Alix l'intrépide, is a series of stories about the Gallo-Roman Alix, whose adventures are set in a historic Roman setting.

Between 1948 and 1996, Martin produced twnety fantastic albums, . These generally appeared first in the Tintin magazine, then printed as a book by Casterman, a few were printed originally by Lombard.

Later albums were done by younger artists of talent with Martin authoring the stories.

Beginning 1996, a beautiful series outlining the historical places travelled by Alix in his adventures, began to be produced. Known as Les Voyages d'Alix, it showcases some of the best known ligne claire artwork, with stunning details of the places, set in the historic timeframe.

These books though not from the brush(pen) of Martin, are heavily influenced by him, and by Alix. They contain very interesting historic information about the places, along with great art.

Jacques Martin created other characters and stories, which we can visit at some other time.

There are some awesome editions of the Alix series from Casterman, including multiple story hardbound editions such as the Alix, les premières aventures , which combines Alix l'intrépide, Le Sphinx d'Or and L'Egypte 2(from Les Voyages series)

These are all ofcourse in French. and can be found at Amazon UK/France or at several of the online French Bande dessinée stores such as BDNet.