En 1900, la reina Victoria y Jules Verne estaban vivos, y el siglo XX, que ya corría en los calendarios, no había empezado aún. El siglo XX, ya se sabe, empezó en 1914, con las matanzas industriales de hombres en los barrizales sangrientos de la Primera Guerra Mundial y con la introducción de los cascos de acero y del color caqui en los uniformes militares, que hasta entonces tendían a los rojos y azules de los casacones de opereta. El siglo XX empezó con la aplicación de los principios de la cadena de montaje a la fabricación de coches, de películas y de cadáveres humanos. Hasta entonces, las películas eran distracciones rudas de barraca de feria, los automóviles seguían pareciendo catafalcos o coches de caballos y los muertos, incluso los muertos de la guerra, eran muertos artesanales, de uno en uno, con nombres y apellidos, casi parroquianos de la muerte, como los parroquianos de las tiendas de ultramarinos.
Antonio Muñoz Molina, Ardor Guerrero; p.226. Ed. Alfaguara, 1996.
This is quite an old drawing that I have redone from start to finish, just because. I’m in the process of updating my portfolio and, while browsing my files, I found the old version of the drawing. Now, every now and then I would stumble upon an old drawing and think “Oh, this was a good idea, I only wish I would had drawn it better”. Usually it takes just a couple of seconds to avoid the temptation, but this time I thought it was worth the effort. Whatever.
Curiously enough, the drawing comes again from something I read in a book (if you remember, my loyal worthy reader, the same happened with a couple of recent drawings). You can see the quote above; I wouldn’t dare trying to provide a full translation, but basically it says that 1914 was the year the 20th century actually started, “with the application of the assembly line principles for the production of cars, films and human corpses”. I was somewhat moved by that notion and this drawing was my take on it.
By the way… I guess that back when I did the original drawing I didn’t know how to draw something in isometric perspective. The angle between every pair of axis should be 120º, right? That’s obviously not the case in this drawing. I’ve learned that the kind of proyection used here is called trimetric (a sort of axonometric perspective), which may sound like a cumbersome term. But back then I just did what I felt was right for the drawing without thinking too much. And I still think that this technical, unnatural perspective fits perfectly the subject of the drawing; so I let it stay the same.
Also, this was the perfect chance to test my new roller ruler, which no doubt is the most awesome thing on my desk right now.
I was thinking about adding some halftones but I think I like it better this way.
Ink on paper.
Anonymous asked:
I use reference in most of my drawings, but never in the sketching stage, where the only important thing should be composition. After that, I may take some pictures of myself trying to get the right pose, or I’ll ask my beloved A. “can you hold your hands just like this?”. Most often she’ll answer “but that’s physically impossible, you know”. I swear my Stream Photos is full with this sort of embarrasing, funny pictures. Also, stock photo sites such like Corbis can prove useful when you’re looking for something that you can’t mimic by yourself.
Anyway, the great John Lee recently wrote a post (this one) with a much better answer to your question. You should totally check it out.
I made this illustration for the latest issue of Popshot Magazine - The Imagination Issue. It accompanies a delightful short story by Krishan Coupland entitled Gravity.
You can see an 8-page sampler and order the magazine here.
I’ll be posting some new work soon, but in the meantime I remind you that you can follow my awkward process by checking out my Instagram.
I hardly take photos of food or cute cats, and, while I try to keep those Instagram cool filter effects to a minimum, sometimes I am just not strong enough.
joelbenjaminillustration asked:
Great! The one panel mini-comic will be my main contribution to Western Civilization. Or to Civilization as a whole.
Soon: the two panel mini-comic. And I’ll follow a steady progression until producing a two hundred pages graphic novel.
(Anyway, I am very happy to hear you find it inspiring! Thanks!)
voxmaris asked:
I know what you mean. Obviously most of my interest in B. Fuller’s stuff comes from a aesthetic standpoint; I am afraid that, having read little else about Fuller’s designs apart of what’s available in Wikipedia and in a couple of websites, it would be very daring from me to go further than things like “hey, I like it because it looks like all those Modern Mechanix stuff”.
Sure, I also was dissapointed when I first read about Fuller’s car being a failure, but I still like to think of all these inventions as a glorious (though mostly futile) effort.
jacobvanloon asked:
Thank you Jacob, those are encouraging words, particularly because they come from someone whose own work I admire and respect.
And yes, after setting an Instagram account a few months ago without a clear purpose in mind, I’m finding it useful to use it for showing my process on the go, while I turn to tumblr when it comes to post finished pieces.
This has been on my drawing table (or somewhere near it) for at least one month, but once and again I’ve been forced to leave it aside because of deadlines and… well, life. Now it’s finished.
I would like you to look at it as a sort of minicomic. A one-panel minicomic, if that’s something worth a name.
The text is (allegedly) a Phoenician prayer quoted by Jorge Luis Borges in his book Seven Nights (this is when I start to look pedantic), which holds a collection of seven lectures from 1977. The prayer was spoken by sailors “when the ship was in the verge of being lost”, and it translates as follows:
Gods, judge me not as a God
but as a man
whom the Ocean has broken.
I have been careful enough to write “allegedly” before because Borges didn’t add any particular reference as the source of this text, and he had a well-known habit to make up apocryphal stories. You have been warned, my dear worthy reader.
This is sumi ink and airbrush on A2 board, by the way. As usual, you may find some progress pictures in my Instagram stream.
PS: I just noticed: two literary references in two posts. What’s happening here? As if I still had time enough to actually read or something.
