David Chelsea's Blog, page 44

For 9/11: He Walks On Air, I Walk On Eggshells

Here's a reup of a post from 2009:

This two page comic drawn for the 2002 charity anthology 9-11: Artists Respond tells the story of French daredevil Philippe Petit's 1974 wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center, which was also the subject of the recent award-winning documentary Man On Wire. I could classify this one as a comic for hire, but to me it doesn't qualify because I wasn't paid for it. The book was in aid of some worthy charity I can't recall- possibly a fund for firemen's wives whose husbands had left them for 9/11 widows- and all contributors waived their fees.

David Chelsea is watching:

It Started With Eve

Starring Deanna Durbin

When I was invited to contribute to the book, I was faced with the dilemma of how to say something original about 9/11 without being either banal or offensive. I seized on Petit's half-forgotten stunt as a clever way of addressing the attacks indirectly, avoiding what l saw as the instant clichés of the 9/11 story- the flag raised at Ground Zero, superheroes saluting firefighters, the cartoonist sipping his coffee as the sight of the towers falling on TV triggers the poignant memory of a trip to the Trade Center at age ten. The makers of the documentary appear to have had a similar idea, though of course I couldn't match their resources or access to the original participants.

This old story qualifies as a current event because the Lazarides Gallery, Soho, London is showing the art in the ctrl.alt.shift Unmasks Corruption exhibit which runs from Nov. 6th through Nov. 30th as part of the Comica Festival in London. I won't be able to attend, so I'd appreciate any reports back from readers of this blog who do make it out there.

You can view the story big at Comics Lifestyle. Special thanks to Brendan Wright at Dark Horse for tracking down the original image files.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption

Lazarides Gallery, Soho, London U.K.

November 6 to November 30, 2009

Perspective Police!: Wagon Wheels

For this latest installment of Perspective Police, I have selected a 1982 piece from the National Lampoon by an illustrator named David Celsi, who had a busy but not very visible career in the 70s and 80s before dropping entirely out of sight, then reemerging in the 90s as an autobiographical cartoonist under the name David Chelsea.

David Chelsea is watching:

"Dexter: The Fifth Season"

Print by Albrecht Durer

It is clear that Celsi is aware of perspective but has yet to fully master it; he begins by making the classic novice mistake of setting up a one point perspective with the vanishing point far to one side, indeed out of the picture entirely. Here Celsi is at least in good company; the great German printmaker Albrecht Durer favored a less extreme form of lopsided composition. However, where the artist utterly fails is in constructing a circular object, that unnaturally pinched-looking wagon wheel on the left.

The first step to correcting the perspective is establishing a horizon line and central vanishing point consistent with receding lines in the rest of the picture. We then enclose the front circle of the wheel in a perspective square.

Twelve Point Method for drawing a circle

We subdivide the square 4×4 using the crossed lines method, then add further crisscrossing lines to establish twelve points on a circle in perspective. This Twelve Points Method figures prominently in both my books on perspective.

Notice that the perspective circle is a tilted ellipse, not a straight vertical one like in the original illustration. Most beginners assume that foreshortened circles must be aligned parallel to the horizon or perpendicular to it, but in fact they tilt increasingly as they get further from the center of vision. The rules govern this effect are complex, but if you construct your circles within perspective squares using the twelve point method, the results will always be correct.

Once the outer rim of the wheel is complete, we construct a circle for the inner rim with its points tangent on the 2×2 square. We then add smaller circles to construct the hub and axle, and give it depth by extending vertical lines left and right.

To add a rear wheel, we need to first draw another square the same size as the first. The first step is extending a diagonal line from the square back to a "transverse  horizon", a vertical line passing through the central vanishing point. Where they intersect is the diagonal vanishing point, which can then be used to construct a second square further back in space.

We follow the same basic steps to construct the second wheel.

I'm bothered by the barrel. It's pretty well drawn, but the top circle is too full for how it would look that close to the horizon. Also, it seems to be behind the rear wheel even though it visually overlaps it. Let's bring it forward and put it properly in perspective. The first step is establishing a diagonal vanishing point on the horizon. Easy to do- it is exactly the same distance from the central vanishing point as the diagonal vanishing point on the transverse horizon.

Once we have the top and bottom circles established, we draw curves to define the silhouette.

Curved lines gradually evolving from flattish at the top to fuller near the bottom define the hoops. Similar lines that are straight at the center and bowed closer to the edges define the staves, and the barrel is complete.

We then superimpose our construction lines over the original illustration, and shift pieces of the image around through the magic of Photoshop.

Before you know it, we have a brand new illustration, all correct in perspective. Isn't that a pretty wheel!

Got an example of iffy perspective to show? Be a whistleblower! Send an e-mail to me at davidchelsea(at)comcast(dot)net and include Perspective Police! in the subject line.

Squirrels!

A recent private commission for a friend who, inspired by my series of bird envelopes, asked me to create a similar batch featuring squirrels:

David Chelsea is listening to:

"Tomboy"

by Panda Bear

However, I couldn't entirely leave out the birds:

Dick Cheney, Suicide Bomber

Caricature from INX

David Chelsea is reading:

"Incognito: The Secret Life Of The Brain"

by David Eagelman

Snow Angel: It's A Wrap!

Today is Wednesday, August 24th, the day the new issue of Dark Horse Presents, featuring the third and final installment of Snow Angel, hits the shelves.

David Chelsea is listening to:

"American Rose, A Nation Laid Bare"

by Karen Abbott

In the first episode Snow Angel battled bicycle theft, in the second she took on global warming, but now she faces a new and even more terrifying menace- jaywalking! I won't tell you how it turns out, but there is time for a rousing singalong of the Snow Angel theme song.

Previous blog posts about Snow Angel: This one. That one.

Interview with me and fellow Dark Horse Presents artist Patrick Alexander.

Don't forget to watch for my second three part story, The Girl With The Keyhole Eyes, appearing in future issues of Dark Horse Presents.

European Sketchbook #2: Germany

On the German portion of our trip to Europe this summer, we stayed with our friends Albert and Eva Warmuth in the Bavarian village of Wargolshausen (it's near Junkershausen, if that's any help).

David Chelsea is listening to

"Groovy Kind Of Love"

by Wayne Fontana And The Mindbenders

Hay Bale House

Albert is a farmer (he was harvesting basil just as we arrived) and Eva is a sculptor who specializes in church installations and public monuments, including this one in Bad Neustadt.  They live in Germany's first straw bale house, which they built themselves.

View Of Wargolshausen

I filled pages of my sketchbook with drawings of the flock of geese which roam the fields surrounding the house- all of them destined to be Christmas dinner.

Goslings

We avoided the big cities, but on day trips we did go to picturesque local spots, such as castles in Holmburg and Coburg, and the Jewish cemetery outside Kleinbarsdorf (note the "Live Long And Prosper" sign on one of the headstones, a Jewish custom that actor Leonard Nimoy transplanted to the planet Vulcan when he played Spock on "Star Trek").

Farm Machine

Holmburg Castle

Cemetery

European Sketchbook #1: Italy

Palazzo Celsi

Here are some sketches from the trip I took to Europe with the family in June and July. Our first stop was Venice, then we moved on to Florence, where I collected research for a book project about Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi and his discovery of perspective.

David Chelsea is reading

"Godel, Escher, Bach"

by Douglas Hofstader

Baptistery

A lot of the drawings from Florence are of things Brunelleschian, including his death mask in the Opera Duomo Museum and the Florentine Baptistery, subject of Brunelleschi's first perspective demonstration. I also sketched contemporary scenes, like the supermarket near our hotel and a museum guard reading manga at the Ufizzi.

Museum Guard at the Uffizi

The kids kept busy sketching as well; Ben spent several hours on this pencil drawing of the Neptune fountain in the Boboli Gardens, and Rebecca painted a watercolor of a Florentine peach.

Sketches from Opera Duomo

Florence Supermarket

Ben's Fountain

Rebecca's Peach

Our time in Venice was shorter and I did fewer sketches there, but I did find time to draw the Palazzo Celsi, ancestral home of my putative relative, Doge Lorenzo Celsi. We also visited the bell tower at San Marco, where Eve noticed this sign, an apparent prohibition against sketching the bells:

This was a challenge I could not resist:

Next: Sketches from Germany

Spherical Perspective: Skidmore Fountain

Here's a piece from Think Ink, the group show opening tonight at Steele Gallery in Seattle. This image of Portland's Skidmore Fountain is the first spherical painting where I worked from photo reference. In the pre-digital era (1999) this meant standing at one spot and taking pictures in all directions, having the resultant roll of film developed, and then spreading the prints on the floor and linking them up in various ways to map out the 360° image.

David Chelsea is reading:

Nemesis by Philip Roth

(David Hockney works in a similar way when he creates piecemeal panoramas like this one by joining up photos taken at multiple angles from a single point.)

Reference photos a la Hockney

If you can't make it up to the show, you can view the sphere (or half of it, anyway) large on Flickr. The next-best thing to being there is viewing an immersive panorama of the piece (Shockwave viewer required). My friend Tom Lechner, whose own photographic panoramas are viewable here, stitched it together from multiple photographs of the original.

This piece plays a starring role in my new book Extreme Perspective! I make extensive use of it in the chapter where I explain spherical perspective to Mugg:

Also in the show: a large watercolor of the Skidmore Fountain scene in equirectangular cylindrical projection (ask me about it; I'll be happy to explain):

And don't miss my perspective talk at Gage Academy tonight at 7!

Think Ink

Steele Gallery at Gage Academy Of Art

1501 10th Ave. East, #101

Seattle, WA 98102

Tel: 206 323-GAGE

E-mail: Info@GageAcademy.org

Fax: 206 526-5153

August 5 – September 5

Opening Reception: Friday, Friday, August 5, 6:00pm-8:00pm

Keeping it in Perspective,

with David Chelsea

at Gage Academy Of Art

1501 10th Ave. East, #101

Seattle, WA 98102

Tel: 206 323-GAGE

E-mail: Info@GageAcademy.org

Fax: 206 526-5153

Friday, August 5, 7:00pm

David Chelsea Thinks Ink And Talks Perspective

Attention Seattle! I'll be taking my act to your fair city this coming Friday, giving a talk at Gage Academy on my favorite topic, perspective (and selling copies of my new book Extreme Perspective! as well as its predecessor, Perspective!) as well as attending the opening of a group show at the Steele Gallery. I quote from the Gage press release:

David Chelsea is reading:

The Pinball Effect

by James Burke

Coming Soon to the Steele Gallery: Think Ink

August 5 – September 5

Opening Reception: Friday, Friday, August 5, 6:00pm-8:00pm

Local artists, cartoonists and graphic illustrators exhibit pen and ink artworks that display exceptional technical skill and creative, narrative story lines. Working with the constraints and possibilities of the fluid nib and inkwell, artists David Chelsea, David Lasky, Bob Rini, Jim Woodring and more dazzle the viewer with complex compositions and unexpected shifts in perspective.

Keeping it in Perspective,

with David Chelsea

Friday, August 5, 7:00pm

Author, illustrator and comic book artist, David Chelsea, employs all of his talents in his newest book, Extreme Perspective for Artists, an illustrated text that makes the more technical aspects of perspective drawing accessible to artists, cartoonists, illustrators and animators. A sequel to his previous book Perspective! For Comic Book Artists, this entertaining and informative book will aid any artist in understanding how to render complicated multi-sided objects in perfect perspective and create accurate shadows and reflections from your own imagination.

David Chelsea has contributed to hundreds of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and Reader's Digest, and he illustrated the Modern Love column for The New York Times. He studied at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons Institute and The New York Academy of Art, and has been a commercial artist for over 30 years.

Below are some of the pieces included in the show:

Think Ink

Steele Gallery at Gage Academy Of Art

1501 10th Ave. East, #101

Seattle, WA 98102

Tel: 206 323-GAGE

E-mail: Info@GageAcademy.org

Fax: 206 526-5153

August 5 – September 5

Opening Reception: Friday, Friday, August 5, 6:00pm-8:00pm

Keeping it in Perspective,

with David Chelsea

at Gage Academy Of Art

1501 10th Ave. East, #101

Seattle, WA 98102

Tel: 206 323-GAGE

E-mail: Info@GageAcademy.org

Fax: 206 526-5153

Friday, August 5, 7:00pm

Snow Angel interview at MTV Geek

Comics writer Alexander Zalben has just posted a tandem interview with me and fellow Dark Horse Presents contributor Patrick Alexander at MTV Geek. Artfully written to convey the impression that we were all in the same room together rather than, say, corresponding by e-mail, the interview tells the behind-the-scenes story of the creative genesis of Snow Angel, as well as Patrick's hilarious feature The Wraith.

David Chelsea is listening to:

Schulz and Peanuts

by David Michaelis