Frank Cho's Blog, page 25

Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho

Leslie

Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho

Ralph Leslie Mad Cow

Liberty Meadows Meets Calvin & Hobbes

Frank Cho: Liberty Meadows Meets Calvin & Hobbes, Sunday strip tribute. Click to enlarge.

The kitchen remodel is DONE! Unfortunately, it ate up so much of my work time that I’ll probably play catch-up all of September and October. I’m buried neck deep in my Hulk work which I can’t show you at this point. Once I get the approval from Marvel, I’ll definitely show off some of the art that I’ve finished.

However, I can show you one of many side projects that I’ve been pecking at during my down time. Namely, Liberty Meadows Sunday Funnies Book 2. Here’s a sample that I just re-scanned and colored.

My nod to the great Bill Watterson and his amazing Calvin & Hobbes comic strip.

P.S. I’ll be at the Baltimore Comicon all three days where I’ll be selling original art, books, art prints, and my OUTRAGEOUS sketch covers.

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FRANK CHO

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Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho

Ralph Mad Cow

Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho

Ralph Leslie Mad Cow

Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho

Ralph Leslie Mad Cow

Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho

Frank Dean Leslie Ralph

Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho

Frank Ralph Mad Cow

Oil Painting For Fun

Frank Cho: ‘Indian Canoe’ oil painting (detail.) Click to view full image.

I’ve finished another Hulk page today. Instead of jumping on to the next page, I decided to recharge my creative battery a bit, switch gears and oil paint this afternoon. You can only write and draw musclemen and beautiful women (OUTRAGE!) for so long.

I often oil paint to relax and collect my thoughts for the projects ahead. Most of the stuff I like to paint are western landscapes, especially the Grand Canyon and other notable national parks. I never cared for landscape paintings until I saw the majestic landscape paintings by Thomas Moran. This rocky formation is from a postcard my mother-in-law sent from her sight-seeing trip in Utah. I liked the image so much that I decided to do a large oil painting of it on a 6 feet by 4 feet canvas. I added an Indian canoeing at the bottom to balance the composition.

I’ve worked on the painting for about 4 hours now, while I still have the sunlight, blocking in the colors and figuring out the tonal values. I’ve never went to art school nor had I have any formal training, so everything I’m doing is by instinct, trial and error, and a little bit of luck… Actually lot of luck and happy accidents.

Now, I’ve done no prelims for this large painting which is a very dangerous thing to do and I have no idea how this will turn out in the end. I’m making stuff up as I go along, picking colors, adding compositional elements and drawing the figure without any planning. If I mess up at this stage, I’m royally screwed and I’m left with an unfinished painting with half-assed art on a very expensive and large canvas.

But there is a positive side to painting without prelims. The rush of energy and the joy of spontaneous creation as you slap paint directly onto the canvas with abandonment. It’s almost like magic. You’re just transferring the image in your mind to the blank canvas. It’s a very freeing and thrilling feeling, painting without a safety net.

Tomorrow, I hope to start detailing the rocks and the figure below. But for now, it’s back to my paying work, The Hulk.

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FRANK CHO

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Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho

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