Simon's Blog

Over night I thought I might try an experiment to prove or disprove something I have been heard to say more than once – that I can write anything about anything without the first bit of prompting.  What I write may well be totally nonsensical and possibly grammatically incorrect (my few suffering readers may well suggest that this is what this blog is all about and I guess they have a point).  I may well still do that but not today.  Today I have to address weightier matters and this involves where my art is taking me.

Yesterday I spent the day examining the work of Phil Noto and Frank Cho – both are comic book artists and both have a very distinct approach to their art.  Noto has a very much more traditional approach to what he creates.  His art has a Mad Men feel to it but because it is designed to be reproduced has a simplified approach which I love. Cho on the other hand has a far more end of the pier approach to his art saucy seaside card approach.  His mark making is very much more matter of fact and most of his images are laced with teenage sexual tension.  However it would be a mistake to dismiss his approach because of this as his mark making is simply wonderful.

The simple mark making is what attracts me to these two artists because I am finding traditional painting not to my liking – in truth I don’t have the mental stamina to making painting work and so I am looking for another approach.  One, of course would be to return to digital painting and this is an option.  However, a way around this is to take the simplified approach of all the great illustrators artists, of which Noto and Cho are but the latest examples, and this is what I was working on yesterday.  In short the results were encouraging and fit into my limited attention span way of working – who said it is just the youth of today who have suffer from limited attention spans!

BTW that was 352 words.