My other blog

Litia the Undead Queen — pencil & digital

All who have known me since I was a child, know I have always been into what I term fantasy art. It has many other names — fantastical art and imaginative art (to name a couple) — but I've always called it fantasy art, and old habits die hard. I've started a new blog to showcase some of the other work that I do within that genre. If you're interested, check it out. Right now the postings are limited, but as time goes by, I'm sure more and more postings will happen. http://markvfantasyart.blogspot.com/

Jeffrey Catherine Jones (R.I.P)

Jeffrey Catherine Jones recently passed away on May 19th, 2011. While I never knew him personally, his work has influenced me. I have bought only 5 prints: a Bernie Wrightson, a Howard Terpning, a Keith Parkinson (whch I gave to my best friend), a Richard Schmid and a Jeffrey Jones which is in my bedroom. He was influenced by many artists throughout his career. I can see Frazetta in there, along with N.C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Harvey Dunn and Mead Shaeffer, and James McNeill Whistler and maybe even Vermeer and Klimt. You can also see influence by his peers at The Studio, Barry Windsor-Smith, Michael Kaluta and Bernie Wrightson. This should not detract from his work in any way, as through all of those influences and more, he was true to himself. He is not a well known artist outside of the comic and fantasy art world. That is sad, for his work goes so far beyond that and like any great illustrator removes the boundary between illustration and fine art. He struggled in his life with his art and his illnesses and his identity. I believe they were going to make a documentary of his life, but I'm unsure if it was ever produced. Thanks for the great work, Jeffrey, I hope you can find peace wherever you have gone.

Two Andrew Loomis Books Available Again

Finally, two classic Andrew Loomis books are available again. Figure Drawing for All It's Worth (available now) and Drawing the Head and Hands (available October). Andrew Loomis is one of the best teacher's of all time and one of my biggest influences. His out of print books go for quite heady amounts of money. It's wonderful that these two classics are back in print, and I hope that more are to come. If you don't have them, I highly recommend picking them up for your library. And since my Figure Drawing for All It's Worth is worn and torn, I will be picking these up once again. Below are a few of Andrew's illustrations and paintings, so you can see just how good he was.