Three Art tips from Frank frazetta.

Three Art tips from Frank frazetta.

Learning from the masters.

-Subject: Learning from the masters.

Part 2 is here.

Frank frazetta is the best master level artist close to our times. In fact he just left us at 2010. Ten years has passed but his art is looking better then ever, His art style is masculine and aggressive, the beauty of violence and sex can been seen in many of his work. Today I’d dissect his art and analyse how he gives that aggressive taste to his works.

1. Strong shapes for the win.

As humans we are attracted to strong basic shapes like squares and triangles. These are strong shapes that could bare weight. The reason given to us by science is back in the caveman days if you are looking for a safe home these are great shapes to look for. while the other folks died out due to their house failing on them. On this example piece the Death Dealer he designed the composition with a big triangle in the middle what a boss move.

2. Two value contrast.

In our example Mr.Death here. To emphasize him Frank almost made him full black! Which also communicates he is probably not a nice person. It’s a black triangle in front of a white background,not much things are stronger then this. Also notice Frank some times design a short horse tail which is very clever because if it goes all the way down it will lead your eye to places he doesn’t want you to look, Which brings us to our next point….

3. Eye flow control.

The design of this piece leads your eye from the 1st read(his head.) All the way around the piece while enjoying the little details along the way and end up in a circle going to to his head. No matter you decided to look at the horse’s ripped legs or the scary vultures in the air, the flow of the elements will always draw you back to the head. He does this by putting all the details and contrast on the character himself. Look at the from legs of the horse. There’s barely any detail there. Your eyes will go back to the head. All the other shapes are designed to lead you this way. Without a good knowledge of how the human eyes work this won’t be possible.

So to recap:

1.Use a single strong shape as the main design.

2.Use two values to make the main theme stand out.

3. Use shapes and contrast to lead the eye in a circular motion.

The next time you want to add some steroids to buff up your art you can try these 3 things.

My application:

In this practice I did today my basic form is a large rectangle, I used high contrast and sharp lines near the face, also I try to make lines that lead to the face whale taking away details from other faces. It's getting there.

Until next time,

Din

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