Strangely – the same thing holds true with animation. I should like to astonish with mere shapes. I should like to astonish with simple forms. And the most astonishing moments in animation are the subtle ones. As much as Michael Bay likes throwing giant robots right into the camera, it’s well known the magic really happens with we have to make things act, feel, take a breath before the leap, or reflect before saying something.

I thought of Cezanne, when we purchased fruit this weekend. I even got a whole pineapple. Before we enjoyed the fruit, I set it up in a bowl and thought it would be fun to do a still life – even if it’s just a sketch with my kids Crayola colored pencils rather than Prisma Color. I even had the kids join me in drawing the apples, oranges, and bananas.

My apples are unlikely to astonish Paris.
But the still life tasted great, and we all had fun.

I posted a couple of images of Cezanne apples as well, courtesy of paul-cezanne.org

The first couple years of the Cassandra Cain Batgirl were awesome. Almost 90% silent storytelling. Not cluttered with dialog like many comics. If you didn’t read the visual language you really missed a lot.

My boards here reflect the low-dialog purely visual storytelling style of those early comics.

-Elias

With some pro quality colored pencils you can softly blend colors like paint and get amazingly realistic results.

Just like painting, however, I equally enjoy when you can reveal the brush strokes… or in this case, pencil strokes. I didn’t fill an area of skin tone or dress in one solid single flat color. Variations of that color, or opposing colors are not blended in – but scattered throughout.

The line art was in black ink.

-Elias

(Just kidding about the Distressed Man thing)