New Website Open!

[Jon H]

My new website is now open to the public!
Drop by and see some of my published work, and a selection of sketchbook images. Have a cup of tea and a biscuit (you'll have to bring your own)

Check it out at:

www.jonhodgson.net


Happy browsing!

[Jon H]

oh yeah, and here's one I finished off this morning. ( this bit was meant to be part of the previous post, but never made it onto the board somehow)

[Storn]

Jon, great stuff. I think Moaner is even better than some of the stuff on the site. That is what ya wanna see! Each piece better than before!

Love the sketch book stuff... hmmm... maybe I should throw up a few sketches on my site too... I have to update my site, but I'm waiting for my DSL line to be installed in 2 weeks.

[Matt Drake]

Hodgson's stuff stone cold rocks hot balls. This dude is good.

Matt Drake
www.spectrepress.com

[Eric Lofgren]

I couldn't log onto your page, John so I'll check back later. Don't worry it's not your conncection, it's my piece of shite I call a computer, it seems to have a mind of it's own sometimes (He's gonna get his soon enough, though. Can you say FORMAT;} I love the "moaner" piece.

Eric
www.ericlofgren.com

[Jon H]

Thank you, really. I love you guys.

Storn - its kind of slack of me, but my favourite sketch stuff is where you can see the papers been all screwed up, and its got coffee on it and so on, you know, the REAL sketches you did on the bus, and then copied up later for an art director. The real stuff is best - the stuff with dirt on it. ( or is that just my sketches?...)

I'll stop now.

Glad you like the new stuff. I'm using the computer more, because its a very clean way to work...

ahem. Exit stage left, muttering...

[Eric Lofgren]

Made it on finally- Wow, your stuff does rock! I love it! And the interface to access the pictures is brilliant. Nice, clean and simple. I'll definitely be back.

Eric
www.ericlofgren.com

Ps. For those who may be inclined (Storn), you should post your sketches. It's something that, from what I gather, Art Directors do like to see. Plus, on a personal front, I think sketches are important as they show an artist's abitities without the bells and whistles. You know what I mean...right?...

[NPC David Hamilton]

Jon,

Top-notch work, dude. My favorite by far is the Elric drawing. You captured the character's delicate, frail features right outta my head with an almost (dare I say it?) "manga-esque" style with your pencils. Fits my image of the guy spot-on!!

I have to say, it's artists like you, and all the other guys here that keep me pluggin' away at my stuff every time I get frustrated and just want to jab my pencils in my eyes. :) I just stop for a minute and cruise by your sites, and stare for a while.....

Thanks, and keep it up!!

David
...wondering HOW do they DO it?.....

[Storn]

Originally posted by Eric Lofgren
Made it on finally- Wow, your stuff does rock! I love it! And the interface to access the pictures is brilliant. Nice, clean and simple. I'll definitely be back.

Eric
www.ericlofgren.com

Ps. For those who may be inclined (Storn), you should post your sketches. It's something that, from what I gather, Art Directors do like to see. Plus, on a personal front, I think sketches are important as they show an artist's abitities without the bells and whistles. You know what I mean...right?...

I don;t have many sketches. I tend to do my thinking on the page, in very light pencil... a bit of erasing, moving elements around. Then I do tighter, darker pencils and then to whatever medium that the job is supposed to be.

What I do do, is probably 3 or 4 thumbnails, but they are truly just rough masses for layout purposes... a oval for a head, a line for a spine and arm, a circle for the hand etc. These tend to get thrown out anyway.

[Steve T. Laws]

Your art is grand! And the same goes for all the artists with links to thier works here. Quite nice . . . if not a little intimidating.

[Noel Murphy]

Apologies for the language but I'm just getting back into the swing. THRILL- SUCKERS! sorry
Top site if a little too small but you've got excellent stuff on there. I could easily imagine you doing Slaine. Keep pestering Tharg, i've seen worse art droids over the years (Robin Psmith, did bad city blues, rubbish!)
If I ever get round to sumitting anything to 2000ad I will be well prepared to be ripped to shreds.

[Jon H]

Thanks again for all the support - I'll try to go through everyone that's contributed:

Eric: Thanks dude, I really appreciate your comments. Keeps me at it, you know? Loving your work too.

David: Thanks, glad you like it. I often feel beaten down by the pressures of keeping going, so I know how you feel! Last week was deeply rubbish for me, with no work or cash, but with all the positive comments I'm getting here, maybe I'll hold off getting the day job back for another month! Stick with it mate!

Btw, I dont mind the "manga" thing at all - I really feel there's a big misconception about manga being a poor cousin to other comic artforms, which I'm sure lots of people on this forum disagree with. If you look at the greats - Shirow, Goseki Kojima, Miyazaki and so on, the draftsmanship is just fantastic. Then a load of Gaijin artists in Europe and the States missed the hard work part and flooded the market with poor style copies - just all big hair and big eyes and school girls underwear, palming it off as manga. blah blah rant rant...

Noel: Good luck. I just wrote a long piece about treatment of rejected 2000AD submissions, but I just sound like I'm whining, so I deleted it. Go for it!

Thanks again guys, it really means a lot to me!

Cheers!

oops! How could I have missed Steve! Thanks fella. I had a look at your site, and I really like the ogre with the butterfly. Nice story going on there - or rather about to happen. Cool. Nice to see a wide variety of subject matter, rather than just "some men holding swords whilst looking cool". Not that any one that contributes here has got any of that on their sites! I mean I certainly haven't, well... you need one of those...or a few...ahem...
Don't put "will work for food"! Your work doesn't look cheap, so don't sell it cheap! ;)

[Storn]

Originally posted by Jon H


Btw, I dont mind the "manga" thing at all - I really feel there's a big misconception about manga being a poor cousin to other comic artforms, which I'm sure lots of people on this forum disagree with. If you look at the greats - Shirow, Goseki Kojima, Miyazaki and so on, the draftsmanship is just fantastic. Then a load of Gaijin artists in Europe and the States missed the hard work part and flooded the market with poor style copies - just all big hair and big eyes and school girls underwear, palming it off as manga. blah blah rant rant...


I probably owe my fledgling interest in fantasy art to anime/manga. That and Star Wars and Jeff Dee's work in Deities and Demi-gods.


But back to the anime. My grandfather was a mathematician at Cornell University. He had lots of japanese grad students and my grandmother actually studied japanese. So they would have japanese students over to dinner all the time. Well, the japanese treat their teachers like gods.

I was at dinner with a couple of these students and one of them had this curious little book all in japanese with these amazing color plates. I was fascinated by these giant robots and stuff. I was given the book (a incredibly kind gesture that I'm so grateful to this day).

Eventually, I became aware that what I had was the original 1980 cell book to the very first Gundum TV show.

Then came a video game called Cliffhanger, which was a laser disc game with these wacky characters running around doing derring do, stealing and saving the princess. WEll, that laser game was based up Miyazaki's Castle of Cagliostro and Lupin the III character.

The very next day from playing that game, I sat down and started my very first comic strip. That was in 1983. I was 16. Ever since that day, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Literally, angels sing!

So anime and manga has been with me a long, long time. Yet, the reason I've given you this backstory, is to make a point. I don't think my art, my anatomy really shows much trace of anime, manga. Its never been a style that I wanted to emulate. What I do take from manga, is its framing, its interest in movement, its interest in body posture to convey meaning. So I am highly influenced by it, but my own style tends to obscure the visual homage.

I feel, and everyone is free to disagree with me, that my artistic leanings are much more in line with what Hal Foster, Wally Wood, Frazetta, Mark Schultz, Alex Raymond heroic comic and illustration. Not that I'm trying to compare myself to these greats, but that I'm striving to reach those heights. The weird thing is, I don't copy these guys...I just seem to fall towards that type of anatomy and storytelling. As opposed to George Perez, John Byrne, Jim Lee, all the guys who've been pushing the comic craft the last few decades (and I think are all kinda working off Neal Adams territory).

Sorry Jon, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

[roog]

Hi,

hmm... nice, very nice :-)) I want more!!!

best,

roog

[Jon H]

Hey, man, its not my thread, it's everyone's thread.... (good grief)

Interesting point though - Influences are a weird thing - I dont really draw anything like the artists I really admire. For one thing I'm not upto it...

But, for example I LOVE Chris Ware's stuff, but my work doesn't look like his. I LOVE Paul Pope. I mean REALLY love Paul Pope - reading his comics makes me feel a bit hypnotised - I cant really explain it without falling in to cliche, but it does somethin tangibly weird to my brain! I wish my stuff looked like his...

What I'm trying to say is - isn't it weird how influences surface, or not, in your work? What does everyone else think ( and who do they like best?)

PS: cheers Roog, appreciated.