it's almost like you can feel the
decades of work that he's put in to
getting this good. Big weird swollen
bicep. He literally traced a meme to do
this drawing in a professional comic
book.
Well people got really into that last
illustrator react video so it looks like
I've got to do another of these if not a
whole series of them. For anyone who
didn't see the last one my name is
Christian Pearson I've been a
professional illustrator and animator
for about seven years now and in this
video I'm going to go over some famous
comics and comic panels and comic
artists and talk about their work and
what went right and sometimes what went
not so right.
I want to say off the top that all the
artists I'm talking about in this video
are incredibly skilled and I have a lot
of respect for all of them... even though
some of the art we're looking at today
looks like this. Okay
this one had to come up eventually if
you look at any list of worst comic book
covers this one is right near the top
it's Das Pastoras' Wolverine Revolver
and look there's a lot of stuff to
defend about Das Pastoras'  art but
obviously first, let's talk about why
this is so weird-looking. The first thing
that jumps out to me is that big weird
swollen bicep and it's not big in a
traditional superhero comic kind of way
it just looks wrong. It is very
unsettling to look at and his hands
the one that's closer to us looks like
it's a bit smaller than the one that's
farther away. I could be wrong they could
be they're pretty similar sizes but with
comic book art a lot of the time the
style that you'll usually see is the
perspective is exaggerated so the hand
that's a bit farther back will be a lot
smaller and the one that's closer to us
will be a lot bigger and then of course
I mean these expressions are just... (shudders)
very very unusual. See an artist is going
to practice different things depending
on what they want to do with their art
if someone wants to be a comic book
artist
then they kind of have to learn really
good Anatomy and how to draw fluid
dynamic poses so if you do work for
Marvel or DC people are going to
inherently compare you to the best of
the best
mainstream comic artists. So if your
anatomy is kind of janky and your poses
are a bit stiff people are going to say
your art is bad but the thing is if you
look at best Pastoras' art that's not
superhero comic related it's all very
painterly and bizarre and it's got
really weird unsettling creatures and
it's got this look to it and it's very
clear from his paintings that he's
really good at form and lighting and
he's practiced the things that he needs
to be good at for the kind of art he
wants to make. So I really think that
this is just a case where his style does
not fit with a superhero comic because
that is that is a nightmarish Wolverine
face. I haven't read the comic maybe
that's what he was going for but now
speaking of talented painters let's move
on to the single most requested person
from the last video
what can you even say Alex Ross is a
living art God he hand paints his stuff
he doesn't work digitally it's, like,
realistic but in a stylized way and it
it's interesting all of his characters
suits kind of looked like they fit into
the 1978 Superman movie like their their
suits have that sort of texture to them
and his metal all has a very specific
very shiny look. It was really difficult
to pick what image of his to look at
because everything he does is just
phenomenal I really like this one in
particular because it's his riff on the
original Avengers number one cover it's
just gorgeous
his style isn't even one that I'm
normally drawn to but it's almost like
you can feel the decades of work that
he's put in to getting this good and
something interesting about his work
that not everyone might know is he uses
reference images he takes photos himself
sometimes using filters he's talked
about this on his YouTube channel which
I'll link in the description below and
I've heard in the past people talking
about reference photos be
cheating and that depends on how you use
them but every artist out there at some
point uses reference images nobody just
knows how to draw everything on the
planet from memory
I mean if Alex Ross is using reference
images you know that they're okay to use
but with that said some artists do take
that too far. I can't... I really really
love this one but obviously not for good
reason.
First of all it's weird-looking it's an
Iron man suit I don't know if this was I
think it was a bleeding edge armor maybe
that's what this is but do you recognize
the image? By looking at it does this
does this look familiar to you
he literally traced a meme to do this
drawing in a professional comic book
what.. like.. I mean.. okay, I have to think
that he didn't know this image was a
meme for context Greg Land is pretty
famous for copying lots of different
images he's copied photographs from
Sports Illustrated covers he's copied
images of actresses and actors he's
copied his own faces multiple times over
and over again he's copied from other
artists he's pretty famous for doing all
this and the important distinction
between what he does and what Alex Ross
does is Alex Ross is taking his own
reference images and using those whereas
Greg Land is pretty blatantly copying
other people's art and photographs he's
copied other artists work other comic
book artists also he's pretty well known
for his female characters to copy images
of porn stars which makes a lot of his
female characters have this look that's
kind of I don't know what I can call it
and keep this episode PG but it's it's
like it's like... sex face... (instant regret) now that
definitely wasn't the right term to use
but at least you know what I mean now
probably you can all kind of make up
your own mind
about how morally wrong you think this
might be but regardless that's a lot of
copying I think this is from when they
you know like re, re, re, re rebooted
spider-man started it with a new number
one again but I do love this image it's
just it's stylish but none over-the-top
way and I really like how your eye has
guided through the image when I look at
this I kind of start by looking up in
the top left corner of spider-man's web
then looking down his web and rhinos
shoulder helps emphasize this line by
being in line with the web I go down his
web to his hand then look down his arm
to spider-man's head and my eyes kind of
stop there and pool and just look around
at the other characters like Mysterio
and lizard... that's a that's a kind of
cool lizard design I like the rendering
on the sort of wrinkles on him that's
pretty cool and that the beady little
eyes make him a lot freakier looking and
I also really like how Rhino his gray is
a little bit green to make sure that
spider-man pops out more. Cuz Mysterio
and Lizard are green. Rhino if I'm not
wrong his gray looks like it's got some
green too so that the spider-man's red
just really pops out from them and
that's something I was thinking about
the other day a few people have pointed
out before that spider-man has a lot of
green villains I mean we've got we've
got Sandman scorpion vultures electro
Mysterio lizard Green Goblin
Doctor Octopus there's probably more and
I don't know if this was a conscious
choice when a lot of these characters
were being designed presumably most of
them were designed by Steve Ditko
co-created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee
but green and red are complementary
colors so they work really well together
so making spider-man is predominantly
red his villains are green they're gonna
look really good in a panel together
that's something that I don't know if
they were consciously doing when they
were creating these characters my guess
is that they were just good enough
artists that they did this naturally
which I've mentioned before is the point
practicing anything in art so that
eventually you can just do it naturally
without thinking about it oh yeah let's
cover really fantastic the longer I look
at this piece the more things about it I
love this is by Jorge Jimenez and I
followed him on instagram for ages I
hadn't seen this Superman drawing before
and it's just I don't even know where to
start everything about it is so gorgeous
I love it first of all this trope is
just a really great one a lot of the
time where you have a superhero in
movement and you have a bunch of their
different poses through the movement and
this is just the best example of that I
think I've ever seen and like like in
that spider-man Wanda we were talking
about green versus red I love that the
Clark's in the background as he's
transforming our hewed a little bit
green to blend in a bit more with the
trees and the background so that this
one in the front with the big red s just
pops that much more and then everything
about the composition is just bringing
us to that the the clouds are doing that
sort of toilet bowl effect focusing us
in on Superman and those light streaks
in the background are cutting in front
of all the the background Clark's but
are going behind the main Superman and
just framing him and they're acting like
arrows pointing us to him more and then
just Jorge Jimenez style is it's
beautiful I mean that part's obviously
very subjective but I just love it and I
and I really like the simple rendering
on the clouds in the background - that's
really nice they don't draw too much
attention away but this this might be my
new favorite Superman art I've ever seen
I know people are waiting for my
reaction of this one John Romita jr.
this is probably gonna be a divisive one
in the comment section I love this
drawing john romita jr. his art I think
works really well for characters like
Wolverine and Batman I think it worked
well in World War Hulk I thought it was
just great for all of those his streaky
black lines and use of black and just
the the shape of his characters I think
it all works well for grittier darker
characters which is why I love an image
by him like this but really really don't
like any of his Superman art and this is
obviously down to personal taste but
when I heard he was put on Superman I
was just so confused his Superman
drawing to me kind of looks like in
Spider-man 3 when Tobey Maguire swoops
his hair down so that he's more emo
looking and Superman is a character
who's supposed to be very uplifting and
and hopeful and this sort of dark gritty
emo II look I personally don't think it
really works here and I suppose one of
the main points of criticism to talk
about for John Romita jr. art i'd say is
probably that all his characters are
very similar shape like they're all the
generally the same height the same build
in talking about good art versus bad art
that's obviously a hard thing to
distinguish but one thing that I think
about a lot when I'm thinking about
something like this is is the artist
achieving what they're trying to achieve
so with John Romita jr's art he is
very consistent and it looks like he's
doing exactly what he's trying to do
regardless of whether you like the style
this is what he's trying to do yeah as I
said I really loved this Wolverine
drawing oK we've given enough love to
Marvel and DC let's move on to some not
Marvel and DC. Okay now Mike Mignola
for those who don't know most people
probably do he was the creator of
Hellboy and he is incredibly stylish
just one of the most stuff you can tell
his style from a mile away
his style isn't even one that I'm
personally normally drawn to but I find
it incredibly impressive how great he
can make his images look with such
simplicity and you'd be hard-pressed to
find any artist doing covers with more
black he uses black very liberally and
it works so well for the tone and style
of his work now I chose this cover
specifically because I've seen most of
his Hellboy covers like I just love
looking through his covers and this one
I never seen before I'm not sure that
the comics called Ragnarok I guess looks
like we've got some variation of Thor on
the cover and I love with a lot of
Mignola's art he's frequently got some
kind of streak of desaturated color in
the background that's just forcing your
eye to look through the image through
that streak it just gives you no other
options like your eyes have to go that
way it's it's bold and it's almost
controlling but it works so well and
it's amazing how how he does all his
shading with just blacks like it's
pretty much all just flatted in a bit of
a watercolor II ish kind of color
flatted being a term in the comic book
industry for when you're starting the
coloring process you lay down just flat
colors first before adding lighting and
shadow it's not the process that
necessarily everyone uses but it's kind
of the the common comic-book rendering
style.
Just so simple but so beautiful Fiona
Staples art is incredible for anyone
that hasn't read Saga it's very I mean
it's definitely targeted at an older
audience but it's really really great
I'm about two volumes in so I don't know
too much of it yet I don't think I've
seen this cover before today which is
why I picked this one and also it just
stood out to me so much because of how
yellow it is for people that don't know
you you might have noticed that a lot of
people use yellow and their YouTube
thumbnails because yellow is one of the
most eye-catching colors and it's also a
very like generally positive color like
different colors give off different
emotions and yellow kind of is is very
bright and happy that's why you'll see
like happy faces are usually yellow so
this one obviously caught my eye right
away I think she's got other yellow
covers but this one I also really like
with such a simple image how much I
really like the composition and how my
eye goes through it for me personally
when I look at this I start looking at
the character's head which and I like
that both the characters heads are in
different directions she's looking off
into the distance and the horse where
the Z Rainbow zebra I guess is looking
forward and in the other direction and
what I personally start by kind of
starting to read saga and then I look at
her face and then down her body to the
the mane on the horses head and then
down the horse's head and then I kind of
just my eyes pull back and take in the
whole image and it's so nice I love how
she feels a little bit more in the
background because she's got more of a
yellow hue to her and the horse pops a
bit more because it's a bit more just
stark white and then it's got its own
colors but that's all we've got for this
episode also be sure to check out some
of my other drawing and animation
episodes I've got a whole bunch of my
own art on here that you can go tear
apart if you're mad that I was tearing
apart some of your favorite artists I'm
sorry I know a bunch of people wanted me
to look at some manga stuff I definitely
will in the next episode so recommend me
some really good and some really
not-so-good stuff in the comments also a
few Corrections from the last episode
that people pointed out it's it's
apparently Rob Liefeld I was missing for
Rob Liefeld is the one who is not great
at feet and tries to hide feet and Jim
Lee is just kind of in on the joke and
pokes fun at him about it a bit also I
had an image up by Mike Deodato jr. when
I did put up a collage of Rob Liefeld
work so sorry about that last one is Rob
Liefeld was the co-creator of Deadpool
with Fabian Nicieza, sorry if
I'm saying that wrong I think that was
all of them if I got anything wrong in
this episode please let me know in the
comments below beside that that's all
for this episode I'm Christian Pearson
this is PopCross Studios home of the
nerdiest art videos on YouTube and I
will see you all in the next one
goodbye everybody videos on Mondays and
Saturdays by the way yeah goodbye
