Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Ruff Stuff



Heres a couple of scribbles for a little personal project I've been playing with. Love the old high contrast boxing photos from the 50's. Trying to sort of recapture that look. Though these are just roughs, I think they are successful in capturing the feel I'm looking for. As usual, the struggle will be to make the finished pages as vital and energetic as these roughs. I'm a big boxing fan and film noir fan and this project will combine those two loves. I'm going to keep quiet on this project for now, but I hope you enjoy the sketches...

17 Comments:

At Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 7:52:00 PM PST, Blogger Dominic Bugatto said...

These look great, hope to see more soon.

 
At Thursday, November 29, 2007 at 10:57:00 PM PST, Blogger Paul Rivoche said...

Nice stuff Benton..why not try a story in the style of these roughs? I think they look great as is!...maybe only needs a tiny bit of tightening here and there in the focal areas, add balloons/type etc, done!

 
At Friday, November 30, 2007 at 10:44:00 AM PST, Blogger eyekaps said...

these look great! I'm intrigued now to see the final story when its done. Sounds like it will be something special.

 
At Friday, November 30, 2007 at 12:12:00 PM PST, Blogger pbcbstudios said...

wow! - very powerful!

 
At Friday, November 30, 2007 at 11:15:00 PM PST, Blogger Marc said...

I like the raw power and drama of these. I think I would like to see you experiment with some more textured brushes in the same style.

Bill Sienkiewicz did tons of comics in very rough styles....but since it was in natural media, it just added "mood".

 
At Saturday, December 1, 2007 at 12:08:00 PM PST, Blogger benton jew said...

DOMINIC-Thanks. I'll have more, Stay tuned.

PAUL-Thanks Paul. One of the reasons I've posted these roughs up was to see how people would respond. I've always admired people who can generate loose spontaneous looking work, yet at the same time keep it very controlled. It's the difference between "loose" and "sloppy". Guys like Jordi Bernet, Joe Kubert, Paul Pope, Frank Thorne have achieved this balance in the cartooning world. Seen lots of Chinese brush artists who have MASTERED this. Hope I can acheive that balance in this story.

EYECAPS-Thanks. I hope it will be special. It combines a lot of thing that are close to me and fun to draw!

PBCSTUDIOS-Thanks for coming by, Paul! The upside to the WGA strike is I may a have a bit more time to play with personal projects like this...

MARC-Hello! Thanks for dropping by! Nice sculpts on your blog! Yeah, I want to play with more brushes and such to get some variety in the textures. Gonna buy Sketchbook and Painter soon to see if I can get some different looks.

 
At Saturday, December 1, 2007 at 3:17:00 PM PST, Blogger Wayne Lo said...

They look great Benton! Looking forward to seeing more!

ps. Congrats on Fanny too! She's an awesome character ... man, I keep thinking "Molly"... don't know why. Brain's short circuiting.

 
At Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 1:38:00 PM PST, Blogger Roberto Zaghi said...

I do like this page, Benton. Like the other guys above I would love to see a story done with this style. Amazing contrast and powerful action!
-rz-

 
At Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 8:42:00 PM PST, Blogger George Cwirko-Godycki said...

really nice drawings

 
At Saturday, December 8, 2007 at 9:47:00 AM PST, Blogger crazy_asian_man said...

THESE are 'roughs'?
As paul rivoche mentioned... looks great as it is!
:)

 
At Saturday, December 8, 2007 at 5:52:00 PM PST, Blogger benton jew said...

Wayne-Thanks for dropping by! Molly can be her Kiwi name I suppose--as I heard Fanny means something completely in New Zealand!

Roberto-I am consciously trying to loosen up my style, but it's hard to make it come naturally. How others have the "knack" for it is a mystery to me..

George-Thanks for coming by, George!

Crazy-Thanks. Yeah, they're sort of roughs. They have no purpose other than being a stylistic test. The story will be a noir boxing story though.

 
At Monday, December 17, 2007 at 11:33:00 PM PST, Blogger Unknown said...

Awesome thumbs Benton, loads of energy!!!

bah forget tight finishes, I'd love to see a whole story in this rough form.

Chris

 
At Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 12:29:00 PM PST, Blogger stephen Silver said...

very nice!!!!!!!!!!

 
At Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 10:37:00 AM PST, Blogger Ava said...

I haven't read the other comments yet but I'm assuming more than a few people have suggested you develop the story art no further than this rough stage. To some extent that's what you did with your snow monster comic, right?

 
At Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 10:56:00 AM PST, Blogger Les Toil said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 10:59:00 AM PST, Blogger Les Toil said...

As much as you enjoy your work in the film industry, a guy like you should be living it up in France being paid by their government to create whatever comics you want. You should be revered like Mobius and the guy that draws Torpedo...getting free pastries and having your cigarettes lit in bistros (although I just heard they're banning public smoking in France!! Doesn't matter. You don't smoke anyway). Point being, you need to be acknowledged as one of the top comic artists in the world and allowed to develop these eye-boggling stories--or publish sketch books once a year that become hot sellers (ala Mobius or Crumb) and get paid exactly what you're worth. This country has its priorities so screwed up man.

 
At Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 1:42:00 PM PST, Blogger benton jew said...

ccarman, stephen silver, ava, lestoil-

Thanks for dropping by! Thanks for all the encouragment. It gives me more determination to actually get this boxing story done!

 

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