Back in 1995 I was still living in New Jersey and was doing pretty well for myself doing a lot of color work for Marvel Comics. During this time, and because I still lived near, I was asked to do some substitute teaching at my old school, The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Arts. I did this for a few months and, when fall arrived, I was actually asked to teach two classes during the week, Color Theory and Story Adaptation.One of the assignments I had the students do for the Story Adaptation class was to illustrate two scenes from one chapter of a book I loved called "The Hyde Effect." The book was about a werewolf and the chapter I gave to them was all about a girl who went looking for the werewolf one full moon night and really got more than she bargained for.
One of the students, I can't remember his name now, turned in these two images. I really really loved the style and because he was so hesitant to try out the airbrush I took copies of the images home, had them shot onto photostat paper, and painted them up to show him how they could look.I used airbrush, some sponge technique, a bit of toothbrush splatter and, for some reason, even tried to get some effects with a white pencil on the close up of the werewolf (it didn't work too well as the photostat paper is super glossy...almost like using a wax pencil on a photograph.)
But, it did the trick and not soon after the student was using the airbrush.
I still really love these pieces even though it looks like the close up piece of the werewolf got a little damaged over the years. The sky background seems to have run a bit and I'm betting some moisture must have gotten to it after fifteen years of sitting in my portfolio.
Ah well, you get the idea. And they're still great pieces that I had a lot of fun painting.
I really loved teaching and it's one of the things I wish I could really try again someday.
2 comments:
Neat looking stuff. I remember you teaching, I would have loved to have done it myself (maybe).
I would love to do it again now that I think I have more of this art career thing figured out. Teaching at the age of 24 felt a bit odd when half the guys I had as students were my age or older.
I would definitely structure it more like real life, giving them each a budget of how much money they would have to make a month. If they missed the deadline on any assignment I'd simply not allow them to do the next assignment and they wouldn't make the "money" needed to get by that month. At the end of the year their grade would reflect how well they "survived."
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