Ragged Claws Network

Courtesy of Tor.com, an original graphic story by a talented young artist, Ms. Wesley Allsbrook:

I had exactly same feeling reading this piece as I had when I first read Jillian Tamaki’s City of Champions mini-comic and the shorter “comic book” edition of Skim a few years ago, i.e., this is someone to watch!

P.S. If you buy the superb Skim graphic novel from this Amazon.com link, you’ll be doing yourself a favour and Jillian herself will receive a little extra in her Amazon Associates account!

Bonus Links:

Wesley Allsbrook Illustration

Wesley’s Wallsblog

Fresh Paint: Wesley Allsbrook (interview)

Gallery 1, Gallery 2, Gallery 3, Gallery 4, Gallery 5, Gallery 6, Gallery 7, Gallery 8, Gallery 9, Gallery 10, Gallery 11, Gallery 12, Gallery 13 and Gallery 14.

Well, speak of the devil! A new softcover edition of Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis is available for pre-order right now at Amazon.com at the low, low price of US$13.57. Word on the Web is that Titan Books will reprint more of Loomis’s books if this initial offering is a success. Currently, at abebooks.com, the least expensive used copy of Creative Illustration, hardcover with no dustjacket, is priced at US$109.00. I placed my order at Amazon today. How about you?

Here’s a collection of six, classic, out-of-print books by the much-admired illustrator, Andrew Loomis, all available for download, right now, as PDFs.

Thank you, boywonder!

Over at GoofButton, Jeffrey Meyer has posted some terrific scans of José Miguel Covarrubias’s lush illustrations for W. H. Hudson’s Green Mansions. Here’s a taste (you’ll find a larger version on the GoofButton site):

What I especially appreciate about this illustration, in addition to the lovely colour and composition, is the observational quality of the foot. Although the shapes are simplified, they are still clearly based in reality, with the pinky toe tucked in toward the fourth toe, which in turn is tilted slightly toward the pinky toe, and with each of the toenails having a distinctive shape. And then there’s the pale colouration of the toes themselves, bluish near the nail, suggestive of slight downward pressure on the forest floor. And so on. Without such variations and details, the picture would still be attractive; it would not, however, be half so alive.