Just because..

          It is always nice to just pick up a brush and see where it takes you.

All of this will find it's way into something.. 

Sadly all of these pieces have owners now, so I will most likely never see them again.

Be well all!

The little guy and the escape artist..

Two pieces that I did recently and both of them have gone to very good owners..

 One of them is the great Dr. Henry Pym.. What a great character, Mr. Pym is, or was.. 

I have not read his adventures recently, but I do remember the Mr. Pym that I grew up with. He was a resourceful man, lived on his wits and his intellect, and wanted to be a superhero so bad he would go through multiple identities during his career.  That wonderful idea to shrink and communicate with ants was fun as hell. Considering that insects have so much bio mass on this Earth, one would think that a man who can control them, would really be one of the most powerful forces around.. How can anyone defeat this guy? Yet they laugh.. 

The other fellow is SCOTT FREE!! aka Mr. Miracle! What a name! One of my all time favorite Kirby creations!

 Books can be written on this wonderful character. His birthright has been stolen from him, he has been forced to live within a system that crushes ordinary humans into dust. Still, Scott is so full of that living will for freedom, that not even Granny Goodness and her hordes can crush him. It is amazing mythology and one that touched me as a young man reading his exploits. I am a huge, Harry Houdini fan, and this was the perfect book for me, the ultimate escape artist, plus Gods fighting for the fate of the Earth. 

Classic Kirby! 

Enjoy all!

FrankE

New World storyboards and sketches.

Here are some Rocketo New World story sketches and boards that I am working on.. 

some of it is in oils, watercolors, pretty much anything that was at hand at the time.

The book is turning out to be a mixture of media, and experiment in many ways for me.

And you all thought I wasn't working on it! 

A page of boards, brush and ink.

Watercolor and india ink.

A storyboard panel 

Small oil sketch for a double page spread.

Small watercolor sketches for splash pages.

Another small oil sketch for double page spread..

concept for ship that is pieced together by Rocketo and Spiro.

Our fearless and very fearful narrator.. Spiro Turnstiles..

Have a great long weekend everyone.

Be safe.

And they are up!!

Had a wonderful morning with all the amazing people that run the Ferragamo flagship NYC store on 5th ave. The windows are full of the graphic novel pages, and we had a fun press conference with some very gifted folks!
Take a look at the windows no matter if you are in Europe, Asia, the United States, even Russia, the Ferragamo stores will be having this great showcase of graphic novel, meets fashion.
Proceeds of comic book sales will benefit "Un Cuore, Un Mondo", a non-profit organization with the aim of promoting and supporting activities directed at helping children suffering from heart disease in Italy and around the world, with particular focus on developing countries, through care, healthcare assistance and charity work. Over seventeen years, "Un Cuore, Un Mondo" has supported more than 2,500 children and set up fourteen projects in twelve countries around the world: Libya, Eritrea, Kenya among many others.
It is a wonderful cause.

Here are some more pages of the graphic novel and others..

Here are some color studies I did. Just to understand the overall color of the pages

     Above a color rough for some of the panels, and the finished page below..

A color study that never made it into the book but did set the tone for one of the panels.

Ferragamo's Hollywood years. I wish I could do an entire graphic novel on this part of his life..

One of the double page spreads in the book, Ferragamo leaving America and returning to, Italy.

Best to all of you!

Frank.

So, like I was saying...

Hail Fellows, Well met!

Wow, it has been awhile.. So sorry that I been off the world of blog, but so many things kept happening that it was better to sit, concentrate and get the work out.
One of the wonderful projects that I can finally talk about was doing a graphic novel about the life story of Salvatore Ferragamo, the great Italian shoemaker, designer, artist.

It took about three months or so to write, draw, paint and get it all together. The artwork is now the property, and on display at the Ferragamo museum in, Florence, Italy.
I got back a couple of weeks ago from one of those mythological trips that a person takes once in a lifetime. Met some amazing new people, some wonderful artists, and got to tour, Florence and Bologna in a way that both unique and educational.

The graphic novel is at all the Ferragamo stores, or should be, by now, and the Ferragamo company has been amazing in that starting this week, all the stores around the world will change their window displays, and put up the pages of the graphic novel, so go out and take a gander.

Lots more to share, I have a couple of great pics of the Ferragamo Museum show, that I will post later.. no not next year..
But later.
 Right now it is all about saying hello to all you artists out there, and getting back to posting every week something fun and new. Lots of painting was done in the last couple of months, so I hope you all enjoy some of the new work.

Here are some of the interior pages that were done.

Yeah, even high fashion needs Giant Robots..

And here are some pics of the exhibition at the Ferragamo Museum in Florence.

The wonderful Andrea Plazzi one of the magicians of Symmaceo publishing who with his support, along many others: this job sailed like a charm.

Unknown girl the day after the exhibit open.

All the sketches that went into the project was also part of the exhibit, so that one could understand how a graphic novel is put together.