Victoriana literate artist - can you help?

[MooreReppion]

Right, this is kind of awkward because I can't really explain this very thoroughly, but anyway...

Might anyone here know of (or actually be) an artist who works digitally and semi-photo realistically (probably not hyper realistically), has a good knowledge and understanding of Victoriana in terms of clothes, furnishings, etc and has aspirations to work in comics? This is not a job offer per se, it is merely me trying to find out if such a person even exists. I know there are a lot of people out there doing pin-ups, portraits, book and magazine covers, etc in this style but I've yet to find anyone interested in or capable of doing it in comics.

Please feel free to ask around, re-posting this post elsewhere if necessary. Just to re-iterate: I am a comics professional (by which I mean that I do actually make my living more or less entirely from writing comics) but this is not a job offer, I am not an employer, I am merely "making inquiries".

Thank you for your time.

[Mirana]

Research comes with the field. You might be better off seeking a comic artist who's style you like, and then the two of you working up a base of research to support your script. Victorian is one of the more recorded and popular choices for period pieces, so I'm sure becoming "literate" would not be hard to do.

[Professor Az]

It seems to me that if an artist can grasp the basic concepts of the material, and is good at drawing from reference, then he/she should be able to meet the criteria you are looking for.

As for the desire to work in that arena, unless the person has a real passion for the time period, I'd say your choices would be very low indeed.

Good luck on your search! :yayca:

[MooreReppion]

Thanks very much for your replies guys.

I'm sure you're right that any artist worth their salt should be able to research the era well enough to get by. However, given the amount of neo-Victorian and Steampunk stuff that people seem to be doing, I'm quite surprised that you think there aren't many artists out there with an existing knowledge of, or interest in, the period. That said, there isn't exactly a queue forming here is there...:[

Finding someone who had a good handle on Victorian stuff and an interest in doing semi-photorealistic comics would also narrow the search down a hell of a lot, eliminating the need to ask a million artists a million questions (like "can you do this, can you do that" and so on, and so on, and...).

[arttorney]

You could probably just claim it is "steam punk with exacting attention to period detail" and get a lot of eager artists to turn up. Admittedly they would probably keep saying "When do I get to draw the airship?"

I have often marveled at the way steam punk people will spend huge effort drawing flywheels, cogs, steam plumes, and goggles but don't actually show people in accurate period costume much. I guess steam punk is all about the machines, leather helmets, and mustaches.

I think Mike Dutton could probably do it from what I've seen but I'm not sure he is interested in comics. He's a little bit fanciful:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/member.php?u=52653 mcmatz likes that stuff but is more focused on traditional media: http://www.mcmatz.com/

[Mirana]

I did say that I thought Victorian was popular theme. Now, whether you could find an artist that did exclusively that, instead of many artists who have done it at one point or another, that would be harder.

There aren't going to be millions of artists who are both comic and the style you might be looking for. There ARE millions of artists who have done Victorian inspired work. Case in point: A very good friend (http://darkwaterfrey.livejournal.com/tag/comic+strip) of mine does a lot of phenomenol Victorian comic work (the only one I know), but the style is old-school (http://darkwaterfrey.livejournal.com/11548.html) awesomeness (http://darkwaterfrey.livejournal.com/8450.html) and perhaps not as "realistic" as you might be looking for.

You also aren't going to get much of a response on a board dedicated to concept work. Try a comic board.

[MooreReppion]

Thanks for the links guys. Of all the artists you pointed me towards I would say Mike Dutton is the closest to what I'm looking for but still too cartoony really.

The project I have in mind would definitely not be steampunk in the sense of airships, clockwork robots, etc. So yeah, I wouldn't want to misrepresent and get people's hopes up.
You also aren't going to get much of a response on a board dedicated to concept work. Try a comic board. There are hardly any comic artists who work digitally and produce the kind of work I'm looking for, hence posting here. If I was just looking for a traditional comic artist things would be very much easier.

[arttorney]

Here: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=121761
is some information about a challenge that starts later today in the Community Activities of these boards to produce 6 to 16 pages of sequential art on three topics selected by poll. One of the selected topics is to adapt a story so old it is in the public domain (e.g. Poe). The contest will last a month and some of the other contestants will no doubt illustrate one of the other two topics. Still, if you have some patience you might get to see what some of the locals can do with old school subject matter. (I'm not saying Poe is Victorian. I know that's older)(I'm going to be participating so this is a shameless plug for the activity. I have lousy digital skills so this is not a plug for me. Mine will be done on Bristol board rather than a screen.) If you find the time, maybe you can join us.

[MooreReppion]

Here: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=121761
is some information about a challenge that starts later today in the Community Activities of these boards to produce 6 to 16 pages of sequential art on three topics selected by poll. One of the selected topics is to adapt a story so old it is in the public domain (e.g. Poe). The contest will last a month and some of the other contestants will no doubt illustrate one of the other two topics. Still, if you have some patience you might get to see what some of the locals can do with old school subject matter. (I'm not saying Poe is Victorian. I know that's older)(I'm going to be participating so this is a shameless plug for the activity. I have lousy digital skills so this is not a plug for me. Mine will be done on Bristol board rather than a screen.) If you find the time, maybe you can join us.Thanks very much for pointing that out Arttorney, I'll definitely keep an eye on the thread.

Cheers.:confident

[arttorney]

Ilaekae will make a brand new thread for the challenge itself so I would click in at this level for surveillance: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=145

[Mirana]

Why does the medium matter? Or is it that you're looking for "concept-digi-paint-realism" and not "comic-drawn-realism?"

I gotta tell you that in comics, story is king. A lot of amazing illustrators/concept artists are down right terrible at conveying motion, transition and storytelling as it pertains to panels. You usually end up with a very stiff, but pretty illustration that ppl aren't too keen to read. G'Luck finding someone that can balance both! :)

[MooreReppion]

Why does the medium matter? Or is it that you're looking for "concept-digi-paint-realism" and not "comic-drawn-realism?"

I gotta tell you that in comics, story is king. A lot of amazing illustrators/concept artists are down right terrible at conveying motion, transition and storytelling as it pertains to panels. You usually end up with a very stiff, but pretty illustration that ppl aren't too keen to read. G'Luck finding someone that can balance both! :)Yes, looking for "concept-digi-paint-realism" as you put it. Obviously, also looking for someone who CAN do motion, story telling and emotion too, otherwise it wouldn't work. This isn't me just arbitrarily deciding that I'd like to see if I can find an artist to fit this brief by the way, there is a reason for it.

[MooreReppion]

Ilaekae will make a brand new thread for the challenge itself so I would click in at this level for surveillance: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=145Cheers.