So here is the first artist highlight series. This month’s focus is Jill Thompson, who has a blog and an art site. So if you want to see more of her stuff check it out. She has done work for the Sandman, Wonder Woman, Scary Godmother, Magic Trixie, and much more. Her most recent project is Beasts of Burden which is put out by Darkhorse.
Here are some examples you can click to make bigger:

They all look fairly different, which is part of why I love her art. She will adjusts her lovely watercolor art to the project she is working on. Because she knows that comic are a word and pictures working together to make a better feeling and tone. So not all art will work with all stories. So the moody monochrome wash is what best suits Sandman. The bright cartoony art fits the children’s book Magic Trixie. The colors of Beasts of Burden and the realistic approach to how she depicts the animals fit that series best. So when asked to do a manga story about the character Death from Sandman she changes her art to come up with this:

I appreciate that flexibility.
Also, I love how Miss. Thompson handles mood. I think the mostly monochrome look of the sandman pinups she’s done below fit the character and the scene she is capturing. There is a moody sadness there that I think the watercolor really pushes.

And mood is something she is always pushing with her work. Like the heavy shadows in this Beasts of Burden picture really pushes the tension on the group and the threat of what’s in the woods. But the brighter colors along with the expression on the animals are keeping things a little bit light. So it’s spooky, but lighter than say Dream talking to Death.

Jill also does a good job leading your eye to what is important. Like in the previous Beast of Burden picture you have the large log that forces the characters to line up front row and center. So you look at them first, then what the doberman is looking at (a giant monster frog), then you come down the picture as the other dogs look forward, as you go through the dogs you notice the ghost dogs behind them, then the cat and the jack russel’s attention brings you to the bones under the log.
She impliments the nice guiding compositions in everything she does. It comes off especially nice in her comic pages. Here’s an easy example to see it in. Trixie going down the stair case leads you to the next panel where the curve of grandpa brings you down and left where then the angle of his leg and Trixie leads you to the final picture.

And she is alway doing guiding your eye with the scenery and body posture.

She also brings things to your attention with a solid use of color and lighting. Like in the picture below, the bright light brings your eye right to the raccoon because of the contrast with everything else.

And in this picture the bright saturated flames of red and orange jump at you compared to the blue grey everything else.

This picture is also a good example of how Jill Thompson can imply a lot with simple shapes and brush strokes. The brushes in the background are just shapes, but they imply depth and detail that your eye fills in. If you scroll back up, almost all the pictures I’ve posted has this in one way or another. It’s trees in most of the Beast of Burden pages, rocks in the Dream and Death picture, and clouds or fog in a lot of them.
She also makes sure to give you just enough detail so you know some exactly what you are looking at. Every breed of dog or cat is identifiable in Beasts of Burden. And someone who knows their fashion history can probably tell you what time period each of these dous are in.

So there is Jill Thompson and way she is great. Her stuff is pretty easy to find on amazon. Personally, my favorite is Beasts of Burden (which is why that’s what I have the most pictures of). It’s about the town pets working together to solve supernatural threats. A hardcover collection of it just came out and that is probably what my next comic purchase will be.
And to finish up here is another picture by Jill Thompson just for fun. Hellboy teaming up with the Beasts of Burden animals.

Next Artist Highlight: Pierre Alary

~~Kel