Pencil Drawings of John Buscena

December 31, 2021 Post a Comment

John Buscema and Albert Dorne Illustrator

John Buscema

When I was a kid my biggest artistic influences were comic book artists. I loved the work of Gene Colan, Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adams, Frank Brunner, but I was especially drawn to the work of John Buscema. Buscema drew very convincing anatomy, his faces were very expressive and full of emotion and character. I liked the way he drew regular people, they were even more interesting to me than the superhero's . Reading in an interview Buscema gave I discovered his biggest influences were Hal Foster, Alex Raymond and an illustrator named Albert Dorne, (not a complete list but these were the names he gave in that interview).

On the right is a good example of Dorne's influence on Buscema's work

Albert Dorne

In High School, (I attended Art & Design in NYC), I was introduced to the work of illustrator's and ran across the work of Albert Dorne. I could see how he was such an influence on Buscema and other comic book artist. Dorne's illustrations looked like comic book characters. His illustrations had very expressive faces and hands, (hands were an important part of telling the story in his illustrations. The hands Buscema drew were expressive as well). Albert Dornes work was hard to find and I came across a total of about 5 to 6 illustrations by him. I wanted to see more but they were nowhere to be found. I had to wait several years for the internet to be able to research his illustrations. You can find quite a few of his illustrations on line now if you Google his name. Even better is a book being published on his work by AuadPublishing scheduled to be released in late 2012.

Albert Dorne

Albert Dorne


Albert Dorne

Albert Dorne

Sketching People In The Park/ Developing A Shorthand

On my last outing in Battery Park I decided to spend that lunch hour sketching the people in the park. This is not an easy thing to do since no one is standing still for me for a great length of time. I'm sketching part from observation and part from memory. This was something I used to do a lot of and felt a little out of practice to start, but it's a lot of fun to do and I couldn't get enough of it. It's a great way of developing a short hand in watercolor, trying to put things down quickly with just a few washes of paint over a quick gesture sketch in pencil. These first two pages on the left, I sketched in the park; the other two pages I used photos I had taken for reference for other work. Painting out in the park was more fun, however, using the photos still remained a fun exercise. I tried to not get into rendering any details so that the sketches would have the same freshness and spontaneity as the ones I did in the park.

Golden Age Pen and Ink Illustrators

The artist Robert Henri is quoted in the book "The Art Spirit" telling his students"..all the past is yours." I think about this when I look at the work of past masters. Fine artist and illustrators, there is so much work there. So much that gets forgotten and rediscovered and then buried again The work of past pen and ink artist come to mind. At one time names like Franklin Booth, Joseph Clement Coll, Charles Dana Gibson were widely known, not just by artist and art students but by the public who read the periodicals that published their drawings. Artist still use pen and ink and there are a number of really great illustrators using the medium but the golden age of the pen and ink illustrator is gone. Thats not to say that the medium will never see a revival. Who knows, it just may be that artist can turn another page and and show that there is still more to be said. I enjoy using the medium and will continue to do so, but for this post I will include the works o

Gouache Portrait Sketch

Lunch hour gouache sketches done in my new gouache sketchbook 7" X 10" Stillman and Birn Beta Series. The pages in this sketchbook are thicker (270 gsm) than the one I used before . It buckles less so I am able to apply more paint and water. I also purchased a palette with an air tight lid which keeps the paint from drying to quickly. So far they have stayed fairly moist for about two weeks.

Pencil Drawings of John Buscena

Source: http://artinabusyworld.blogspot.com/2012/10/john-buscema-and-albert-dorne.html