Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Sketchbook Entry 11: Happy Noir Year

This next drawing from my Sketchbook is from the cover of "Episodes From The Zero Hour" Volume 1 from Blinding Force Productions featuring Tommy "Knuckles" McNichols. This piece (and specifically the finished painting) is a very important project to me: one, because I'm mighty happy with the way all the noir, pulp and private eye influences all fit together for me, two: because the project moved along nicely with the writer, art director and designer and, three: because it forged a great professional and personal friendship with the designer Anthony Schiavino. Aside from Anthony having an impeccable eye for good design, he's a great writer / creator himself with some really fine ideas. Anthony and I talk a lot via email all week long, talking about everything important: comics, films, art, work and family (not in that order). We've become great friends this year and it all began with a Tough Guy, named "Knuckles" created by his cohort Jay Butkowski. It's a great pulp story (available at: www.lulu.com/zerohour) so give it a try.



When Anthony first inquired about my schedule and interest in the project, he had the cover designed with color palette options and a rough sketch. The original layout had "Knuckles" sitting behind the desk with his feet up, but after discussing the character with Jay and Anthony I came up with a rough thumbnail that had more body gesture and attitude of a tough guy for hire. More of a "Bobby the Mitch" swag to his personality. I also put more emphasis of noir by adding the blinds and played with light and shadows. Adding the framed boxing photograph behind him in the shadows introduced a bit more of the characters past.



Have a great 2009! Thanks for visiting the blog over the year. It's been quite a busy year for me, which explains the lack of posts but I'll get to them and I will try and update with new posts on a more regular basis in the coming year. I still have some exciting things to showcase as they take shape as well as continuing with the Sketchbook entries. See you next year.

7 comments:

BobbyNash said...

Happy New Year, Doug.

Bobby

Anthony Schiavino said...

You give me way too much credit Doug. Without your art gracing the cover there's no way it could have been what it was. I absolutely love the work you did on it and I'm grateful for your friendship as well.

And to think...one day I found this guy on MySpace and his name was Doug Klauba. I told Jay. Jay loved the work so we said well let's get in touch with him. The rest is history.

Douglas Klauba said...

Happy New Year, Bobby!
Thanks!

Thanks, Anthony- I'm honored to be part of the team!

Unknown said...

It's great to see that sketch, Doug...the piece has such a feeling of "place" that I can imagine that I can smell the old whiskey, stale cigarette smoke, and dusty wood. Quite a feat to accomplish!
I'm grateful for Anthony as well...he's the "linchpin" in some great relationships!
Cheers to you both!

-Dave

Douglas Klauba said...

Right you are Dave, Anthony IS the linchpin now that I think of it. I can also Thank him for introducing me to Bobby (Thanks Bobby), Ron, Rob, Van and you...
I see a conspiracy happening somewhere.

Dominic Bugatto said...

Solid piece.

Nice work all around on the blog.

Dominic Bugatto said...

Solid piece.

Nice work all around on the blog.