J Scott Campbell Time Capsule: 1994-2004I could write so many words on this thing.
First, it's books like this which is why I don't really ask for things for Christmas: this is the kind of thing I'm interested but I know that no one I know would know exists or to get.
I think I've spoken about how, despite the fact that I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, I've only started to feel like a real artist in the last couple, and that's really because I dropped it as my primary focus, and started experimenting more. So it was funny reading this and realizing that I went through a lot of the creative concerns and struggles that he went through developing his style and creating his stories. In fact, I remember going through the same thing he went though when he talked about wishing he had been more mature writing about some things like Rainmaker's lesbianism or wishing he had plotted stuff out more before starting (the difference being my early stuff thank god wasn't public), that's one of the big things that made me switch to focusing on writing (plus I could write FAR faster than draw).
I'm a huge fan of J Scott Campbell's caricatures, so I'm glad to see that there's a whole chapter devoted to it as well as lots of talk about Mort Drucker (I wonder if, had I discovered Drucker as a kid, if that would have significantly changed how I learned how to draw).
Oh, and Chip, if you have the book, can you figure out who the women in the top of 258 and the bottom of 259 are? I recognize everyone else but them.
I also gotta say, I love all the talk about Pixar and animation in the book. I saw that lousy Gen 13 animated pilot, and it was real disappointing because you're expecting other people to be able to draw just like him 24 times per second. That's not fair. But you look at Campbell's art now and you could take any of his drawings and turn them into a 3D model and could probably be dead-on-balls accurate. One of the things that makes him a master is how well he does the musculature and fat and everything beneath the skin, it feels real and solid and rubbery... they're 3D without being 3D, put the right computer talent and you could get something that really feels like those drawings come to life, even if they don't have the linework in the end product.