(reposted from sevenextraordinarythings.com)
Like many artists of my generation I can divide my early development into two categories; before I saw my first Frank Frazetta painting, and after. I remember the day. I was crossing the floor of the Santa Barbara Public Library near a rack of paperback novels they recently made available for check out, when Frank’s “Death Dealer” stopped me in my tracks. I studied it in amazement. Then it occurred to me there might be other books with covers by the same artist. I searched quickly, fearful that someone else would find them before I did. My second discovery was “The Moon Maid”, which was not only a painting of a naked woman riding on the back of a centaur (more than I could’ve hoped for already) but the story was by Edgar Rice Burroughs (my favorite author, at the time).
I checked both books out, hurried home, took out pencil and paper, and began to copy them. From that moment on I knew I could not be satisfied until I taught myself to draw as well as Frazetta. He had set the bar. In my youthful optimism I sought to match him. Thirty years later I still haven’t succeeded in this ambition, and I doubt I ever will. But this much is certain; however well I can draw today I owe directly to Frazetta.
Frank Frazetta passed away on May 10, 2010. There will never be another like him.
Frazetta and Hal Foster… I’m still doing pen and ink, but Photoshop and a Wacom is almost as good.
thanks for this post. I may just go looking @ the used book stores.