Velma flowers in the DMZ

Hi,

Keeping to my project of trying to alternate a 'fine art' style with an illustrative or comic style was keeping me busy this week with spending lots of time trying hard to unravel the style of part of the artistic team behind the award winning 2005 comic - DMZ.

Riccardo Burchielli (b 1975 - ) is an excellent Italian artist who has brought a rough and ready style to the comic world. His hard edged angles and stark colour schemes work with an almost pen and ink approach - giving the comic a 'reportage' urgency. I wonder if his style, like that of Jock (aka Mark Simpson) is informed by the aggressively urban stencil style of street graffiti artists like Banksy, Bambi and C215.  This obviously matches and reflects the starkly urban and challenging stories of DMZ and the other comics he's worked on.

Riccardo has done a lot of work for Italian comics and, more recently, DC in the USA and I've followed his style with envious eyes. This Submission is really part one of layered approach to tackling his art style. I'm alert to the idea that I need to get a more hard edged feel to the figure drawing and include a gradient tone effect to give a a newspaper style photo look to the overall image. A machine gun or mobile heavily armoured vehicle of some sort is almost a requirement too.

Anyway, while I take time to ponder my next move (which might be Rockwell, it's hard to say yet), here's a peg legged Velma. Enjoying the sun while hobbling through a field of yellow blooms and taking a moment to enjoy the fragrance.

I hope she amuses more than she offends. All the best to those who stop by.

John