Angel Comics

Study for Two Angels (2013)

Soph Laugh

This comic was inspired by the angels of Raphael's The Holy Family of Francis I, and is expressed by the outstretched wing of the angel on the left, who is positioned higher in the cloud. The wings for the angel on the right side are not visible in this comic, which denotes a natural hierarchy. 

Our thoughts of angels are naturally connected with thoughts of children. Their innocence is the epitome of purity on earth and of our long-held ideas on beings of a higher sphere. The term 'angelic' is often times used to describe the beauty of a child.

It is this essence which I aim to convey in this pen and ink drawing. Making use of a three drawing instruments: a graphite pencil, ACMI Fine Line Marker 01, and a red stained fabric marker (on 17 x 21 cm, acid free paper by Sennelier); I attempt to make use of equal negative space, as a balance to positive space, in order to give the eye a "place to rest." 

Rather than drawing these images right-side up, I tend to draw them from the sides or upside-down, so I am better able to give equal attention to both the positive and negative shapes. The result is a more balanced drawing. The intended simplicity in these comics is simliar to the silence within a piece of music. 

The comics I create from fine art are an attempt to capture the 'essence' of complicated shapes (human figures). The primitive lines I utilize represent the form with a set of primitive shapes from which nearly any form can be represented by some sort of combination. 

Once these shapes are assembled into a likeness, i.e., angelic Stick Figures, I then ink the drawing into a more refined, accurate and polished form. 

Finally, in the program Photoshop, I adjust the brightness and contrast, exposure, gamma correction, saturation, and finally, if the comics were created on white paper, as was this one above, I adjust the image with a warming filter to give it that old world effect. 

The following images were my inspiration. While I have not seen the sketch in person, I have had the privilege of viewing Raphael's finished piece in the Louvre. 

Study for Two Angels, 1517-18

Raphael

© Teylers Museum, Haarlem

These angels gaze at each other in what appears to be a great sense of shared purpose. Although they are only partly elaborated, they are almost tangible. The drawing is probably a preliminary study for the Holy Family of Francis I in the Louvre. The angel on the right corresponds to this work, but the one on the left does not. This is a rare case of Raphael having altered his composition at a late stage, after producing detailed drawings of this kind.

Holy Family of Francis I

Raphael

The Holy Family of Francis the First is so named because Raphael painted the picture for the king of France. However, Raphael followed the natural order of painting what was traditionally the holy family, which consisted of the mother and child, with one or more additional figures. The third figure is often times the infant John the Baptist, or it may be Joseph the husband of Mary; a fourth figure is likely to be St. Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and sometimes all five of these are shown in a group. 

In this composition, the light falls chiefly on the child Jesus, who is springing up, as Mary lifts him from his cradle. His happy, joyous face is raised with a glad smile to the down-glancing mother. She has eyes only for him, and into her face there has come a look of sweet gravity which helps one to see that this is more than the play of a mother and child. 

Eagerly reaching forward to the golden-haired Jesus is the swarthy John the Baptist, his hands folded in the gesture of prayer, the cross which he carries as the herald of Jesus leaning against his breast, and a look of bright wonder in his face. 

Leaning over and holding him is his mother, Elizabeth, whom the great painters were wont to figure as an old woman, after the description of her in the gospel as "well stricken in years." She also gazes down at her child with a like expression of deep feeling. 

Behind the group is Joseph, the husband of Mary, in an attitude which is very common in the old pictures. He rarely seems to be a part of the group. He stands a little way off looking on, with a thoughtful air, as if he were the guardian of this pair. Sometimes he is shown with a staff or crutch, and it may be that here he rests his elbow on it, while his head leans upon his half-closed hand. 

All these are distinguished by the nimbus which encircles the head of a sacred person, but the two other figures in the picture have no nimbus, for they are angels.

I do not know if a nimbus hovers above my Stick Figures, but they do represent as much a supernatural essence as my hand could produce. 

Comics and the Visual Arts

You may think that comics and the fine arts are antithetical, more at odds than Marvel and DC comics, but cartooning falls under the subcategory of drawing, a form of visual expression often associated with the fine arts. In the hierarchy of arts, there are many doors that lead to the grandeur we associate with the finer arts, and cartooning is certainly one of them. 

Comics and the fine arts are interrelated through a system of interaction and transferences. Cave paintings, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and pre-Columbian American picture manuscripts or codices are examples of visual art that expressed cosmologies, world views, religion, and philosophy; concepts that are often times associated with higher meaning or "meaningness", which is one of two integral components of fine art cartooning or comics, the other differentiation belonging to the purity of expression of a given medium. In this sense, there is a reciprocal referencing of theory and practice from which we can prepare and establish a theoretical basis for the inclusion of cartoons and comics into the field of fine arts. 

Study for the Head of Leda

Leonarda da Vinci (c. 1504-6)

Royal Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 

Cartooning, as a form of artistic research, is an art that understands itself as research, in that scientific processes or conclusions become the instrument of art and are used in the artworks. This refers to carefully thought out or considered sketches, which are, for the artist, a form of knowledge. Utilizing cartoons as an artistic means to analyze a preliminary work phase of art production turns the cartoon sketch or comic into research, an essential and intricate component of the artistic method.  

Sun Hat Sketch

© Shenn

Fine art represents the ephemeral forces and manifestations that emerge spontaneously and involuntarily. This opening for the unknown, yet the imminent and the yet to come, means that comics, which belong to both the art and cultural sciences, can confidently claim territory inside one of the many doors belonging to the fine arts.  

Design for the Laurentian library door

Michelangelo, British Museum

The Laurentian library was built to house the collection of books gathered by Cosimo de Medici and greatly enlarged by Lorenzo. It was commissioned by Guilio de Medici, and building work began after he was elected as Pople Clement VII in 1523. The door needed a black panel above the opening for a dedicatory inscription on the vestibule side and this is shown in all the sketches. In the finished design more space had to be found as Clement wanted a Latin inscription of between 100 and 140 letters and went to considerable trouble in finding one he liked. 

While the use of comics in fine visual arts is not new, their contribution in developing artistic work is undeniable. Exploring the history of fine art comics allows us to more easily recognize the long-time presence of fine art cartoons and comics in relation to fine works of art. 

Cartoons and comics were historically employed as a form of artistic research by some of the greatest artists in history. These hand drawn comparative analysis sketches done by Michelangelo (above and below) demonstrate the different modes of perception and thinking that were investigated prior to his embarking onto larger scale artistic feats, such as those associated with the remarkable frescoes of the Sistine Chapel or even the less than lively, but equally beautiful tombs intended for 16th century popes. 

Appropriately, these comic sketches are invaluable to our understanding not only of history but of the processes the artist employed in creating what is considered by the world as masterful pieces of artwork. 

Elevation of the lower story of the Julius tomb

Michelangelo, British Museum

Michelangelo was commissioned to create a monumental tomb for Julius II in 1505, eight years before the pope's death. This project took him forty years to complete, and caused the artist a great deal of anguish. The initial design was very ambitious and was intended for the old St. Peter's. The final work - much more modest in scale - was installed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. 

© Photo Scala, Florence / Fondo Edifici di Culto 

Ministero dell'Interno, 1999

The Julius tomb

Historically, the use of comics in the visual arts have served as a function of fine art, as an object of science. This implies a certain symmetry between art and science (or, rather, between comics and science) whereby science is translated into a comic, which is then translated into a piece of artwork or on occasion, simply left alone, existing in and of itself. Here, cartoon sketches and comics serve as an artistic claim to truth, objectivity qualified by artistic reflection and consideration. Seen from the vantage point of the artist, the comic is but another aspect of artistic knowledge.

Grotesque heads; Hercules and Antaeus

Michelangelo, The British Museum

Michelangelo was quoted as saying that such grotteschi should be a source of 'variation and relaxation of the senses'. Fine art cartoons and comics are often just that, a grotesque variation of the fine arts and a relaxation of the senses, but often times cartoons achieve a higher level of aesthetic expression. 

Comics Reflect How Society Feels

Sun, Moon, Sky, Earth (2012)

Sophy Laughing

During the periods corresponding to the aftermath of any great difficulty or upheaval, such as our recent 2008 stock market crash, an air of liberation eventually sweeps over society affecting art, culture, economics, politics, and spirituality. 

This phenomenon marks a notable and lingering psychological reaction to having overcome significant challenges, and happens time and time again throughout history. 

Art that follows periods of intense stress results in a fitting pause, a chance to take things in and make sense of them; in what one could regard as a separation between thinking 'too much' and allowing oneself to simply 'be' with oneself, this artistic expression lies somewhere between logic and wonderment. 

Despite resistance to analytic logic and rationality, which are themes often distorted in artistic works, the free flowing separation between 'whatever our minds want to forget' and 'that which we have yet to conceive of in our new mode of existence' is what identifies this art, or in other words, makes this type of art special. 

AUTOMATIC PAINTING

1991, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches.

This same experience can be achieved when artists allow for automatic painting. Similar to automatic writing, allowing oneself to create whatever images emerges from one's own hand, in place of a preferred technique or style, results in a new type of random composition of artwork that instantly expresses the immediate psychological responses of the artist living within a specific era. 

Promenade (1918)

Marc Chagall

Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

René Clair, a French filmmaker, described a similar period of time and the joie de vivre that accompanied the post-revolutionary change in Europe that marked the decade from 1914 until 1924:

      In 1914 the nineteenth century really ended, and by 1918 the main outlines of our age had been drawn: Communism ruled in Russia, American's industrial supremacy had been established and the old Victorian structure of the world had crumbled to dust. 

     In the years following 1918, the liveliest minds were obsessed by the idea of revolution. Revolutionary in art, revolutionary in literature, never before had a generation blasted with such fierce recklessness of the work of its predecessors, separated from it by four years of war - the war that marked the end of an era. 

     At a time when existing theatre and literature appeared a worm-eaten edifice - the debris of which was being cleared away by the Dadaist dustmen, and the world 'revolution' the key to all problems of art, cinema stood out for me as the freshest of all media of expression, the one least tainted by the past, in a world, the most revolutionary.

James Birch's Babylon Babies

The postcards were a source of inspiration to many artists in the 1920s and 30s, in particular to both the Dadaists and the Surrealists, whom they influenced. They were collected by Paul Eluard, Andre Breton, Salvador Dali, Hannah Hoch, Herbert Bayer, and Man Ray. 

Little is known of their history. The postcards were produced from around 1900-1920 and were found from Russia, to Spain to England and most countries in between, however the majority appear to be from Germany. 

The best reference for these babies is in a book called: Babylon: Surreal Babies by James Birch, 

who came across these "bizarre and delightful images" when he was an art student in Aix-en-Provence. 

The rebellious impulses that follow tragedy are magnified in its opposite reaction, a renewal in the higher feelings associated with happiness and contentment, which are then reflected in the art created and purchased. A person that closely follows psychological trends to external events might even consider our present time as an opportunity to ride a long tail. 

Today, our revolution is a technical one; one that may someday liberate human beings from the biological impediments that have long since marked our thoughts, theories, and artistic productions. After every advancement follows a liberating expression of self, which is notably evident in the artwork we produce and the trends that follow. 

Stick Figure Study of Raphael's Angels

Study for Two Angels (2013)

Soph Laugh

This comic was inspired by the angels of Raphael's The Holy Family of Francis I, and is expressed by the outstretched wing of the angel on the left, who is positioned higher in the cloud. The wings for the angel on the right side are not visible in this comic, which denotes a natural hierarchy. 

Our thoughts of angels are naturally connected with thoughts of children. Their innocence is the epitome of purity on earth and of our long-held ideas on beings of a higher sphere. The term 'angelic' is often times used to describe the beauty of a child.

It is this essence which I aim to convey in this pen and ink drawing. Making use of a three drawing instruments: a graphite pencil, ACMI Fine Line Marker 01, and a red stained fabric marker (on 17 x 21 cm, acid free paper by Sennelier); I attempt to make use of equal negative space, as a balance to positive space, in order to give the eye a "place to rest." 

Rather than drawing these images right-side up, I tend to draw them from the sides or upside-down, so I am better able to give equal attention to both the positive and negative shapes. The result is a more balanced drawing. The intended simplicity in these comics is simliar to the silence within a piece of music. 

The comics I create from fine art are an attempt to capture the 'essence' of complicated shapes (human figures). The primitive lines I utilize represent the form with a set of primitive shapes from which nearly any form can be represented by some sort of combination. Once these shapes are assembled into a likeness, i.e., angelic Stick Figures, I then ink the drawing into a more refined, accurate and polished form. Finally, in the program Photoshop, I adjust the brightness and contrast, exposure, gamma correction, saturation, and finally, if the comics were created on white paper, as was this one above, I adjust the image with a warming filter to give it that old world effect. 

The following images were my inspiration. While I have not seen the sketch in person, I have had the privilege of viewing Raphael's finished piece in the Louvre. 

Study for Two Angels, 1517-18

Raphael

© Teylers Museum, Haarlem

These angels gaze at each other in what appears to be a great sense of shared purpose. Although they are only partly elaborated, they are almost tangible. The drawing is probably a preliminary study for the Holy Family of Francis I in the Louvre. The angel on the right corresponds to this work, but the one on the left does not. This is a rare case of Raphael having altered his composition at a late stage, after producing detailed drawings of this kind.

Holy Family of Francis I

Raphael

The Holy Family of Francis the First is so named because Raphael painted the picture for the king of France. However, Raphael followed the natural order of painting what was traditionally the holy family, which consisted of the mother and child, with one or more additional figures. The third figure is often times the infant John the Baptist, or it may be Joseph the husband of Mary; a fourth figure is likely to be St. Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and sometimes all five of these are shown in a group. 

In this composition, the light falls chiefly on the child Jesus, who is springing up, as Mary lifts him from his cradle. His happy, joyous face is raised with a glad smile to the down-glancing mother. She has eyes only for him, and into her face there has come a look of sweet gravity which helps one to see that this is more than the play of a mother and child. 

Eagerly reaching forward to the golden-haired Jesus is the swarthy John the Baptist, his hands folded in the gesture of prayer, the cross which he carries as the herald of Jesus leaning against his breast, and a look of bright wonder in his face. 

Leaning over and holding him is his mother, Elizabeth, whom the great painters were wont to figure as an old woman, after the description of her in the gospel as "well stricken in years." She also gazes down at her child with a like expression of deep feeling. 

Behind the group is Joseph, the husband of Mary, in an attitude which is very common in the old pictures. He rarely seems to be a part of the group. He stands a little way off looking on, with a thoughtful air, as if he were the guardian of this pair. Sometimes he is shown with a staff or crutch, and it may be that here he rests his elbow on it, while his head leans upon his half-closed hand. 

All these are distinguished by the nimbus which encircles the head of a sacred person, but the two other figures in the picture have no nimbus, for they are angels.

Source: 

Fine Art Comics

Comics Inspired By Fine Arts

Two Angels (2013)

Soph Laugh

Even though I chose words instead of paint to fulfill the needs of my aesthetic palette, I have always been an artist at heart. Like numbers or letters, lines fill me with a sensation that my eyes eagerly follow. The longer I experience a masterpiece, the deeper I feel it. I may not express it with the remarkable command of depth, perspective, light and shadow Raphael imparted onto the world, but the warmth and serenity of his magnificent works are not entirely lost on me either. 

Surely no Pope would regard my Stick Figures in the way Pope Julius II regarded the grace and perfection Raphael's work portrayed, but my attempt at expressing grace represents, perhaps, another crossover between comics and the fine arts. Only this time, instead of comics becoming fine art, they are comics inspired by the finer arts. 

Two Angels (1483 – 1520)

Raphael
One of the most prominent Italian Renaissance painters, created masterpieces that epitomized the High Renaissance ideals of harmony and beauty. From Urbino, Italy, Raphael was admitted to the workshop of the town’s leading painter at age 12 and quickly surpassed his instructor. Possessing a remarkable command of depth, perspective, light and shadow, Rafael imparted warmth and serenity to his magnificently lifelike figures. His most brilliant works include the stanzas inside the Vatican, and Madonnas which he portrayed with human emotions, as no artist had previously done. Pope Julius II had such high regard for the grace and perfection of Raphael’s work that at one point, he was inclined to make him Cardinal.

The First Kiss (2013)

Soph Laugh

The finer arts are often more defined by the feelings they evoke within us than they are by their lightness of form, though there is an undeniable difference between my comics and their original inspiration. 

The First Kiss

William Adolphe Bouguereau

Private Collection

The Annunciation (2013)

Soph Laugh

Even though it may not be self-evident, the feelings I felt when I drew these angels were, for me, every bit as powerful as the feelings I imagine Bouguereau and Leonardo da Vinci must have felt when they first sketched out what would later become their masterpieces. 

The Annunciation (1472 - 1475)

Leonardo da Vinci

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Depicts the annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she will conceive Jesus Christ and is set in the enclosed garden of a Florentine villa. Leonardo originally copied the wings from those of a bird in flight, but they have since been lengthened by a later artist. The marble table in front of the Virgin probably quotes the tomb of Piero and Giovanni de' Medici in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence that Verrocchio sculpted in this same period. Unlike the "Adoration of the Magi", which Leonardo da Vinci drew but probably never painted, "The Annunciation" is believe to have been created from start to finish by Leonardo da Vinci's own hand. 

My Stick Figure angels are but a vague rembrance of the softness I felt inside when I gazed into the eyes of the little girls that Bouguereau depicted praying - (below) 1878 and 1865, respectively.  

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1878)

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1865)

I recognize the differences in the form of expression and I know they are a world apart. In fact, the entire world of light and shadow exist between Bouguereau's beautiful depicted masterpieces of human emotion and the simple lines from which my comics emerge. 

Still, irrespective of the differences, I like to think that there is a common thread, an "alikeness" that seems to be changing the way society perceives and labels art, an alikeness that allows each of us to personally touch these masterpieces in a way that the museum experience - with all its crowds and restrictions - doesn't always allow for. 

Angel with Shield of St. James Scallops

St. Lawrence Church

Scallops are the symbol of St James. 

Reading Abbey was a pilgrimage place for Medieval Christians because it had the relic of St James's hand.

While my comics are by no means 'fine art' - at least not for me - they are a reflection of the finer feelings one has when exposed to things like 'truth' or 'beauty'. It is these feelings I revisit time and time again when I return to a museum to gaze into the eyes of a masterpiece. It is these feelings to which I ascribe my own version of truth and beauty. 

The Triumph of Galatea (1512)

Raphael

Villa Farnesina (Rome, Italy)

Raphael completed this work for the Villa Farnesina, a suburban Renaissance villa in Rome in 1512. The Farnesina was built by one of the richest men of the early Renaissance, Agostini Chigi, who was a banker. This was the only painting of Greek mythology that Raphael painted, the story of the Nereid Galatea, who had fallen in love with a peasant shepherd, Acis. Galatea’s consort, after finding the two lovers in an embrace, killed Acis by throwing a giant pillar at him. 

When a truly skilled artisan expresses these powerfully subjective feelings, we are overcome by  feelings of pleasure and happiness. When a comic artist, like I believe myself to be, expresses these feelings, the comics we produce are more like simple reminders of the greatness ingenuity combined with adroit dexterity can produce. 

Despite the notable differences between comics and fine art, I can't help but think they are intricately linked to one another by our common heritage, by that which encourages us to seek out things like truth and beauty - even in comics. 

Norman Rockwell

Saturday Evening Post (cover) 

April 16, 1955

This painting was Rockwell's 286th out of 322 total paintings that were published on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell's career with the Post spanned 47 years, from his first cover illustration, Boy With Baby Carriagein in 1916 to his last, Portrait of John F. Kennedy, in 1963. The original oil on canvas painting, 39.5 x 36.26 inches or 100.5 x 92 cm, is part of the collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum of Stockbridge, MA. It is part of the traveling exhibit American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell. Rockwell is also the first comic artist to which I was introduced as a child.

Source: 

Fine Art Comics

Fine Art Comics

Visit Fine Art Comics (the blog)

The Elder Sister, 1869

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Fine Art Cartoons refers to the epitome of aesthetic expression reached in which images convey information that forms a narrative in the mind of the viewer. Fine art cartoons are differentiated from traditional comics, which are often juxtaposed by "the arrangement of pictures or images and words to narrate a story or dramatize an idea" (Will Eisner, Comics and Sequential Art, 1985) by their beauty and meaningfulness.

WIP 

© Shenn

The purity of fine art cartoons is achieved when both meaningfulness, i.e., conveyed in relevant historical, psychological, mythological, religious, or otherwise recognized human expressions; and the highest purity of a given medium are perceived as existing in close relation or in harmony with one another. Fine art cartoons can be philosophically equated to Rousseau's highest Noble Savage merging with the highest Eurocentric views of equality, advancement, and refinement.

Marie-Antoinette

© Shenn

In Martin Heidegger's wesen (essence) from The Origin of the Work of Art, we recognize the presence of fine art cartoons, found in the questions the origin of the work of art asks us with respect to the work's essential provenance, compounded by the common understanding that springs out from and through the composition, allowing the viewer of the art to know the artist by tracing back the purity or essence of the composition to its original meaning.

Epifania

Michaelangelo

This cartoon is drawn with black chalk on 26 sheets of paper and is over two metres high. The cartoon is a final preparatory drawing on the same scale as the finished painting or other work of art. The word, cartoon, is derived from the Italian word for a large piece of paper: cartone. This is one of only two surviving cartoons by Michelangelo. 

All art forms, be they painting, sculpture, pen and ink comics, eventually reach a higher form of aesthetic expression whereby two separate, but equally pure concepts, meet in a harmonious composition. This symbiotically expressed aesthetic, conveyed in a form of artwork, is recognized as both art existing in itself while simultaneously heightened by its mutual relationship to the work.

Portrait of Doña Isabel de Requesens (1500 - 1577)

Raphael

Derrida, The Truth in Painting, stated that Kant made a distinction between the Greek terms ergon, or "work," and parergon, or "outside the work." Fine art can be described as both ergon and parergon existing parallel or harmoniously close to one another. Derrida further explained that the integrity of the work (ergon) depended on the necessary secondariness of the outside (parergon) or the context, which further solidifies the definition of fine art in relation to its highest expression in works of art.

Probable Portrait of Raphael

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino

While the relation of cartoons to fine art might be considered MAD, a concept historically silenced by, firstly the institution of law, which designated madness as a crime, and secondly the institution of medicine, that saw madness as an illness; cartoons can indeed be examined by their "systems of thought" (Michael Moucault, French theorist, 1926 - 1984) in that one must employ archaeology to investigate the structures and transgressions, i.e., "madness" within the composition of the structure against the revealing aspects of truth that the composition epitomizes.

Notably, one of the most intriguing aspects of cartoons is their entanglement with theory. Masterful cartoon artists, like masterful fine art artists, also integrate research methods and scientific knowledge into their artistic process to such a degree that it even seems to be developing into an independent form of fine art knowledge on its own. This blurring of the lines between art and theory is where cartoons find their entrée into the world of fine artistic expression.

Self-Portrait of Shenn

© Shenn

The spectrum of that which can be substantiated under the term fine art cartoons or comics is just now beginning to be explored. The site, Fine Art Comics, is dedicated to artistic research of the subject, which is, at present, very broad and not in the least homogeneous. It ranges from the simple integration of philosophical or scientific knowledge, to the establishment of artistic research as a form of institutionalized self-examination and scientification of artistic cartoon expression and practice. For this reason, it is advisable to consider information contained herein under the term "artistic research."