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Posted by:

ZiGoMaR

Date:

November 3rd, 2007 6:45 AM

Header:

RUDE DUDE

Bulletin:

How many amongst you have asked themselves... what makes an artist The Great One..?

Answers might be many, as there are too many different areas and media for artists and artisans to excell. But one general answer could be - Dedication and Persistence.

That means, remaining on the chosen road. Staying on the path thus becomes more important than reaching the ultimate creative goal...

... which brings us to the Dude-guy.

His name is Steve Rude, he is The Quintessential comicbook and comic strip artist, illustrator and painter, traditionalist and enviable talent to admire on and on... and still discover new things and aspects his incredible art brings forth!

His main website is www.steverude.com and comicspace site is www.comicspace.com/steve_rude/

Instead of me telling you about his incredible achievements you can learn lots of things about the great man by visiting the recommended sites. The guy's far from your 'everyday genius'. How lightly the word 'genius' is used nowadays... and Rude the Dude is not your typical modern 'hot artist', 'flavour of the moment', 'trend-setter' or inspiration to legions of followers -- which is kind of sad and unfortunate.

You see, Rude the Dude doesn't aspire to be modern, trendy or 'hot'. His aspirations are more... heroic, so to speak. He stays rooted in the tradition: traditional storytelling, traditional approach to drawing, painting, expressing himself and script writers` intentions... he has learned from the best in the business - Andrew Loomis being the ultimate source of knowledge and inspiration [and also one of the greatest illustrators and art teachers of the 20th century]. Then there is Nature... and many influental masters of sequential art and visual storytelling, amongst whom Dude's praises are sang the most to the late Jack Kirby and Alex Raymond.

I know... except for Kirby, even the most hard-core fans have hardly heard of Alex Raymond, the man who created not only Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, Rip Kirby or Secret Agent X-9 but the realistic illustrative approach to drawing visual narration that until his emergence used to be the sandpit for almost only cartoony comical aproach to drawing - hence the term 'comics' even for 'serious' strips.

That tradition, on the verge of being lost, is preserved in Dude's strivings towards the excellence. The proof is in several books that he has published [or that were published about him and his work] along with his comics NEXUS, THE MOTH and too many MARVEL and DC company owned characters that benefited from the 'Rude touch'.

My personal favourites are Dude's sketchbooks which are still inspirational beyond belief.

But if you ask me which Steve Rude book is my most favourite, I'll have to admit that it's Draw Nexus: Tips and Techniques. This relativelly slim volume is a gem. Yes, it's true that it's not humongous and pretentious book which tends to fill you with awe. It's also true that many shown 'tricks of the trade' were touched upon by other authors dealing with sharing 'art secrets'... but in Dude's interpretation, techniques serve the purpose to directly tell you - 'Here, this is how it's done. Drawing is not outlining, it's damn way of hard thinking, construction IN SPACE with depth to the characters and their surroundings and this technique is the essence of drawing which you can dress-up in any style, any visual approach, whatever trickery and hot-flavour-of-the-moment visual fershlugginer'.

Please check out this URL:

http://shop.vendio.com/steverude/item/907572365/index.html

and get a taste of what magic awaits not just aspiring artists but anyone interested in 'being in the know'. And the best thing about the whole matter is - it's irrelevant what is actually done the certain way; what matters is HOW it is done.

And you can't find the better artist-guide than Mr Steve Rude.

Enjoy & Salut!

Boyan

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