 What I enjoy most when I receive a private commission is latitude. By that I mean the commissioner gives me a pretty free hand in determining the elements used in the art being commissioned. In this example, long-time collector Benno Rothchild suggested I create a piece featuring a character who first appeared in comics in 1939: The Spirit. A great character who still has an ardent following, the series was renowned for, among many other things, the clever opening splash page of each story, which often incorporated the lettering into its design. I'm a lover of movie posters from the 1930s and '40s—especially the serials that played in theaters during those years—so I decided to make The Spirit a star of the silver screen.
 Jim asked Sandy about the above artwork Sandy: This is one of several commissioned drawings I did for a collector here in Athens, Jeromy Holland. He's one of those comic fans, born into the end of the Silver Age, who still holds an abiding love for the super heroes of the 40's. Every so often he's have me do another character from that era, some that have continued to thrive and others who are just a nostalgic memory. He later took my pencil drawing of the Green Lantern and had another artist digitally ink and color it. Other art Sandy found in his files which relates to this post:  Lady Liberty — another Golden Age figure for Jeromy  Mary Marvel — member of the might Marvel Family created by C.C. Beck  A Spider-Man commission from around the same time  Jim asked Sandy about the above drawing
Sandy: Another romantically inspired drawing (as was the previous Clea piece.) This is based on a sketch I did for a girlfriend a loooong time ago. I drew upon it when, years later, I was asked to do a "jungle girl" pin-up (for an issue of "Jungle Girl" comics, was it?) Took the sketch and turned into a finished pencil piece. How this primal fantasy still smolders in the hearts of modern day fans!  Jim asked Sandy about the above drawing
Sandy: John Gutenkanst of Avalanche Pizza used to help the local food pantries stock their larders when they ran low, encouraging people to drop off canned food at his store as donations. He asked if I would contribute an illustration for an ad he was taking out in the Athens News to draw attention to the drive. This was the result.  Pinned to a board in Jim's office is a poster with Sandy's artwork on it --above-- which was used in the winter to promote an OU event in March 2015. Jim asked Sandy about it. Sandy: Bob Stewart, a professor in OU's Scripps College of Communication, approached me about doing this poster. Pretty straight ahead job, but (dreaded reality for a freelance artist working for an institution), the rough would have to be run by the COMMITTEE. The original idea given to me was to represent the spirit of the symposium with one superhero type of character in a three panel strip. No prob, I thought and got to it. Well, by the time the rough was shown to the COMMITTEE, the idea had been changed to representing the symposium's guest with three superhero type characters in one illustration. So out the window went the strip which had come so easily. So it goes. It was actually a good gig, Bob being a very nice fellow and a pleasure to work with on the project. Artwork connected to this project is here:  The three panel strip that went unused  Marker rough for the final illustration  Sandy's original hand coloring -- the way he was hoping it would look on the screen and poster. |
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