If you’re hooked, but can’t get So Many Splendid Sundays, there are other (smaller but less expensive) Little Nemo collections worth considering. Some smaller ones here and here and some black and white pages here and here. (The site’s not in English, but the links are graphic.) There are several linked from here, another page here, and more individual pages posted here and here and here and here.
#Conte crayon robert liberace full#
There are three full pages linked from here. The site I link at the bottom of this post has the best reproductions of Nemo pages I’ve found on the web, but here are a few others from my bookmarks. Here is a nicely illustrated Wikipedia article on Little Nemo and on McCay, a Little Nemo article on Toonpedia and an informative review of S o Many Splendid Sundays on Salon (requires watching an ad to read the entire article.). Rather than go on for pages and pages I’ll point you to some resources.
This is such stuff as dreams are made on. McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland and George Harriman’s Krazy Kat are probably the two finest examples of comics as high art. To say McCay was a comic art pioneer is like saying Newton was good at physics. He also did several other comic strips, including Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend and Little Sammy Sneeze, created elegant illustrations and beautifully drawn social commentary cartoons (a bit like extravagant political cartoons, but more general in topic) and was one of the earliest creators of cartoon animation with his groundbreaking film Gertie the Dinosaur, all at the time when comics and movies were just starting to develop. He played with time and space, perspective and proportion, color and design in ways that few artists (in any medium) can ever hope to match. McCay was a virtuoso draughtsman and a superb colorist, and one of the finest masters of the comic art form. How can I describe Little Nemo? (Sigh.) Little Nemo in Slumberland was a stunningly beautiful, wildly imaginative, surreal, dazzling, spectacular, dizzying, marvelous, jaw-dropping, eye-popping, mind-expanding work of comic art. (The book is out of stock with the publisher until March of 2006, but you may be able to find it at Amazon.) The book was lovingly crafted by Peter Maresca.
It’s been 100 years (in October) since Nemo began appearing in Newspapers and almost that long since the pages have been seen at their true size by anyone but collectors. There are other collections of Little Nemo pages, but the real treat here is that these are presented as they were meant to be seen: at the size of a full Sunday newspaper page! Wow. This is a wonderful collection of 100 examples of one of the most beautiful comics ever created. Drawing by Marie Dauenheimer.I must have been a good boy this year, because Santa brought me a very nice treat indeed: a copy of Little Nemo in Slumberland – So many Splendid Sundays. Highlights and details added to finished drawing.ĭetail of one of my three colored crayon drawings.įinished study using three colored crayon technique.
Brushes can be used to blend and finally highlights are added using white chalk.ĭemo drawing by Robert Liberace using three colored crayon technique. As the drawing takes shape details can be added using charcoal pencils and red pastel pencils. This establishes a ground that can be rubbed into the paper and later on erased out for highlights and lighter tones. This technique is bolder and more painterly and starts by establishing a charcoal drawing and adding hints of red (terra cotta) and finally white highlights.įor this technique he suggested using a neutral beige or gray Canson Mi-Teintes drawing paper and preparing it by layering terra cotta conte or chalk. After experimenting with the three colored crayon technique using the Verithin pencils and the prepared Twinrocker paper, Rob introduced another way of working with three colored crayons.