Comics and Book Review: Momentary and Starstruck #6 Part 1

This is sort of a Christmas-related post.  This was a card from a friend of my dad.  It’s so cute.

 

For Christmas my boss, Eric, gave me a $25 gift card for Amazon.  It was taped to a bag of chocolates, which I was initially more interested in.  I’d had a falling out with Amazon a few years ago (and certainly I don’t like the way they’ve profited off of the cold) and hadn’t ordered anything from them since.  However, at 5:00am while I was trying to sleep that morning, suddenly I started thinking of ways to use that card.  I got up and wrote them down and went back to bed (and wondered why I couldn’t have had that brainstorm well after I’d gotten up for the day).

 

I checked out a modest list of choices online.  I keep wanting that first book of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy, but I’ve had such bad luck with the title that I’m reluctant to buy anything sight-unseen.  I have the first two hardcover Archie Daily Newspaper Strips volumes and the oversized Sunday Best Collection.  These all get my highest recommendation.  I looked into the third volume and found it was $79!  I’m guessing poor distribution turned it into a collector’s item.

 

I settled on an Ilya Kuvshinov artbook and a comic book I’d spent years looking for, Starstruck #6.  I asked my co-worker, Mike, who has no qualms about using Amazon, if he’d order them using his account.  The amount went over the card and he graciously paid it and called it a Christmas gift.  They arrived at our workplace separately.  The comic came well-protected in bubble wrap and sandwiched between two pieces of cardboard.  It also came with a Far Side strip inside, a nice touch.  The book came with a bunch of cables and such that Mike had ordered for work.          

 

Momentary: The Art of Ilya Kuvshinov

I think I’ve gushed enough over my purchase of Ilya’s second art book, Eternal (6-1-20).  Buying that book restarted my drawing hobby that I’d given up on for a couple of years.  Over a year and hundreds of daily drawings later, I’m still trying to recapture the initial inspiration that that book gave me.  If only I could figure out how to keep drawing like I did when I first got that book.  (Let’s be honest, I’m not that good to begin with, but my lousy inking and coloring have ruined a lot of my fairly decent sketches.)

I’m not expecting miracles, but I’m hoping this book will help.  Momentary was his first book.  It’s smaller in dimensions and pages than Eternal.  There’s a few text pages, but they only talk about why he was drawing and not how.  Some drawings do come in a series showing the stages in the production of the final image.  The artbooks of Pernille Orum and Asia Ladowska that I have include extensive tutorials.  Honestly, I’d rather have more pictures, but the tutorials would be useful for producing professional-level work.  Ilya has posted videos for that. 

Most of the artwork in the book is full color pictures of cute girls.  There is a pencil section of people he sketched on the train as part of his 50 sketch-a-week art school assignment.  (That’s one way to get artists to learn how to draw faster.)  There’s a manga-ish section and a section of cyber girls.  It’s all very appealing.  As you’d expect, Ilya’s style isn’t quite as well defined as in his later book.  Also, some of the girls have bad haircuts with way too short bangs.      

Mike and Eric both flipped through the book and were visibly impressed.  I was too.  I can’t wait to start drawing from this (and simultaneously being nervous about it and delaying it).  Certainly I feel like Ilya’s work somewhat validates my own artistic choice of mostly just drawing female headshots.  There’s no end to the variety of just that subject.  Of the two books, Eternal is better, but getting both books is the best option.  

Part 2.