art abstract design

Monday, August 3, 2009

It's Monday... Do you know what's happening on Wednesday?

"Abstract Comics: The Anthology" will be in comic-book stores!

(Direct Market only, I'm afraid--I don't know exactly when it will be in bookstores. But soon.)

Sunday, August 2, 2009

"Nee Nina we hebben geen abstracte strips."

Goodmorning.

At first, thank you Andrei for inviting and introducing me here.

Since 2006 my work is focused on drawing. During my study in artschool I did painting, animation and drawing.

I've always been interested in the narrative character of images, but I wasn't always charmed by all figurative forms I found. In 2008 I began drawing abstract and writing short stories. Now I am working on a book with short stories with my publisher (De Harmonie). I also just started working on an abstract comic book because I finally found a language in abstract image to build a story with.

Influences come from the world around me, from music and literature to people or the bottom of a shoe. Visual art related I can mention for example: Rene Daniels, Edvard Munch, Georg Baselitz, Cy Twombly, Mark Manders, Philip Guston, Per Kirkeby, Willem Kooning and Pierre Alechinsky. As well as medieval icons, asian miniatures and japanese drawing (and woodcuts).

When it comes to comics, I have spent -and still do- many hours in comic shops searching for the comic that really appeals to me. Around 2008 the comic shop owner told me that what I was always looking for (comics as nonfigurative as possible) didn't really exist, so we came to the conclusion that I should start drawing it myself. I think it must be the same in various countries, that abstract comics are very rare in comic shops.

Now I am learning from comic artists like Frank Miller, Sam Keith, Joost Swarte, Moebius and others about framing, structure, sequences, page layout etc.

It is a real adventure working in this field of abstract comics and discovering more and more artists working in the same area.

nina

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Contributors' copies!!

I got my shipment today. Anyone else get theirs? What do you think?

Friday, July 10, 2009

Jesse Goes Abstract!

My friend and bandmate Jesse Reklaw makes a great daily diary strip called Ten Thousand Things To Do and during our last band practice, I decided to try an experiment...

In between songs, I played drum-fills which were actually Morse Code spelling out "MAKE ABSTRACT COMICS MAKE ABSTRACT COMICS"

-- .- -.- . / .- -... ... - .-. .- -.-. - / -.-. --- -- .. -.-. ...

and here's Jesse's strip for that day:

Yes! It worked!

-... ..- -.-- / .- -... ... - .-. .- -.-. - / -.-. --- -- .. -.-. ...

Ditko's Abstract Comics

I saw this great post over at Blog Flume about the beautiful abstractions in Steve Ditko's comics. These panels are just begging to be remixed into a full abstract comic! (HT: Paul Hornschemeier)