Creating Comics!

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Media: Watercolor charcoal, ink pencil and pen, Photoshop

Joseph Arthur

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Creating Comics

J

oseph Arthur is an artist of music and pictures liv-

ing in Red Hook, Brooklyn. He recently published a

coloring book featuring his line drawings called

Color Me Courageous. He has recorded several

albums, including some on Peter Gabriel’s Real World

label, and he has written many songs featured in film

and television.

Arthur has had several art shows and opened a gal-

lery in Dumbo, Brooklyn, called the Museum of Modern

Arthur. He is currently working on an album of new

music, a graphic novel, a deck of tarot cards, and a book

of poetry tentatively titled cracked messiah.

Job:05-19413 Title:Creating Comics

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Job:05-19413 Title:Creating Comics

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Media: Watercolor charcoal, ink pencil and pen, Photoshop

Following page:

Media: Watercolor charcoal, ink pencil and pen, Photoshop

Creative Process

I like to start out using giant pieces of paper. On these

pieces I used 300 lb. weight, 40” x 60” (101.6 x 152.4 cm)

sheets, building up layers. I then bring them into cyber-

space and tweak them further. My inspirations come

from abstract painters and artists like Cy Twombly, Robert

Rauschenberg, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and

Roy Lichtenstein.

I like to make single-panel pieces that hopefully will

stand alone or can also work as part of a whole, pictures

that can be hung on a wall or compiled in a book. Comic

art is an exciting form of expression because it has many

new possibilities and frontiers to confront.

Like punk rock music, it blends high-minded ideas and

intelligence with something childlike and raw. An explosion

of innocence and knowing, where your inner child meets

the deranged lunatic you’ve become and gives them a

universe to dance in.

Joseph Arthur

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Joseph Arthur

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Creating Comics

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Joseph Arthur