Fill a cyclops’s skull with your favorite brew, make yourself comfortable on the severed limb of a giant reptile, and snuggle up with your favorite bikini-clad princess because it’s time! Once again! For another installment of Frazetta Friday!
Back in 2003, Frank Frazetta teamed up with Albion Armorers to bring a selection of his iconic weapons and helms to life. The stuff was all made by hand and limited to 1,000 pieces each. They did some incredible work! In a letter to them, Frazetta spoke about the use of exaggeration in his paintings:
“I see things as they exist, but I paint them from the image they have left on my mind rather than how they appear in reality. If you really examine your fears, you realize how out of proportion they are. Your mind’s eye constantly paints pictures far in excess of what’s real. I try to capture those images in my work. I’m dealing with the emotion of fear and not the anatomical proportions of the weapon. A sword can kill, and I will exaggerate those qualities of a sword that will emphasize its ability to kill. The size, the hardness, the coldness of the metal, the point, and the sharpened edge – whatever it takes to spell out the emotion the best.”
Too sick to… type. Curse this… wretched body. Pain… agony. See… you… next… time… ugh!
Welcome to the second edition of Frazetta Friday, an episodic series here onDoom Cycle where you’ll find yourselfcleaving the heads off your enemies, bending the will of huge beasts with dark incantations, climbing mountains of rotting flesh and splintered bone, and leaving behind heavy footprints filled with the blood of those who opposed you. Death! How sweet the scent! May your goals be fulfilled, your voluptuous queen left satisfied, and… Ahem.
Let’s start this episode off with Frazetta’s 1967 oil painting “The Sea Witch”, which some of you younger types will recognize as the cover for Wolfmother’s debut album. The band, who finally have a new album out next month, have also used his paintings on their singles and other assorted merchandise. Check ‘em out.
During the last installment I mentioned how influential Frazetta’s work was/is, but did you know that the skimpy iron-bikini Princess Leia wore in Return of the Jedi was inspired by Frank? Yes, it sure was (according to costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers). Makes sense now that you think about. Pretty cool!
See ya next time. I’m off to battle… a cold.
Frank Frazetta was one of the greatest artists to have ever walked this earth. Even if you don’t know his name, chances are you’ve seen his work at some point in your life. His book covers were so popular that publishers would buy up the rights to any paintings he had lying around, and then hire novelists to write a story around them. Kids were known to even rip the covers off the books, stuff them down their shirts, and sneak them out of the store (or maybe that was just me).
There’s no denying the power of his work. It’s immediate. Breathtaking. Both beautiful and frightening. Frazetta has the ability to lift you up from your chair and drop you right in the middle of the action. He leaves you wanting to know more. Your mind is left spinning, trying to fill in all the details, wondering what the hell could have led to this?!
Frazetta’s work caught the public’s imagination like no other artist before or since, and his influence is incalculable. During the seventies, he was a fucking rock star!
Frazetta defined the aesthetic of the heavy metal and hard rock genres. His album covers for groups like Molly Hatchet brought them a level of success they never would have imagined; people bought up their stuff without hearing a note! It reached a point where Frazetta’s art began to define who you were. Every stoned dude wanted a Frazetta-style mural on the side of their van, bikers craved his imagery for their choppers, and every artist with an airbrush was more than happy to oblige.
Starting today, episode 1 of “Frazetta Friday” begins here on Doom Cycle. For each installment, I’ll be sharing some of the incredible work he has accomplished during his career, and giving you all a little insight behind the man. So, let’s get a few of his most famous pieces out of the way, sound good?
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Doom Cycle is the place to keep up with all the rad artists in and around the chopper scene. It's run by this dude in MI named Tim Granda. [Read More...]