Drawn

Rough Work: Frank Frazetta is a new book collecting 130 pages of concept art, doodles, and sketches from the modern master of fantasy illustration.

Some fans are concerned that Rough Work is too small – at 9″ x 6″ – but to me the size seems appropriate given that a lot of Frazetta’s work was intended for pocket fiction. The sketches have the spontaneity of something you’d see lying around in a studio, coffee-stains intact. Frazetta was notoriously loose with his roughs; saving most of his energy for the finals.

There’s a great anecdote about this in the preface, by Russ Cochran, a studio-mate of Frazetta’s in the 70s:

At first we did roughs on everything and got them approved. Often the roughs were superior to the finished art. The roughs had more charm, more color, more everything. Then, finally, I gave up doing the roughs altogether. Frank would say, ‘The hell with roughing this thing, that’s doing it twice! You know I can do it. They’ll take the final painting and like it – the hell with the rough!’ And it worked.

More Frank Frazetta artwork after the jump.

The book is full of loose, spontaneous warm ups and gesture drawings in the mythic style Frazetta became famous for.

There are also many thumbnail watercolour roughs of the Tor and Ace book covers that would eventually make Frazetta a star.

This vampire illustration was part of a series of concept illustrations for an animated version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that never got made.

After reading this book, I checked out the documentary biopic about Frazetta, Painting with Fire. It’s a pretty cool movie with insight into his history and process. A must-see for fans of Frazetta’s work.

Also of interest:
More Fantasy Art