Orbital/TLDC ERB special!

With a new Tarzan movie “The Legend Of Tarzan” scheduled for a summer 2016 release, we thought now might be a nice time to take a look at some of the amazing artwork inspired by the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and hopefully inspire some more…

On Friday March 11th 2016 The Life Drawing Collective will team-up with Orbital Comics to present an evening of Tarzan/ERB themed life drawing.

Life drawing, comics and the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs are not such an incongruous match as one might initially suppose. 

The celebrated artist Burne Hogarth (wiki) whose outstanding work on the Tarzan newspaper strips led to him being heralded as  the“Michaelangelo of the comic strip” was actually a founder member of the School Of Visual Arts in New York.

This image I previously submitted to Bleeding Cool's Swipe File

Anyone who has frequented art shops in the last 50 years or so will know Burne Hogarth as the author of the acclaimed Dynamic Figure Drawing series of books.

As we are talking about working from models it's worth mentioning that Hogarth was obsessed with the actress Hedy Lamarr and often featured her in his stories.

Another artist renowned for his work on Tarzan comics was Joe Kubert .

Kubert, like Hogarth, was also a dedicated educator, who also established his own school, and comic book dynasty, several of his own children and grandchildren have followed him into the industry.

Probably the most famous artist to have illustrated the Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs is (ex-EC comics artist) Frank Frazetta (wiki). Frank's beautifully painted paperback novel covers, record covers and comics have thrilled a generation of fantasy art fans.

Frazetta was, of course, well known for his meticulous use of life models in his work.

There are literally too many artists to mention who have illustrated Burroughs tales, but I can't resist a tip of the hat to a few more:

Russ Manning

John Buscema

Neil Adams 

Richard Corben

Doug Wildey

 Orbital Comics have played host to a variety of drawing sessions aimed at bringing back the practice of live figure drawing to comic strip illustrators.

Doug Sneyd

Steve Rude

Catsuits & Rayguns

This is their first time working with the Life Drawing Collective who bring, classically inspired, multi figure poses their sessions. 

For this special Tarzan themed event we will have 3 models posing over 2 hours.

Manko, who has previously modelled at several of these events (eg. Va Va Valenties), returns to Orbital with two other members of the Collective.

Andrew Crayford, whose honed physique is well suited to the role of a Burroughsian hero (he actually worked as a Tarzan stand-in for pre-production of the new movie)

  Carla Tofano with her pin-up curves Carla seems to be the living embodiment of a Frazetta heroine.

So if this has gotten your creative juices flowing and you're in the London area on Friday March 11th 2016 please join us at Orbital for an evening of dynamic figure drawing.

The event has been and gone now, see my review here