Sketch Work: the drawings of Frank Frazetta

While Frank Frazetta is generally regarded for his painting, he was also a skilled draftsman in both pencil and ink. Though Frazetta would likely fail a classical figure drawing class, his engagement with the human form continues to impress. His bodies twist and flail and leap off the page. While his proportions defy realistic anatomy, they manage to convey a level of energy and motion virtually unmatched in the realm sci-fi/fantasy art. There is a reason that Frazetta remains one of the most imitated artists within both the comic book and book cover community, unlike some of his more rigid contemporaries (Boris Vallejo please stand up), Frank's bodies never seem flat or awkwardly posed but seem to emanate tension from head to toe. Even at his most rudimentary, Frazetta's sketches exhibit the power and raw savagery contained within his paintings.