Artist Appreciations

[Selinafan]

Who are your favorite artists and why? Share and discuss.

Here's an artist I treasure. My personal fav...

Amanda Conner

Irish-American Amanda Conner is known for a very crisp clean style that is cartoonish and playful. But also excels in the nuances of body language -- a tilt of the head, a wry smile… all the human details that breath life and emotive reality in her figures.

She is also famous for her curvy, sexy female characters -- but as with Adam Hughes, they don’t come off gratuitously exploitive. Amanda celebrates and has fun with the idealized superhero and makes them believable, often sweet and charming (though sometimes dark and dangerous, ala Painkiller Jane) – sexy as hell but not pornographic.


^{Conner’s psychedelic work on Darwyn Cooke's highly regarded, "Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre", which she also co-writes}


She took to heart words of advice Joe Kubert gave her while a student at his famous School, he told her, "...Make it so that the reader knows exactly what is going on as if there weren't any words or text to go along with the art." Because she learned this lesson well and applied it masterfully, her storytelling is impeccable, very cinematic and yet real, there’s a palpable sense of life in her figures.

Her panel-to-panel transitions are concise. The spatial relationships and choreography is spot on in each and every page. She understands logistic, she builds a world without the use of tricks or shortcuts. In doing that her characters live in a fully realized, inhabitable space that is consistent and natural. Her –often humorous- character interactions, her use facial expression and body language, the ability to keep the narrative compelling even in a dry conversational scenes, are among her strengths.


^{Girl's Night Out: Karen (Power Girl) takes her pal Altee (Terra) to see her first movie}



While the look is cartoonish and employs minimal shading, Amanda draws from life. In other comic book artists you might recognize a trace of Jim Lee, a touch of Jack Kirby in their style - but Conner is Conner. She draws inspiration from that which surrounds her, and all that she sees out her window. In many ways she is more realistic than others who might employ realism in their shading and style, etc, but are undone by weakness in rendering anatomy or perspective.

Oh and she once modeled as Elektra for Bill Sienkiewicz

Notable works:
The "Terra" mini and "Power Girl" series
Wednesday Comics: Supergirl
The Pro
Vampirella
Gatecrasher
Two-Step
Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre

[Selinafan]

More Amanda goodness...

One of her most famous and popular pictures




The one character Amanda said she wants to do is Catwoman... drawings like this are as close as she’s come.




As always, Conner has a sense of humor