Monday, June 29, 2009

Influences on Seth: a couple more Moebius

I think Seth learned a lot from Moebius. I didn't realize how much until I started looking (recently) for Moebius pictures here on the internet. The picture at the bottom from Moebius shows a couple of effects that Seth used definitively in his work.
In the top illustration, from a Cicada magazine story, Seth has set the point of view well below the eye level of the protagonist in the picture, so that we look up to see his face and the ceiling above him with its futuristic structures. This picture, like the Moebius one below, has a very non-organic, mechanized world look, to go with the story which is set in a post-apocalyptic world where everyone lives inside, never seeing the sky.

Another trick he learned--and I presume this is where he learned it--is to use details--not just dots or lines--to create grey space, in order to show depth, create visual interest, and make sense of a complex scene. In the second image, from Flash: Time Flies, Seth has put the Flash on top of a building whose architectural ribbing makes (not really rectangular) rectangles, and whose tiled floors make small squarish shapes. He has used all these things to give a sense of depth to his picture, as well as making some white space and some grey space. It's the same thing Moebius did in the picture here. If you look at the picure quickly you see white and grey spaces. If you stop to examine it, you see all the details that make the space grey.










2 comments:

j_ay said...

nice comparisons, Viki.
That Moebius sure can draw...

Vicki said...

He sure can! and in a lot of different styles. There is an ease about his work too; none of it seems to be labored. That only comes from having done it for years and years, I think...