A tribute to: Derek Laufman

jossduarte (51)in #illustrator • 8 years ago

This post I want to do as a tribute to one of the colleagues I admire most, he was one of the two artists who inspired me to start the personal project that I am currently taking forward.

Source

Derek Laufman, an illustration artist, with about 20 years of experience. This Londinese created various comic books, helped illustrate characters for various online games, and sold his designs independently at low prices.

He is one of the few artists I know, capable of working (although in an independent way) for Marvel and DC comics, taking into account the exclusivity agreement that these companies have for their artists.

How I know about Derek?

In Venezuela, unscrupulous people sell Derek's designs on printed T-shirts, mugs and other advertising items. My mother, knowing that I like the Hulk and it's my favorite superhero, found a T-shirt with a Chibi style Hulk that I loved since I saw it, unfortunately there was not my size. I set out to ask for the design, from the people who were printing these products, I tried to buy them, but they refused to share 'Their designs'.

Later, with my career as a freelance designer, I devoted myself to follow in Instagram accounts of illustrators and designers, not for plagiarism, but in this way you find inspiration, you find techniques and thanks to the algorithm, you find other designers like Derek Laufman.

I remember I saw some Chibi Ninja Turtles and I started to look into the Derek account, because I loved the style, and to my surprise Derek was the true creator of the Hulk design that I've been looking for for years.

What is Chibi?

Chibi is the Japanese word for a small drawing, and is a style to draw also known as' Super deformed', it consists of creating a character with specific proportions and reduced size. Some also consider Chibi to be a childish version of a character, or a caricaturization of a character. It is a very difficult style to draw since the proportions of the characters are changed, while maintaining the characteristics of this one so that it is easy to identify.