Contents & Editorial © Copyright & ™ 2009 ACAB
Art & Text © Copyright &™ 2009 Trevor Von Eeden
All characters © Copyright &™ Their Respective Owners
THE FOLLOWING ARE PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN PAGES FROM TREVOR VON EEDEN'S 1974 SKETCHBOOK
CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO SEE A FULL SIZED SCAN OF THE ART
The most common questions that any artist is asked generally is, "How did you get so good," or, "How did you develop your style?" In Trevor's case the answer to both questions could well be the same - practice.
It's a little known fact that Trevor is a totally self-taught artist. He never attended any art school or studied with any artist - Trevor taught himself to draw simply by drawing. All through Trevor's school years he kept sketchbooks where he'd simply draw instead of dozing off in class. These sketchbooks offer up an insight into Trevor's formative years and his influences. From his Ross Andru inspired Doc Savage, through to his Neal Adams Green Lantern (featuring a Green Arrow head sketch on the same page), a wide range of influences are on display. John Buscema, Curt Swan, Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, Barry Windsor-Smith, Alex Toth and many more are all there to be seen, but underlying it all is Trevor's own incredible sense of design and story-telling. In this book alone Trevor shows sequences on pages and even showcases an almost complete Master Of Kung-Fu story, written and drawn by Trevor.
One of the most amazing things about the sketchbooks is that the bulk of the art, over 90% of it, is drawn in ball point pen, without any pencil lines. Trevor has remarked that he took this approach as he believed that drawing directly in pen and ink would leave no margin for error and teach him to be as good as he possibly could be. When you view Trevor's professionally published work it's clear that this approach clearly worked.
Clearly there's more than one valuable lesson to be learned in studying Trevor Von Eeden's school sketchbooks, and they are lessons that many artists drawing comic books today could still learn.
So, sit back and enjoy this early look inside the artistic development of a Modern Master.
