February and March 2004 | See Past News

February and March News

Hello friends and welcome back to the official web pages of Frank Frazetta.

Frank celebrated his 76 th birthday on Feb 9 th. He spent the afternoon with his children and grandchildren who helped him blow out the candles on his birthday cake. His health and spirits are very positive. Cameras are still his number one passion and now that the digital world has made its mark, he spends most of the day printing photos and photographing the children. He relaxes in the studio most of the time and anxiously waits for the new baseball season to get underway.

He continues to draw with his left hand and fans continually request drawings for their personal collection. Dad has done character drawings for each of his grandchildren. My wife has been asking him for sometime now to do this for my daughters. He recently did and it was well worth the wait.

My wife and I had our second set of twins just three and a half years ago so there has been little time for site updates. Therefore, to make up for lost time, my friend Bob (RC) Aradio is revamping the entire web site. We are anticipating a wonderful new look to the site by June. Everything will be up to date including the Museum section, which will have better graphics, directions and hotel addresses including phone numbers for fans visiting the museum. The gallery store will feature many new original drawings, paintings and books not seen before in the featured art section. We are working on a new flash intro for the web site that will be taken directly from the Painting with Fire video. It will also include a virtual tour of the museum so you can visit us even if you cannot get to Pennsylvania in the near future.

Our new line of shirts, hats, rings and mugs will also be available at that time. For those who have not seen the new line you may visit our Bob Aradio designed apparel site at frazettaapparel.com. Bob’s artistic abilities combined with uncompromising visions in graphic design will be a welcomed feature to our new site.

The Death Dealer statues are now in transit to the USA. We are looking for customs clearance by April 15 th. We appreciate every ones patience in this matter.

The snow has finally melted and the weather is feeling more like spring every day. The museum will be opening on Saturday, May 1 st for the new season. Mrs. Frazetta will be displaying many new original pen and ink sketches at the museum this year along with a wide variety of original artwork for sale. As I emphasize every year, if you are an art fan of any stature, you must take time to visit our beautiful gallery. The original art is breathtaking. The colors and depth of paint pulls you in to the painting.

As wonderful as the books are, the four-color separations are no match for the originals. When my father was teaching me how to paint in the early 80’s, it was a harsh learning experience to understand what colors were needed just to match the colors of the human flesh. I thought a little brown mixed with some yellows and white would do the trick. I DON’T THINK SO! My father readily reminded me a minimum of 25 to 30 colors are needed to get the wonderful subtle tones of the male skin. I only had half that amount of colors on my entire pallet! Greens are a dominant color in the male flesh according to my father. This is another reason why so many imitators’ paintings are flat and one-dimensional compared to my father’s.

Well, now that you all know his secrets you can start a new career of your own! I have copied a few of my father’s paintings as an exercise but I get little personal satisfaction knowing it did not come from within my own head. Still, the finished art is decent for the short period of time I spent learning under my father’s guidance.

My dad is still disappointed I never followed in his footsteps, but I always felt that although our names are the same, there is only one Frank Frazetta. I could not handle being compared to him my entire career.

During a conversation about finding subjects for my paintings, he told me to “Do your own thing: wildlife or what ever turns you on.” “Well, ants kind of do the trick Pop.” Then he gave me that look and slowly raised his arm to his side clinching his fist. I quickly put a smile on my face before he gave me a belt. He kept telling me, “You’ve got half of me in you; it won’t be that tough with my help.” “I know Pop, but it will take a few years before I get real good at it.” Then I got even a more intimidating look from him. “I’ve been drawing ever since I was two years old! You’ve got to put in the time and effort.” Then I replied, “Pop, I have four kids, three businesses and ten acres of land to manicure in the summer. The only thing I don’t have too much of is sleep!”

Thank you,

Frank Frazetta JR