January - February 2005 | See Past News

Hello friends and welcome back,

Now that the month of February is nearly gone, my father has celebrated his 77th birthday in good spirits. He continues to draw daily with his left-hand and over the past two weeks has done a dozen various pencil drawing from panthers to nude woman. He has also done some strengthening exercises with his right hand to flex the fingers with a variety of squeezing and electronic therapy. There was a noticeable difference in the pressure he applied to the paper in just a few sessions. He drew a horse along with some small renderings of cartoon animals for my daughter Nicolle. I hope he continues to be aggressive and optimistic with this recovering care and who knows, maybe he will get back to where he was a few years ago. The close-up of the panther is as good as anything he has done in the past 10 years and the more he continues to draw the better the line drawings are getting. It does take a bit longer to finish but the results are still Frazetta. No one does cats like my father, and as much as I would love to draw the big cats, there is just so much in the muscle structure evolved to render this creature you literally have to know everything about it to make it look real. My father always said no one can draw the panthers like him. Especially in a fighting scene or when it is leaping through the air towards something. As a young man

My father spent hours at the zoo studying the lions movement and anatomy. He was fascinated by their power and beauty and sat there for hours and hours with his drawing pad copying their every movement especially the black panther, his favorite. He told me on one occasions he actually irritated the black panther just by staring at it. For almost 20 minutes my father didn’t move, he just continued to stare at the black panther. The panther continued the stare down until suddenly the big cat leaped at the cage bars a slammed the posts with raging fury. It scared the hell out of my father! This is when he began to appreciate the true speed and power of the big cats. Since that day on his fascination for them was never surpassed.

Over the past 5 years I am asked hundreds of questions pertaining to my fathers art skills. The most common question is does Mr. Frazetta have a book out on how to draw like him? I wish there was, and I wish it was something you could learn from a book, but it is not possible. An old Chinese prophet once said, “It is something that cannot be acquired through skill or dexterity it is something blended in the soul, one does not know how, yet it is there. Spirit resonance is inborn in the painter and something beyond the feeling of the brush and the affect of the ink which it cannot be forced or constrained by outward means. So when fans ask me ever week the same question on the internet, does Mr. Frazetta have a book out that teaches us how to draw like him and I reply to them, “even he does not know how he does it, he just does“. They don’t particularly care to hear this answer, but it is the truth. He learned how to draw and paint over the course of his life, since age 1 ½ till even today, this has always been what he emphasizes to me. Put your time in. Do you think it is going to happen over night? I wish, I think to myself, because if I say it out loud I’ll get a smack on the side of my head. The energy that is generated from his art is overwhelming and I have been lucky enough to see this every day of my life. Whether it is a whimsical character or the powerful barbaric images he creates, they all reach out from the canvas and pull you in. This is why you must see the original art in person. The books do not give the the original art justice. There is no substitute for the living and direct experience of the original work. I can look at one of the original oil paintings that is hanging in the museum for lets say the 100th time, and look at it again for the 101st time. Now I will see something in the background that I had never visualized before. A flying creature or a snake wrapped around a tree. There is just so much going on in these paintings that is lost in reproduction. He paints in detail where needed, but most of the time it is just to emphasize a certain area. This is what is so simple about some of his masterpieces but it is what sets them apart from everyone else. He is not afraid to be simplistic in many areas of the painting. The focal point of the art that draws you into the painting but the surrounding subject matter fades out into the distance and gives it a 3d effect. He will leave things to your imagination. He won’t do every little thing in detail, only suggestions of what is or what might be. This is what gets us off in my opinion. The more you look at he art close up, the more you want. It makes you think why did he do this? Or why didn’t he do this? It is truly fascinating to me and the more I learn about art working with him doing my own thing, the more I realize there will never, ever be another artist like my father. With the computers today and other sources to generate art, the less chance there will ever be another truly gifted artist that knows or wants to draw without some artificial means of expression.

The computer generation is taking away much of the human beings way of thinking. The imagination factor or using your hand to generate a specific shape when with the push of a button you can make this exact same image perfect without any time or effort. It is the easy way out, but the fast way which this society we now know wants so badly. The faster the better. The more you produce in a short period of time the more money the corporation will make. The quantity is where it is at , not the quality. This is not in all instances, I know they want both, but with the cost of things today, the more you can make in a short period of time, the more money you re likely to push through. Don’t take this the wrong way, there are still many talented artist working today, and many in the field of animation with computers or modeling it is just that the new and young generation will miss out on learning to draw with their hands in my estimation.

My father had also done a commissioned drawing for a video game that will be marketed in a few years. It is an Indiana Jones type hero that battles numerous myths and legends like the Yeti and Lock ness monster. The name of the game is Cryptid, but don’t quote me. It was a pencil drawing on paper and just the other day the manufacturer sent us a 3d modeling of the Yeti. Dad was impressed with the quality of the model and wishes them well in their venture.
I have recently purchased the few remaining copies of the book “The Completion of Kubla Khan”. It is a small black and white book based on the vision in a dream by Julio Delatorre. This is the most famous unfinished English poem. The Kubla Khan appeared to Samuel Taylor Coleridge in a dream in Highgate, England in 1797. At that time the poet was under the effect of an “anodyne” {opium}, reading a book entitled “ Purchas Pilgrimage”.

He awoke from the dream, positive that he had created between two and three hundred lines while his external senses were asleep. He had just written the first 54 lines when he was interrupted by a visitor on business. When he returned to work an hour later, he found to his dismay that he had forgotten the rest of the dream. The fact that the poem was a fragment was not known until Coleridge himself announced it. The first 54 lines comprise the original work of Coleridge. This fragment has survived as one of the most vivid and powerful compositions of its kind in literature. Mr. Delatorre’s conclusion consists of the subsequent lines. My father was commissioned to do 4 or five fabulous pen and inks for the book which consists of 355 lines. It is a paper back edition and we are offering it as a collectable of just 100 initialed and numbered books by Frank Frazetta for $75.00, and each will have a certified stamping on the back cover for authenticity verification.

With spring just around the corner we are anticipating the reopening of the art museum the first weekend in April. We will make it known on the exact date with weather permitting. There will also be new directions in the museum section with photographs of land marks and exits signs for visual aid and guidance to locate the estate. It is a bit tricky to find the first time because it is not on any major street or thruway so I am anticipating this will be of some help for first time visitors. If anyone needs to talk to me for any reason pertaining to the opening or just questions about the web site you are more than welcome to call me at 570-424-5833. Shortly we will be offering more original art available in the gallery store. We will have around 40 or so new sketches in the price range starting at around $595.00.

We hope you get a chance to visit with us this summer at the museum.

Sincerely yours,

Frank Frazetta JR