Reflections: A Book of Drawings & Paintings, Sculptures & Sketches: 1

by David W. Mack

Ever wonder how David Mack does his artwork? How his pages and covers go from sketches and drawings to finished art? How he uses models and figure drawings? It's all in here with tons of extras! Collects Kabuki Reflections #5-10.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Art, Comic Book

320 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.



David W. Mack is a comic book artist and writer, best known for his creation Kabuki and his work on the Marvel Comics titles Daredevil and Alias

The author of the Star Trek Novels is David Mack

Reviews

[Berna Labourdette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Redescubrí este mes que ver artbooks me relaja mucho, así que revisé varios. Usualmente la mayoría son sólo ilustraciones seguidas sin mucha información adicional, pero este es un lujo. No sólo hay muchísimas acuarelas con todo detalle de Kabuki, Daredevil, Echo y otros personajes dibujados por Mack, también incluye reflexiones sobre su trabajo, fotografías de esculturas, información sobre su proceso creativo, bosquejos y collages. Quiero destacar que David Mack no sólo es MUY talentoso, además es amabilísimo (respondió un tuit donde lo mencioné).
PS: Vale muchísimo la pena tenerlo en papel. 

[James Curcio · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Mack is one of the very few artist/authors that whenever I write about them it comes out almost fanboyish. The reason should be plain enough for anyone who has put in the energy to explore his work: it's really top rate, original (although you can certainly see many influences, nothing creative occurs in a vacuum), and you can see real humanity in all of it-- beauty, fragility, etc. Also, there are artists that you encounter or work with that are incredibly talented but make you feel a sort of despair towards your own work. I remember after reading Lolita (Nabokov) I wondered why I bother with prose at all. David's work, on the other hand, is generally inspirational. It asks you to dig a little deeper and find your voice. Which is really one of the greatest gifts an artist can give.

See what I mean? All the same, I mean it.

---
I'll likely be doing a more details review for http://www.Modernmythology.net in the coming month.

[Zoë Birss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautiful scrapbook of David Mack's art, art process, and responses from others to his art. It also has elements of autobiography and memoir. I most appreciated the pages showing his process for the medium for which he is most known - watercolour and mixed media portraits. There are several examples given of step-by-step photojournals of pieces in progress. They are fascinating, beautiful, and inspiring. There is also a section of paintings with light that Mack did in collaboration with a photographer, a slow shutter speed, and a flashlight, that I really enjoyed.

Any fan of David Mack will likely find something in this book to satisfy them, though I doubt many would find every page between the covers to be interesting.

I highly recommend this book to fans of David Mack, and to watercolour artists. I would encourage others to start with something else by David Mack first, to better appreciate this book.

[SA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love David Mack!

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

Of all the books that stood on the shelf, this one stood out because it's black. This book doesn't seem have a dust jacket although the product image on Amazon has it.

This book looks like a sketchbook because of the black cover. On the cover inscribes the Japanese kanji words "Kabuki", barely visible.

Inside's a collection of David Mack's sketches, paintings, sculptures and photos. Some of them on the Kabuki comic series, some on Daredevil, works for other comics and some sketches from life.

I like his watercolour style. It has the randomness of watercolour, yet well controlled to produce a beautiful portrait. Every piece has a textural feel to it from the watercolour splashes. Some are worked on canvas. Come to think of it, there aren't a lot of comic artists using watercolours.

David Mack seems to like collages. You'll see a few pages of collage with his drawings and photos. There's a very scrapbook feel to the book. There are photos of some of his hand made books, which he adapted into a collage style book made from his father's old hymn books. On some pages, he draws on a graph paper and sticks text balloons and straps of text using other paper.

Some of the photos included are of him drawing at events, snapshots of his paintings in progress, fans who have Kabuki tattoos.

There are lots to read, from the captions to dialogue of his random comic strips, and some fan letters.

This is a fantastic book for fans and sketchbook lovers. Every page is a pleasant surprise of style, drawings and ideas.

[Scarlet Risque · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, is the artist (David Mack) journal process of formulating his best character sketches and ideas. It is the secret to his craft, in fact, I studied this book and tried to understand his thinking process to understand the KABUKI series better. Maybe I am a mad fangirl, but this is the most authentic and honest work of the artist. I highly recommend collecting this. This book is like Da Vinci Journal. You can't collect Da Vinci paintings without having a copy of his journal as well. Highly recommended graphic art collection (without the price tag of an expensive art piece).

[Lady Entropy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a huge issue with the original individual-issue series, because between a lot of good and unique art, the artist included a ton of pointless scraps of information and drawings of his childhood. That's very nice for a biography book, but meh for a book which I was getting for the art.

However, as this focuses on the later volumes, there is a lot more unique and rather good art, I'm giving it a 3.5 stars. I still love his art, his style and his mastery of traditional means.

[Michael Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Mack is one of my favorite artists, best known for his Kabuki graphic novels. This book shows excerpts from his art journals and note books, sketches (including many from his childhood), and finished works, with some autobiographical material. It is much more than just a collection of Kabuki paintings. Yes, I liked this one.

[Nikita Katiyar · Rating 5 out of 5]

this whole thing was so inspiring for me as an artist, david mack is everything. he is a genius of our times.

[PJ Ebbrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic.

[Onur Yz · Rating 4 out of 5]

David W. Mack'in beyninin sürreal kıvrımlarında bir seyahat bu. Yorucu ama her şeye değiyor. Her şeyden öte ilham verici.