Customer Reviews

Sencilla Finale

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ashley Wood's "Sencilla Finale" is a collection of sketch book drawings and illustrations from 2000 to 2006. Though Wood has many fingers (and maybe a toe or two) in many of the comic industry's pies, this book stands out as an omnibus for what may go on in the artist's head. There are no stories to tell here, ladies and gentleman. This is pure, black and white (literally) drawing at it's finest.

Wood's drawings are a result of work with pencil, marker, brush, ink and chisel tips. His is a classic approach to traditional figure drawing and the contemporary mechanized guns and robots. Yeah, I just wrote that. The beauty in Wood's work is his near effortless ability to exploit each device individually and create a number of different marks with, what is sometimes, just one tool. This book just may be mandatory investigation for an art student in any capacity.

Though the book can be described as raw, it would be a hard argument to call this series incohesive. The artist seems to make a nod towards elements of film noir (those being femme fatales, black shadows and bold lines paired with troubled men who could be friend or villain), retro styled robotic science fiction, sequential story telling, and maybe a hint of urban art or graffiti. Interspersed throughout the book are smooth line drawings of suggestive pin-ups that act as a counter balance to the machismo of firearms, man and machine. That being said, this isn't a book for your little one's break time between kindergarten and afterschool cookies.

Ashley Wood's "Sencilla Finale" is a beautiful example of analog artistry in a digitally changing environment. Where some artists choose to hide between high-definition flat panel monitors and the ubiquitous mouse, Wood makes a flagrant display of the relationship between eye, hand, mark making device with shameless attacks at blank space with lines, smudges, shapes and scribbles. As a sum, these add up to beautifully drawn figures that create a dynamic visual translation of Wood's thought process. His work is that stars-in-your-eyes gasp for fresh air after being held under water by the pervasive digital bully.

It's not what I expected. It's only black and white quick sketches with marker and pencil. There is only 10 or 15 images is really good. The others are like Ashley made them while talking on the phone.
He is a great artist but I think he is not that great on quick sketches.

Although he is a very talented and highly illustrator I get the feeling that he wanted to just whip out some drawings to get it published. There are pages where there is only a head or a small figure w/o reason. Most of the sketches (but not all ) looked hurried not worthy as publishing material. Be aware the sketches are only B/W.

I want to give this book 5-Stars because I love the edgy artwork of Ashley Wood but there IS a problem here folks. Weep and read on...

I have been coming back tirelessly to this page for several weeks and the book was listed as a Pre-Order for November 29th. When that date came and passed the Amazon release information changed to "Usually ships within 1 to 3 months". What happened? I scratch my head in utter confusion.

I've checked several other sites and this book is no longer listed as being in-stock. Was it even released? Or has the publishing date been put back to 2007?

Has anyone got their hands on a copy? If so, where did you strike lucky?

Please holla back and throw some light on this mystery.

Cheers!