An imperial storm trooper draws a bead on Glass House artist Patrick Berkenkotter. Only his paint brush can save him.
Overlooking a noisy stretch of downtown Manila is a building known as the Manila Astral Tower. Besides suffering the usual din of downtown traffic it is across the street Supreme Court of the Philippines and the Department of Justice. It is a place where raucous protest rallies spring up without warning. A busy hospital, fire station, and the hustle and bustle of the University of the Philippines complete the scene.
Did I say noisy? Ear-splitting is more like it.
It is here against this far from tranquil background that Glass House Graphics artist Patrick Berkenkotter plies his trade. In the overcrowded world of urban Manila his small studio doubles as a bedroom. Scale models and action figures battle for space like a colorful microcosm of the world below, only here it is Batman shoved up against a Transformer instead of a student bouncing off of a cop.
Adding to the peculiar cacophony, overlooking it all, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman have come all the way from 1942 and peer out from an old movie poster for the classic Casablanca. Oddly they don’t seem out of place. Old French Morocco seems a fitting metaphor for the chaos of modern Manila.
What seems odd is that the endless peace of the Pacific Ocean is not much more than a mile away. “Just a few blocks further west and I would have a great view out my bedroom window,” Patrick says with a smile. “Instead I have,” as he gestures toward the street below, “this.”
He was discovered by GHG head David Campiti in an unlikely setting: a bowling alley. “He showed up for one of my talent sessions my fourth year of business in the Philippines,” David recalls. “About a dozen artists were there to meet me at this little alley in a shopping mall. Most of the artists were striking out on the lanes and with their samples but Patrick's work just bowled me over! I loved his classic illustrative penciling style and his painted work. I was thrilled to represent him."
Patrick’s work day begins early in the morning, since the heat and noise of noontime Manila make it difficult to work after lunch. “I’ll head out to the beach. There’s an ocean side park. I’ll get a little air and maybe watch a game of chess.”
Work resumes in the evening after dinner when it’s cooler. “And quieter,’ he adds thankfully.
Patrick is a pit of a prodigy. He works in a number of mediums, paint, pencil, animation and game design despite very little formal art training, just three or four basic classes while studying architecture. He worked for three years as chief designer for an architecture firm and still occasionally does architectural renderings, perhaps explaining his textbook mastery of the challenging problem of perspective.
Even before that his first art jobs were in animation, working as an in-betweener on Saturday morning fare like Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z. He had no fondness for the work but it paid the bills. “You just draw the stuff between the key poses, which are drawn by the animator. It’s kind of dull. I never even saw the animators.”
There is one animation job Patrick fondly remembers though: a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial featuring a cartoon Colonel Sanders dancing and juggling food.
A recent job was more to his liking. “I worked on a locally-developed PC game. We had to play lots of games for reference purposes. Getting paid to play to play video games? It’s a dream come true!”
But it’s painting that is Patrick’s true love. “I use pencils for practical reasons because it’s faster and easier to complete but painting is more exciting for me. Plus, I hate the grime that I have to wash off my hands after penciling!” he admits with a laugh.
“Also, I’m not crazy of submitting something half-done that has to be completed by a colorist. With paint, you turn in work that's complete. I also that colors, not lines, convey form and shape.”
A list of favorite artists suggests it may also be the realism of painting that appeals to Patrick. “Right now my favorite artists are, Alex Ross, Alex Raymond and Arthur Ranson.” The list, spanning eras and oceans, might seem a bit eclectic at first but makes perfect sense.
Ross, known for his painted sequential art on modern classics like the DC Comics limited series Kingdom Come, needs no introduction to American comic book readers. Though unfortunately his name won’t roll of the tongue of most fans today Alex Raymond created Flash Gordon in 1933 and was one of the greatest realistic artists in the history of newspaper comic strips. Ranson is a British illustrator whose photorealistic drawing style, appearing in British comics since the early 1970's, is an early example of the high-contrast style favored today.
The Justice League of America painted by Patrick.
Like Alex Ross, Patrick would love to do fully-painted graphic novels.
There is another favorite artist whose work Patrick remembers. “I loved the really terrific artwork of the Marvel Comic’s adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back. I lost my copy so I’m not sure who drew it but his work still influences me up to this day.” That Star Wars artist, the great Al Williamson, drew his first comics for EC at the age of 21. Williamson calls Raymond among his greatest influence and worked on two of the newspaper strips he created, Rip Kirby and Secret Agent X-9.
Like Williamson he hopes to follow in the footsteps of his artistic heroes. “I’d like to do a painted X-Men graphic novel. I love Alex Ross’s painted sequentials and he hasn’t gotten around to that. Penciling a Batman graphic novel, something dark and brooding would be cool.”
However, his current project is far from Batman or the X-Men. Patrick is doing a series of paintings for a special Christmas book planned for holiday release next year by the United Bible Societies. It’s still in the sketchbook phase but promises to be quite a treat.
Though Patrick is now in his thirties there is still much of the wonder of a young kid around him. “I love watching reruns of the sixties Batman TV show that are still being shown here in the afternoon. My hobbies are scale-modeling, collecting action figures and comic books. I guess I’m kind of a nerd.” Though there is nobody special in his life right now he does have a dream girl in mind. “I had a huge crush on Carrie Fisher in that slave girl bikini in Return of the Jedi,” he says with a smile.
Perhaps it is the cultural melting pot of the Philippines, where Spanish and American influences have washed up on the shores of Asia for hundreds of years, but Patrick seems more aware of the rich history of comic art than most contemporary North American artists. With interests and knowledge that spans oceans and eras the future shines bright for this talented artist.
(Patrick is represented by Glass House Graphics. To inquire about availability and rates, contact David Campiti via david@glasshousegraphics.com)
posted and released by Azrael Coladilla
http://www.glasshousegraphics.com
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