Seibertron interviews Livio Ramondelli

[DELTAprime]

Seibertron has an interview (http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/seibertron-interviews-livio-ramondelli/29606/) with Autocracy, Monstrosity, RID (a couple of issues) and Dark Cybertron (Dead Universe) artist Livio Ramondelli.

[Mythirax]

This is probably going to sound really bad, but I can't stand this guys art. I find it takes away from the story and I end up reading it in a daze. All the characters just look "meh". I have a few comic book artist friends, and none of them like his style either, they find it ruins it too. Is it just me on this forum who thinks this, or are there others?

[MayzaPrime]

This is probably going to sound really bad, but I can't stand this guys art. I find it takes away from the story and I end up reading it in a daze. All the characters just look "meh". I have a few comic book artist friends, and none of them like his style either, they find it ruins it too. Is it just me on this forum who thinks this, or are there others?

Totally agree, I don't like his art at all. "Meh" is being very polite half the time I don't know which character is in the frame.

[DELTAprime]

Totally agree, I don't like his art at all. "Meh" is being very polite half the time I don't know which character is in the frame.

Well, I hate it. Only reason I posted the news story is cause I thought I was the only one that hates it. I guessI'm not.:o

[Mythirax]

Totally agree, I don't like his art at all. "Meh" is being very polite half the time I don't know which character is in the frame.

I can't stand how Hardhead looks. Every time I see him, I'm like, who the heck is this guy? And how you feel is exactly the same as me, as he really can't portray any of the characters at all.

After reading the interview, I can't believe IDW picked him out.

[Sky Shadow]

Is it just me on this forum who thinks this, or are there others?

His work is always too muddy and dark, and whenever I buy an issue with him on art I always go to read it then my eyes go aarrggh and I put it back at the bottom of my pile for later. What they should do is get him to pencil his own work - like the Rodimus in the interview - and then put someone else on colouring, preferably Josh Burcham. Ramondelli has great potential as an artist, but his biggest problem seems to be that he doesn't know what's good for comics, and apparently his editors don't either.

[Mythirax]

His work is always too muddy and dark, and whenever I buy an issue with him on art I always go to read it then my eyes go aarrggh and I put it back at the bottom of my pile for later. What they should do is get him to pencil his own work - like the Rodimus in the interview - and then put someone else on colouring, preferably Josh Burcham. Ramondelli has great potential as an artist, but his biggest problem seems to be that he doesn't know what's good for comics, and apparently his editors don't either.

Every page of his to me feels like the "Raisins Face". So I just can't take any of it serious. Thankfully the words keep me going. As someone said to me, "This New Age look, where everything has to be done with a brush pen, just look stupid for transformers". Guess I should just be thankful Andrew Griffiths work keeps me happy.

[DELTAprime]

On the new Seibertron podcast they have an informal hang out with Livio. What I took from it is:

He claims he does some writing on Chris Metzen's work.

He thinks G1 animation has the same grit he uses in his artwork. (WTF:confused:)

The guys that work at Seibertron really like his artwork. (I guess I was right, some people do like him)

[Mythirax]

He thinks G1 animation has the same grit he uses in his artwork. (WTF:confused:)
Hahahahahahah, Ahahahahahahaha, hahahahahahahaahah. Yeah Ok :D


The guys that work at Seibertron really like his artwork. (I guess I was right, some people do like him)
I noticed in the comments on him everyone was batsheet crazy about liking him. Who knows, guess some people like his "G1 Grit" :D

[DELTAprime]

I noticed in the comments on him everyone was batsheet crazy about liking him. Who knows, guess some people like his "G1 Grit" :D

Maybe it's a cultural thing? Australians don't like it, Americans do?:confused:?

[UltraMarginal]

I don't mind it in the right situation. it works well for the dead universe visuals but I feel it's too gritty and too much to have as a continuous style. It worked well for the Junk Planet panels in Monstrosity.

I can see why people have an issue with it. I tend to not like "messy" art in my comics, I much prefer clean lines and well defined edges. A lot of his work looks like it would be great before the "grit" filter is applied.

[Mythirax]

A lot of his work looks like it would be great before the "grit" filter is applied.

I still find his general character stances/looks and all, still just don't fit well. Everyone has a weird skewed/stretched/unproportional look. I'm exactly the same as you though, I prefer clean lines and well defined edges as well. Especially for Transformers. I find his work is maybe to Horror like?

[Gouki]

His art is great. It's perfectly fine for the series and has brilliant atmosphere, if a little murky in some panels. His line work is fantastic. Strong figures, great detail. I'm not sure I really get the 'messy' criticism. It's always seem very clean to me. I'd certainly rather have on a book than, say, Wildman.

I'd love to see someone else colour his work, just to see how it looks, not because I think he's bad at it (I haven't actually read the interview yet, so I just assume he colours his own work), just because I think then it would really pop.

I really disagree with him about it being just like the G1 cartoon though. That makes no sense to me.

[Sam]

I think his style is not for everyone.

I do not like his art in the IDW TF comics, but Ramondelli demonstrates a strong understanding of the relationship between lighting and shading, backed by traditional core skills such as the use of pencil to denote texture, as well as the ability to compose images that draw the eyes to desired "reads".

If you check out his pencil drawings, hopefully you will see what I mean:

Sharkticons: http://livioramondelli.deviantart.com/art/Sharkticons-137824775
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs50/f/2009/264/3/3/Sharkticons_by_Livio27.jpg

Galvatron: http://livioramondelli.deviantart.com/art/Galvatron-123720279
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs44/i/2009/145/2/e/Galvatron_by_Livio27.jpg

Omega Supreme: http://livioramondelli.deviantart.com/art/Omega-Supreme-148406049
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2009/363/d/5/Omega_Supreme_by_Livio27.jpg

Devastator vs Dinobots: http://livioramondelli.deviantart.com/art/Devastator-vs-Dinobots-121601861
coloured version: http://livioramondelli.deviantart.com/art/Devastator-vs-Dinobots-Color-122339865
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs43/i/2009/126/8/a/Devastator_vs_Dinobots_by_Livio27.jpg

For some reason, I feel the quality of his style is lost when placed in the TF comics. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I believe it's definitely not due to his skills as an artist.

That said, although I admire his skills and enjoy his artwork, my favourite artist when it comes to Transformers still has to be Don Figueroa (http://donfig.deviantart.com/gallery/).

[griffin]

So he's like the Michael Bay of comics - he can do great promo action shots, but is hard to watch a whole issue in that style. ;) :p

[BigTransformerTrev]

I thought his artwork quite suited Autocracy and Monstrosity and did not mind it at all there. Sometimes the proportions are out (Scorponok is huge, but then Hun-Grrr in beast mode is just as tall, that should mean Hun-Grrr is the size of Broadside in robot mode!) and sometimes it is dark but I thought it really worked for these two series.

That said however his artwork in all the other TF comics has really not appealed to me at all and I would have to say he has been one of my least fav TF comic artists.

[Paulbot]

Damn those black and white drawings are excellent.

I was having a flick through Chaos last night and there are some gorgeous panels and pages in there. Don't have hard copies of the digital-first stories yet.

Overall I like his art, but for comics the storytelling is not great and his colouring does tens to make everything too dark. There are less appealing artists doing TF art, so i like this for being something different.

[Gouki]

I thought his artwork quite suited Autocracy and Monstrosity and did not mind it at all there. Sometimes the proportions are out (Scorponok is huge, but then Hun-Grrr in beast mode is just as tall, that should mean Hun-Grrr is the size of Broadside in robot mode!) and sometimes it is dark but I thought it really worked for these two series.

Expecting scale in Transformers media leads to madness. Even MTMTE isn't perfect in that regard.

[UltraMarginal]

That art is really nice Sam, but that highlights what i find as blurry in the Monstrosity series.

what you showed there is really excellent, it feels to me there is a filter that's applied somewhere between the original art and the final coloured inked images that takes out a lot of the sharpness and adds almost a grainy scratched texture. so much of the initial detail is lost.

[Bidoofdude]

I think his style is not for everyone.

I do not like his art in the IDW TF comics, but Ramondelli demonstrates a strong understanding of the relationship between lighting and shading, backed by traditional core skills such as the use of pencil to denote texture, as well as the ability to compose images that draw the eyes to desired "reads".

If you check out his pencil drawings, hopefully you will see what I mean:

Sharkticons: http://livioramondelli.deviantart.com/art/Sharkticons-137824775
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs50/f/2009/264/3/3/Sharkticons_by_Livio27.jpg

Galvatron: http://livioramondelli.deviantart.com/art/Galvatron-123720279
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs44/i/2009/145/2/e/Galvatron_by_Livio27.jpg

Omega Supreme: http://livioramondelli.deviantart.com/art/Omega-Supreme-148406049
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2009/363/d/5/Omega_Supreme_by_Livio27.jpg

Devastator vs Dinobots: http://livioramondelli.deviantart.com/art/Devastator-vs-Dinobots-121601861
coloured version: http://livioramondelli.deviantart.com/art/Devastator-vs-Dinobots-Color-122339865
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs43/i/2009/126/8/a/Devastator_vs_Dinobots_by_Livio27.jpg

For some reason, I feel the quality of his style is lost when placed in the TF comics. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I believe it's definitely not due to his skills as an artist.

That said, although I admire his skills and enjoy his artwork, my favourite artist when it comes to Transformers still has to be Don Figueroa (http://donfig.deviantart.com/gallery/).

Those Sharkticons look awesome. I like the look of some of his art. :)

[Sam]

So he's like the Michael Bay of comics - he can do great promo action shots, but is hard to watch a whole issue in that style. ;) :p

Okay, I see your point, but the comparison seems a tad harsh. ;p



Overall I like his art, but for comics the storytelling is not great and his colouring does tens to make everything too dark. There are less appealing artists doing TF art, so i like this for being something different.

You've answered a question I had but didn't post - who did his colours? If it's him, then perhaps his own colouring is somewhat ruining his pencils.


That art is really nice Sam, but that highlights what i find as blurry in the Monstrosity series.

what you showed there is really excellent, it feels to me there is a filter that's applied somewhere between the original art and the final coloured inked images that takes out a lot of the sharpness and adds almost a grainy scratched texture. so much of the initial detail is lost.

I too think that perhaps whoever did the inks has kinda taken away from his pencils rather than lifting them out.

I recall a brief conversation with Goktimus Prime some years ago on a similar topic. I told him that I didn't like Andrew Wildman's rendition of robots having spittle when they spoke. Goktimus told me that Wildman didn't add the spittle in, it was the inker who did that.

Later on I had the chance to check out some of Wildman's pencils on the internet, and he was right - Wildman's lines are quite clean and tidy.

This makes me think that perhaps if only IDW used an inker that had better complemented Ramondelli's lineart, we'd enjoy his art in the comics a lot more.

I have often found that when a penciller and inker who has worked together for a number of years continue to work on titles together, the art really shines because they have learned how to complement each other's strengths. A couple of examples I can think of are Ed McGuinness / Dexter Vines, and Jim Lee / Scott Williams.


Those Sharkticons look awesome. I like the look of some of his art. :)

Yeah, there is a certain "industrial-ness" to the way he makes the metal look that gives it a nice sense of realism. :)

[DELTAprime]

You've answered a question I had but didn't post - who did his colours? If it's him, then perhaps his own colouring is somewhat ruining his pencils.


He did briefly say in the podcast that he does his own lighting and colours. Also he says he does his comic work digitally, I don't know if thats common or if it contributes to the problem.