Illustrations by Rochelle Sprague.

No one knows for sure what the ancient artists were thinking when they created the famous paintings in Chauvet Cave, in what is now Southern France, but, it isn’t a huge stretch of the imagination to assume that amidst the images of ancient horses and bison, there is a story.

Begley

Regardless of whether the events depicted are recreations of actual events or images of an imagined narrative made real upon the walls of a cave, they are beautiful examples of storytelling through art. These ancient precursors to the world’s first comic books may look primitive to our modern eyes, but it is from these humble beginnings which our graphic narratives have grown.

Captain America, Sabre, Watchmen and the comic book inspired character art of Rochelle Sprague are just some examples of the sophistication of form born of the modest beginnings on a cave wall.

Rochelle is a Quincy native who got her art start at the age of twelve playing the game Dungeons and Dragons with her friends. As the narratives and histories of the game’s characters grew in her imagination, she put her pencil to the page and gave life to her imagined personas.

Total nerd-dom aside (I’ve got the cred to say that sort of thing)  RPGs are naturally fertile grounds for developing a sense of character development and detail of personality. Rochelle has taken full advantage of that in developing her craft. Being self taught, she draws inspiration from a variety of contemporary sources, but cites Michelangelo’s masterful grasp of the human form as a major influence when fleshing out her characters. Unfortunately, in my recent interview with Rochelle, I forgot to ask her where she looks for inspiration when drawing prehistoric bison. Regardless, you can read about her other influences and her approach to her work in the following interview:

BEGLEY: So we’ve known each other for a little while, and I’ve been privy to your work for some time, but I’m not really all that familiar with your background. Can you fill me in? Where you’re from, how you got started drawing and painting etc?

Sprague

SPRAGUE: Thank you so much! Well I was born and raised here in good old Quincy. I always drew as a child. But I guess I loved it more than most. I loved drawing pictures for my mother and family. I mostly drew animals until… I believe when I was around the age of 11 or 12 is when I really knew that I didn’t just draw, I was making artwork. I’ve never really been taught how to draw nor did I really know what I was doing but I just had an image in my head and it was like I was tracing it on paper.

BEGLEY: Perhaps it’s nothing more than an impression on my part, but based upon the work I’ve seen, I sense that each of the characters has a full story before I ever lay eyes on them. Can you describe your approach to their individual personalities?

SPRAGUE: Every character I have created does in fact have a whole life of their own. A whole universe in which exist. It all starts as soon as the pencil hits the paper. I draw the structure, how I want the body to look, then I head for the face. Starting with the eyes. Usually depending how I’m feeling I want those eyes to portray a strong emotion or a lack of. I think, “What have those eyes seen?” then I go on from there and the result: A strong character with a life. A purpose. Even if that purpose is just to look sad or pretty.

BEGLEY: I’ve noticed, specifically with the pieces I’ve chosen here, that you capture the subtleties of gender forms very well in many of the pieces I’ve seen. Your men look masculine, and your female forms capture the subtleties of femininity very well. Can you discuss how that skill has developed, or how you use gender traits in your work?

SPRAGUE: The first rule about drawing people, even if you are going for a style that is surreal or a very cartoon look, you must draw from real life. As a woman, drawing women comes natural, I believe.  I was very much into Japanese anime for a long time, so there was a time my men did not look like men, they looked like very effeminate boys. Almost girls with short hair. I started to draw the people I knew, doing portraits helped me see the big differences between the genders. I studied my all-time favorite artist  art work, Michelangelo. He loved the human body, specially the men. I was so inspired by how strong and smooth the human body could look. How it moves and bends. I was bent on making my art reflect that in some way….to stray away from anime and too much of a cartoon look.

BEGLEY: Much of your work features some of the most basic of human emotions. In fact, often it seems that what the character is “feeling” is the focus of your work, rather than what the character is “doing.” Could you discuss the emotion in your work in more detail?

SPRAGUE: There are emotions I wish to convey in my artwork. I try very hard to do that.You should watch me draw some time. While I’m drawing, I try to act out the emotions myself. Like the picture you chose of the girl with the gas-mask. She’s in fear, scared for her life, but determined to protect herself and fight! When I think of her situation, my heart starts to race and my breathing gets quick like I’m charging head first in the fire! Even if I’m just sitting on my couch quietly with the a/c on. My imagination just takes me there, like I’m a photographer trying to catch the action.

BEGLEY: Have you ever developed any of these characters into a graphic novel or larger work?

SPRAGUE: Yes actually. I’m actually writing a graphic novel of one of the pictures you have chosen. Called G.H.A.S. I’m writing a script for an animated movie that is a prequel to the G.H.A.S comic that I hope to have done in 10 years. Ha-ha. But I’m always working on something. Every morning I wake up bombarded with ideas and stories one after another. Like this morning I woke up with one idea, one character and I’m already in the process of drawing him and his life story that I think I’ll be doing very soon.

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I would like to have my own label production company so I can round up small town artists like myself and help them get their names out there. Artists that have passion and inspiration to make it big but need a little help and guidance. You wouldn’t believe how much you really need art and artists in your life.

You can view more of Rochelle Sprague’s art by finding her on Facebook, or through her page: http://foxxyro.deviantart.com/