In the Realm of the Gilded Man pencil drawing for 16x20" painting

Artist: Carl Barks (All)

3 Comments - 455 Views - 2 Likes

In the Realm of the Gilded Man pencil drawing for 16x20 painting Comic Art

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Donald Duck and the Mummy's Ring "Color Guide": the new cover of CB Library Vol I, 1983

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Carl Barks' early comic book cover draft: "Cutting Tart with Harp" - from 6/1955

Artwork Details

Title:	In the Realm of the Gilded Man pencil drawing for 16x20" painting
Artist:	Carl Barks (All)
Media Type:	Pencil
Art Type:	Prelim
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	455
Likes on CAF:	2 3
Comments:	3
Added to Site:	3/2/2022
Comic Art Archive:

Description

I have tried to find out already some years if there exist any Carl Barks' finished pencil drawings (not just drafts sketches) which he didn't managed to paint as Disney Duck oils in the pre-1976 period (when Disney Company asked him to stop painting them).
Needing to say it is quite a tricky task! And I have found only a few of them. There exists 16x20" pencil drawing on a masonite board called "Peril of the Polar Seas", it is having just small differences in the icebergs, vs Barks' "Luck of the North" painting. There exists also another but only a half of pencil sketch from the same theme (in portrait mode), again just small changes in the silhouettes of the iceberg (right part of the drawing is missing). You can find them at
https://www.cbarks.dk/thepolarpainting.htm

Another one is the Gilded Man -themed cover where Barks by his own words made important corrections vs his original cover for FC #422. Geoffrey Blum wrote a very good article about this, published in Egmont's Barks Collection (https://inducks.org/story.php?c=Qdk%2FCBSV+10K), referring to a 1983 interview, but unfortunately not published in English. Shortly, the corrections were: Donald's head and especially position of his eyes corrected, looking towards the Gilded Man, size of the Gilded Man to increase the feeling of the threat, also to get better visible his crown and scepter, and also getting the temple more visible. Barks painted "In the Realm of Gilded Man" pastel work in 1997, but all those corrections were done earlier, not in 1983, but even much earlier, and now it is getting interesting! ;-)

I have found out 3 "Gilded Man" pencil artworks, their chronological order looks to be the following:�
1) 20x16" pencil artwork on paper, having also many not final draft lines there, worth to note Barks' signature with WDP text what he always used in his Duck oil painting pencils pre-1976 (once he got the permission from Disney). This artwork has been for sale for several years on eBay
2) 20x16" the final pencil artwork on paper with final lines that are transferred into a masonite board as the next step. This artwork was bought from Christie's auction in 1992 and has been since that in Finland, presented now here :-).
3) 19x15" pencil artwork on masonite board, note that 1 inch has "disappeared" from the sides, not reflecting into actual artwork. This was sold by Bonhams in 2007 from the Estate of Carl Barks.

So, here we have now a good understanding of how Barks worked, first he made 1) an artwork where is still helping pencil lines, 2) then with a light table he made the final pencil lines to be ready for transferring 3) into masonite board.
How Barks transferred those pencil lines? - That I am leaving as your own homework, you need to get John Garvin's book "After Carl Barks: Painting Fine-Art Cartoons In Oils" which tells that trick ;-)

So, here was my starting point: I felt I have managed to find out Carl Barks' only unpainted Disney Duck oilpainting from the 1970s!
If you have any better knowledge, please share! :-)

Why Barks didn't paint this then in 1976?
- I dare to say even "1976" and excluding 1971-75, simply because that Disney's request came as a total surprise. Then at that moment Barks had this Gilded Man ready to be painted (the drawing even on masonite), but he didn't manage to finish it before his license to paint was rejected. There was so long list of buyers for years, so if this artwork would have been from 1971-1975, then most likely he would have painted it; all was ready to start painting work, the artwork transformed into the masonite board even!
Would it be from 1977-1983 (- remember the interview in 1983)?
- Most likely not, once Barks got permission to paint again only in 1982, and then Bruce Hamilton from Another Rainbow asked him to paint like 20x24" and even bigger paintings. Meanwhile, he started only that "Wanderers of Wonderland" painting (for Celestial Arts) and finished it when got permission from Disney to paint again.
Here I was, thinking maybe now having the only unpainted Barks' Disney Duck oil from the 1970s, how to finish this? - You will see more soon ;-)

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About the Owner

	Matti Eronen
Joined:	March 2017
Last Login:	September 2025
Website:	http://Illusi0n.com
Country:	FINLAND
On CAF:	Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Comments on this Artwork

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Monty B
Member Since 2006

Posted on 3/2/2022

Lovely piece!!! And thanks for the (usual) wonderful background information... :-)

Comicart.dk Peter Hartung
Member Since 2006

Posted on 3/3/2022

I sold the original finished pencil on board years ago at my gallery. I should have kept it!

John Livesay
Member Since 2009

Posted on 4/16/2022

nice!

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