Short and Sweet

Last week I churned out quite a few sketches at Drink n' Draw. This week, I wanted to attend a show at Martyr's so I showed up early. We had a good crowd again, with easily 20 people by 8:30. I got a chance to chat with Tom Stillwell , Kyle Bice and Mike Norton before things got too crazy.

I managed only two drawings. I did a self-portrait on the iPad and a traditional sketch of the Creeper. He's a Steve Ditko created character who is definitely a B-lister in the DC universe, but he has something of a cult following. I wanted to draw him because I knew it would be difficult, with his curly hair and furry tendril cape thingy. He's also one of these characters, like Daredevil, who is always in motion and very acrobatic. This characteristic lends itself to challenging oneself to draw the human form in odd or contorted poses. Several of my characters over the last weeks have been in action, which challenges me as an artist with things like perspective, i.e. truncation of limbs and situations where the shoulders and chest are not squared with the head. I'm not in love with this piece (the eyes are a little messed up), but all-in-all I'm happy with the contortion of the body.

I'm discovering that drawing on the iPad doesn't work well in a social environment, at least for me. I'm too self-conscious and that leads to impatience. I end up rushing things, which you really can't do when working with layers. I'm also, perhaps needlessly, aware that I am about the only person in the room who doesn't "do art" for a living. I am constantly playing catch-up, having had no formal training since high school. I feel like the guys looking over my shoulder are thinking "god, this guy sucks." That being said, most guys are pretty encouraging, one even asking me if the Daredevil I was drawing a few weeks ago was for a Marvel cover. "No, but if you think so, thanks!" I'm making my peace with my lack of experience, though, and am realizing the only way to catch up is to practice my sweet patootie off.

Really looking forward to visiting some of these guys at the 24 hour comic book marathon at Challengers this weekend.
Peace.

Kirby-riffic

September 21st Drink n' Draw: I was thinking all week about drawing a Mister Miracle. I collected the 1989 series by Jim Dematteis and Ian Gibson. I remembered liking the whimsy with which the series progressed and the relationship between Miracle (Scott Free) and his wife, Big Barda. Here is a not so kind review of the series . Tom Kelly, a hugely talented artist, looked over my shoulder at what I was drawing and thus began a half-hour discussion of Jack Kirby and his somewhat anachronistic concept of technology, i.e. Mother Boxes, Horse tanks, and Orion's curious cosmic sled, which I'm pretty sure Dave Pascuito (again, fantastic illustrator), renamed the Cosmic Segway. I finished the preliminary Miracle, a practice of perspective of which I'm rather proud, and started on a few other Kirby creations, including one of Superman's Nemeses, Darkseid. I rushed the sketch a bit, but liked the angle at which he is drawn, as bottom-up can be very challenging.
I began a sketch of Red Tornado, another character of whom I've become rather fond lately. Tornado is not a Jack Kirby creation, but it's not hard to imagine him being one, what with his overly busy costume, a Kirby trademark. Anyway, I think I rushed this a bit, and his elongated face makes him look somewhat sinister, though his character most certainly isn't.
Anyway, I had a much better "drawing night" than I did a few weeks ago, where nothing that flowed forth from either my stylus or pencil was worth a damn. I constantly reminded that drawing well takes lots of practice, and time is something of which I am woefully bereft right now.

Cheers. have a good weekend. And check out the hyperlinks to Tom's and Dave's artist pages.