Pencil Pushing.

This image was an attempt to loosen up my drawing style a little. The point was to make some pencil sketches that would be loose and expressive. I decided to draw some heads because I always need to practice drawing people. Once I started, it became clear to me that what this was really about was trying to get their damn eyes right. I read somewhere that when drawing a face, getting the first eye to look right is a piece of cake, it's getting that second eye down which is the problem. No matter how I would line them up or create guidelines for myself, those eyes just seemed to float around on the faces I had drawn, never seeming to land in the right place. As soon as I would finish one I would hold it up to a mirror (an invaluble trick I picked up a long time ago which allows one to clearly see just how crappy one is at drawing faces) and inevitably find myself reaching for the eraser. I'm beginning to feel hopelessly inadequate and even wonder why I'm putting myself through this. Sorry to be such a downer today. Next time I plan to be little more fun. Bah.

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Two Suit Jackets.

First off, this drawing isn't about Zombies. Well, OK, there ARE two Zombies in the picture, but that wasn't my main reason for doing this drawing. This drawing is really about the suit jackets those Zombies are wearing. Quite often, I find myself wanting to draw something but needing to find a good excuse to do it. In other words, a drawing of two suit coats would seem pretty stupid and pointless in and of itself. However, I really felt as though I needed to practice drawing them. Such a dilemma! Enter, the "Zombies". Now, I definitely don't need an excuse to draw Zombies. Hell, I almost need to find an excuse to NOT draw Zombies. My second reason for doing this drawing was that I really wanted to try out my new Niji Waterbrush. This thing is pretty slick. I got to play around with one at the Chicago Comicon last month, and I really like them. You fill it up with ink (quality ink of one's own choice, mind you), squeeze it lightly to get the ink flowing down into the brush and you're off to the races. What I like is that you don't have to keep dipping the brush in a bottle of ink. Which is great if you don't like to constantly stop and start. Stopping to dip that brush in the inkwell just makes me stop to think about my inking, and that's never a good thing. I need to keep it moving or I start to overthink the damn thing. Now, my third reason for doing this drawing was to test out my new digital camera. I decided that I wanted to work from photo reference and so put the camera on a tripod and set the self-timer to 10 seconds, stepped in front of it and said, "cheese". I then converted them to black-and-white and adjusted the contrast and printed them out. Using them for reference, I was able to make the drawing pretty fast (I thought about posting those pictures but decided that it would just be too embarassing). Basically, all I had left to do was "zombify" myself. That was the easy part.

Now, this is when the trouble began. As soon as I was done with the pencil drawing I started to fuss and fret over it, as though it were the greatest thing since sliced bread. I couldn't decide how to go about finishing it. I kept going over it in my mind as though I could solve all of the inking problems beforehand, without even putting brush to paper. I stared at this stupid thing for days, frozen and unable to bring myself to finish it. Finally, this evening, I decided that it wasn't that good to begin with and just attacked it, not worrying about how it would turn out. I needed to just FINISH it and move on, for God's sake. In the end, I'm somewhat pleased with the results, but still not completely happy with how those damn suit jackets turned out. I'll just have to keep working at it, I guess. Now, I just need to find another excuse to draw them.

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Too much free time.

Many years ago my friend Jason and I discussed doing a comic with a character based on the late, great actor Warren Oates. Of course, we never actually DID anything, but it was fun to think about, and I drew this character a few times. There is just something about him that has always intrigued me. He wasn't the greatest actor by any means, but he had a certain quality about him that you just don't see anymore in Hollywood. It was in that spirit that I decided to make this piece. It doesn't mean anything at all, it's just Warren Oates punching a robot. Nuff said.

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Hello there.

OK. I'm not sure what came over me. First off, I'll admit that I'm addicted to visiting blogs. ESPECIALLY "sketchblogs". I think they are incredibly fascinating. I find them to be a great source of inspiration as well. Which is something I could use more of these days. Anyway, after spending so much time looking at other people's art on-line, it occured to me that even I could probably do this. Why not? What a great way to get some art out there for people to see. It's better than having it just sit in a sketchbook or filed away in a drawer. I decided to initiate this blog with a quick self-portrait I did recently. Anyway, I think it's about time I did something like this. I hope you'll come and visit from time to time. Thanks.

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