Time Flies.

"HULK SMASH PUNY ARTIST WHO DOESN'T UPDATE HIS BLOG!"




Has it really been five months since I last posted? Boy, I would love to say that I've been busy feeding the homeless, or finding Jesus, but that's just not the case. I really don't have any excuses. Just the usual apathy and doubt that seem to dog my every move. When I started this blog, I made a conscious decision that it would just be a showcase for my art, and that I would try to keep my personal life (as unbelievably exciting as it is) out of it. Needless to say, this meant that if I wasn't POSTING any art, it's because I wasn't MAKING any art. It's that simple. I just stopped, and much of the intervening time seems to have been spent taking naps, usually curled up in a fetal postion (see, I told you that you didn't want to know about my personal life). Anyway, I finally roused myself from my perpetual slumber and got back behind the drawing board. There are certainly plenty of things I SHOULD be working on, but to get myself excited, I decided to make some drawings that seemed "fun" to me. Of course, what could be more fun than drawing the HULK!? (Don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question.)



I started with a rough drawing. Just a simple pose. After that, I moved on to the light box. Now, over the years my light box has been an invaluable tool in developing my skills, but I have to admit that it's also a bit of a crutch. For example, it's become difficult for me to do very good drawings "on the spot". In other words, if someone asks me to do a drawing for them, I find it difficult to get anything down on paper that I like very much. It's just hard for me to make a satisfying, clean sketch in front of someone. This has proved troublesome at conventions or at other get togethers, particularly if I find myself being harassed by some smartasses who may or may not be friends of mine (you know who you are!). In the end, I take solace in the fact that many of my favorite artists use a light box when doing their own work , and there is no shame in it, and maybe someday I'll get over my phobia of drawing in public. Now, on to the finished pencils...





I was happy with these pencils, and I tried to keep it loose, because I knew that I wanted to keep the inks fresh and not overly tight. At first it was just going to be the Hulk on a blank background, but I decided at the last minute that he needed some kind of space around him to give him context, so I devised the simplest of backgrounds. This however, proved to be a problem with my next piece.




I decided that it would be fun to draw Catwoman. I wanted to do an "action" pose, and chose this one. However, when I worked on the pencils, I realized, again, that I needed some kind of background for her. Damn.



After I finished this, I looked at it for awhile, and there was just something about it that wasn't working for me. Finally, I decided that her pose seemed "off" to me. It was too stiff and unnatural looking. I was determined to draw her in an "action" pose, but after a few aborted attempts I gave up. I was a little dissapointed in myself that I couldn't get it to work. Eventually, I decided to take a different approach. I knew what kind of drawing I wanted to make, so I played around until I found a pose that I liked and developed it from there. Here's how it started out.





And after a trip to the magical light box...





I was finally happy enough with how things were turning out to proceed to the inking stage. Sadly, what usually happens to me at this stage is that I become so happy with the drawing that I'm afraid to finish it because I know that I'll just screw it up badly once I start laying down ink. I had to trust myself, and so I tentatively started to work on some of the finer details (Catwoman's face, goggles, some building outlines) with a .005 Zig Millenium pen. I found out that I could get some REALLY nice feathering effects with this pen. However, it virtually ruined the tiny little pen. But by this time I was pretty happy with how some of the more delicate parts of the drawing had come out that I felt as though I had enough confidence to break out the brushes. At this point I worked very fast, and at the end only had to use a little whiteout. I also used a razorblade to get some texture and highlight effects (something I had done earlier on the Hulk illustration). I think that I will use the razorblade more often. It can really help clean up and define certain parts of a drawing that may be having problems. Now, if I can keep myself from slitting my wrists with it, I may be getting somewhere. Anyway, here's the finished piece.







Thanks for stopping by, and I promise not to be such a stranger in the future.

brook