Thursday, November 3, 2011

a little nudity can't hurt



i based this week's sketch on a photo from a book called "the glory of deDienes women," which is full of wonderful black and white prints of curvy, earthy ladies from the 1960's. no fake boobs and no visible ribs makes it an ideal reference for the type of natural beauty that i find so appealing, yet is so rarely presented in our contemporary culture. the look of the models alone was impressive (yowza!), but the tons of exuberant poses makes me think i'll be drawing from this book quite a bit...

Thursday, October 27, 2011

by the book

weekly sketch




so i missed a post last week. i made a sketch, but, due to my habit of using loose sheets of cheap bond paper, i lost it somewhere. i started using bond because it was less precious...i'd scribble something out and not fret about it being good, because i could just crumple it up and throw it out if it wasn't. and, not being worried about drawings being any good (not surprisingly) makes them better.

sketchbooks made me nervous, because there is something so much more permanent about them, with their hard covers and neatly bound pages. they became stifling; i was far too self-conscious about having to draw something "good" in them. so i abandoned the format for a time, striving instead for a more free-form flow of ideas. however, after that lost sketch, not to mention the sad wrinkles that have plagued many of my recent drawings that i've actually really liked, i have decided to stop being such a scaredy-cat, and go back to keeping an honest-to-god sketchbook. i think i'll use it mostly for the drawings that i do from photos and from life, and keep using the cruddy bond paper for hashing out rough story and character ideas.

so this is the first drawing that i've done in a sketchbook in...a year? maybe two? i did find myself being more mindful of HOW i was drawing, not laying down lines that were too heavy or dark...so it works out well in the context of careful observance of drawing what i am seeing, but i don't think it will translate well for the reckless abandon of raw creation. but, who knows? perhaps i just need to drop it in a mud puddle, or splatter some pages with a good slosh of my morning coffee.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

everything's coming up roses


sketch from this past monday:



...it's a little crinkled. i tend to abuse my materials (that's what they get for sassin' me). as for the title of this post, i started out trying to draw roses, but it was so annoying that i went back to pretty girls. plus, i've been listening to the soundtrack from "gypsy."

Monday, October 3, 2011

the prodigal son returns


okay, so it's been 9 (!) months since i last posted. i've been busy, but lets skip the excuses, shall we darlings? i've been rather enjoying my new "office" (the public library) which has many comfy chairs and more reference materials than i'll ever need. every monday i go there to focus on drawing from pictures in books. i'm not trying to design a character or come up with an animation sequence. i'm just drawing what i see. it feels...decadent. it doesn't feel like work, even though i'm giving my skill-set a workout. so i thought i'd re-christen my blog with a few of those sketches:




owls are the new hot thing, apparently...




but pretty girls never go out of style.