Out of Practice

I've been slacking off on my drawing for a while, and that sucks. My mojo seems to be on the upswing now. Spring is on it's way, and that always helps one to be more creative. Many of my drawings are not really what I want to share here, but here is a layout I cooked up for JohnK to approve/decry as sloppy or stiff. I've checked out the JK college and it seems like I have a bit of catching up to do :o Well, at any rate I'm in love with my Utrecht brown paper sketchbook, hardbound. The only downfall is having to Xacto the pages out for scanning. Boo!

Critique: Obviously the characters are squashed because of the page size. Next time I will do these with a horizontal layout. The proportions are not consistent between the drawings.

My line quality is too hasty on George especially, because I didn't sketch his construction in pink first. Jimmi needs a thicker line on the back of his neck/skull. The features are kind of floaty on Jimmy. George's eyes in the first panel are too vacant and unfocused.

I think I succeeded in capturing some of the emotion and character of the original sketches. That seems to be the most elusive thing to do!

Check in soon for lots of naked girls. If nobody minds, that is.

sketches

I was in kind of an art rut earlier this summer. Working retail caricature at the Zoo takes a lot of drawing energy, sometimes. So I bought a few new sketchbooks from a local art supply store, and have been busy filling them. Most of it will never see the light of internetland, but there are a few that could be considered decent. Not much finished, unfortunately. It's been a very muggy and hot summer in Louisville, KY. Just getting back into the groove of regular sketching.







I was in kind of an art rut earlier this summer. Working retail caricature at the Zoo takes a lot of drawing energy, sometimes. So I bought a few new sketchbooks from a local art supply store, and have been busy filling them. Most of it will never see the light of internetland, but there are a few that could be considered decent. Not much finished, unfortunately. It's been a very muggy and hot summer in Louisville, KY. Just getting back into the groove of regular sketching. I need to get out of drawing just floating heads.

Any feedback is super-duper appreciated, thanks for stopping by!

My attempt at a constructed clean-up of a JohnK sketch.

Art Pile

Here is a collection of some recent and not-so-recent sketches, doodles, and construction practice. Sorry I cannot credit every image that I referenced, but if you want to find them, visit http://classiccartoons.blogspot.com


^ My favorite dog breed, the Airedale Terrier. I will own one someday.

^Isn't little Wolfy just the cutest?? Copied drawings.


^Kabuki the Jackalope as some dragony things.^More copies, and a few original Kabukis.^ very initial character sketches.

Donald Duck cover

I didn't get all the way through this image. I probably will, eventually. This was supposed to teach heirarchy of forms in the first and second levels of construction. I was enjoying drawing Donald and the nephews so much that I went all the way to details. Hopefully I won't lose points with JohnK :p if he decides to critique this.

I can say that the faces of the ducklings are pretty messed up, I didn't nail the spheres and underlying proportions. I do like how donald turned out.

IT'S EARLY

OK, by jimminy, I said I'd post some art so HAVE SOME

The art for our Christmas card. That's meee, my huband Justin Toon, the calico is our hellion Addie, and the fat white one is Chester. I actually drew Chester much too small in this picture, he is almost a third again as long as he appears there. This was a totally last-minute idea, I knocked it out in about an hour so it's pretty sloppy in some places. Everyone went nuts over it so I guess they didn't notice!
Practicing construction, thanks to good ol' JohnK for posting some awesome comicbook covers to copy.
This is older work but I still like it . . . it's my jackalope character as different kinds of dragons. What, she's a magical creature, she can shapechange if she feels like it *shifty eyes*

^ a VERY SILLY doodle for Uncle Eddie (see blog link to the right). He is the oh-so-suave genius behind PlayNerd, a manly magazine for manly men who love those not-so-perfect, smartypants chicks. Well not really but wouldn't that be a cool magazine???

I'll do another post with caricature art later. I've definitely been more attracted to cartooning than caricaturing recently.

A New Year

Howdy folks. Been rather sleepy around here, but not because I haven't been busy! Keeping and updating a blog is something that requires devoted weekly attention, and this one has been sorely neglected. It's not that I haven't been drawing or creating since my last journal doodle; I'm just terribly lax in getting things scanned, resized, and uploaded.

I completed the Schoolism Basics of Caricaturing class as taught by Jason Seiler. I got to meet Jason at the most excellent International Society of Caricature Artists (ISCA) convention held November 2008 in Raleigh, NC. There were a couple hundred of the most outrageously talented, interesting, and friendly people all in one lovely hotel. A giant ballroom was filled from floor to ceiling, wall to wall with hundreds of faces. So many dazzling colors, styles, and approaches to the human face! From masterfully painted portraits in acrylics, oils, and gouache, to highly stylized layers of colored papers, painstakingly cut and assembled. It was an eye-opening experience, leading my mind in all kinds of inspired directions. Meeting such great artists as Roger Hurtado, Marlo Meekins, Jan Op de Beek, Stephen Silver, and Court Jones, to name just a paltry handful of notables, was such an honor. It turns out Roger Hurtado did my very first caricature back in 2001! I remember analyzing that drawing all day afterwards, and studying my own face in the mirror. That was shortly before I began my first job as an airbrushed tshirt artist. To think how far I've come, and all thanks to the vast library of knowledge found on the good ol' internets.

Speaking of acquiring knowledge, I'd like to say thanks again to JohnK for critiquing my work. Some folks reading this might have come from there so HELLO and I hope you stick around :)

I am in the middle of preparing for a New Years Eve wine and appetizer party at our home. So I'm off to vacuum and do some prep on the mini stuffed potatoes. Too bad we don't have caviar to put on top but I think capers and bacon crumbles will make an acceptable substitute.

Tomorrow morning I will spend some time updating the art on this blog, so please check back on New Year's Day! Have a great night everyone. See you in 2009 :D