Happy Birthday, Brandon

Here's a caricature of my son Brandon that I made for his 28th birthday.

More Funner

I've been wanting to loosen up in my drawings and have more fun with them. I tend to be sort of a pleaser and perfectionist - which seems to lead to dull drawings.

I remembered hearing it said that every artist has 10,000 bad drawings in him or her. And the sooner he gets them out of his system, the sooner he can start drawing good ones.

I realized that if I could do 10 every day, I might be a good artist in three years! That's not bad... I've been wanting it all my life without success; another three years is nothing.

So I was re-reading Mark Kennedy's blog about elements of design that make good drawings, and he mentioned the rule of contrasting sizes. It often works well to have something big, something medium, and something small, overall. I looked at the Betty Boop I've been working on, which I find appealing as hell, and what do you know? Big head, medium hips, and tiny torso. (Or it could be long legs, medium head and tiny torso, either way.)

So I decided to get in a few of my crappy drawings specifically trying for contrasting sizes.

They're still crappy, but I actually laughed when I drew them! I haven't done that in all my meticulous Preston Blair copying!

(But they would have been better if I had constructed them. But I wanted to draw quicker and looser so I made myself use my new Copic instead of a pencil that I could keep erasing over and over.)

Betty Boop

Copying a sketch by Grim Natwick. First try (mine in black):




Face way too narrow!

Second try:
Eye on right side too small, etc.

Third try:

Better, but the left eye is too close to the center.