First off, here is a photo of my latest drawing in progress. You can see that there is a random element to the way i work on my drawings. I try to hold on for as long as I can to the sense of being lost in the drawing, letting the randomness pull me into places that I wouldn't otherwise, until I finally am able to control it. This means no sketches, no pencil lines that are later erased. This is basically a way to keep myself from burning out on process. In art school they teach you to build from a solid foundation such as skeletal underdrawings, and in my experience crosshatching was generally frowned upon. It all depends on how you look at it, I guess. I use crosshatching sometimes as a sculptral outlet. The other good thing about crosshatching is if you fuck up, you can always add more lines and the mistakes makes it more interesting. Another trick I use is to start with details and build around it, and if im drawing a figure, i'll start with a weird area such as the arm pit or elbow.
During my last year of art school, I was convinced that I needed to send out postcards to promote my work. What I ended up with was a box of 1000 postcards reproduced in poor quality, with an outdated mailing address. money down the drain. This "wallpaper" was my wife's idea of efficiency. Not bad!
Here's a drawing Kaz Strzepek traded to me. I have been carrying an old monster manual around with me from which I've been drawing inspiration, and at comicon we decided to trade drawings of Mindflayers. Maybe you're noticing a theme. Maybe I can get Kaz to scan the drawing I did for him. It was a mind flayer punching a blob.
Finally...
If you're in L.A., you should go to fellow igloo and good friend Tom Neely's art opening at Black Maria. If you can't make the opening, be sure to go because it's going to be crazy and badass. Reception is Saturday, September 15th, 7-11 pm, show runs from September 15 to October 15, 2007. You can find more info by clicking the links below.
Black Maria Web site
Tom's Web site
