New Sketchbook

I’ve been rather lax about including any new sketches, and I’ve made a few. Maybe you would like to see them.

yawn_girlAs usual, you can click on the picture to open a larger version in a new browser window. These are from the usual Thursday Night Gesture Drawing Class I attend, hosted and taught by Mark McDonnell.

The emphasis is on drawing quickly, but also on capturing as much of the essence of the figure as you can – with a minimum of lines. Because of those restraints gesture drawing tends to be very stylized, and sometimes cartoony, if you’re interested in cartoons, like me.

recliningreclining-2girl-and-hamster

Here are some creepier Halloweeny-type sketches from a few weeks ago.

flying-pervertfloating-drac

Floating people simultaneously crack me up and worry me overly. Back to girls – I particularly like the nice ass on this one.

cowgirl-2cowgirl-1

We had a visit from this real-life barbarian warrior. He slew 14 of the students before we could calm him down from his berserker state. Here he was a bit knackered, and we got a good chance to draw him at rest. The police were notified, but no one pressed charges.

slumpy

I learned this next trick from reading Jim Woodring’s comics. He had a great dream-story about seeing a woman in his drawing class who drew each successive poses as frames of a comic. I was always fascinated by that idea, and I began to try it a few years ago. You can see the results here below. Keep in mind that these are 3-5 minute poses, max – usually 3’s. I have no idea what the next pose will be, and even less idea what anyone is going to say or do from panel to panel.

Gerbil-Brideandy-and-hamsterjungle_hamster

That little hamster figure gets used a lot because he’s easy and fast to draw. Here’s one with no hamster, drawn even scribblier – it guest stars Tintin, of course.

tintin_vs_maskie

wildman-eye-surgeryHere are a couple left over drawings to leave things off. This one is from Wildman’s eye surgery. An hour before he had a cataract, and now you can see him enjoying a hospital-quality sloppy joe as he makes absolutely no attempt to keep all his bits from falling out of his hospital gown. Drawn from life as the subject explained to me how great television was in the 1960s.

laffin_man

This Laffin’ Man worries me, but I drew him anyway.

hj_puzzle

And this one is scribbly, but it seems to me there is something here.

3 comments on “New Sketchbook

  1. That sketch you did of Wildman frightens me. And now I won’t be able to sleep for days, haunted by nightmares of having to see him flash me over and over again in his backless hospital gown. Yikes!

  2. Wildman reminds me of the Cyclops roasting and eating Odysseus’ men in the cave.

    These are real nice, especially the fast ones. Mort Meskin similarly was prone to sketchiness, but he was one of the absolute best at capturing slouch, hand gestures, a basic character line that conveys vitality and life. These remind me of some of his work.

    It’s amazing how distinctive the hamster is, and how few lines you need to put him down. He’s your Totoro, I think.

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