92 NY Class report & Homework 1

So, as I alluded to last post, I am taking a class called Cartooning for Beginners from Josh Bayer, cartoonist and educator, through 92NY, the cultural enrichment center that is part of the 92nd Street YMHA in New York City. The class so far has been skewed a little toward the comics/graphic novel domain rather just cartoon art; it's a context I am familiar with, but I am much more interesting in actual mark-making techniques than I am in the theories of panel transition and closure. (See this now 13-year-old post.)

Anyway, I finished the homework from the first class last week, that I posted in-progress last time, complete with in inadvertent water stain:

Part of my deal is that I just have to to throw more ink on the page!

In the spirit of completeness, here are some blurry shots of my in-class markings from the first session:

       

 

This week we worked on inking some - particularly with regard to clothing and wrinkles. I felt pretty good about some of this work:

I actually used a brush open for these last two.

And, finally,  here's a tree trunk cross-hatched in Ernie Bushmiller style:

I am looking forward to continuing the class and will post more.

Underdrawing

I attended a Zoom workshop this morning from SAW in which we did a series of two-minute sketches of human anatomy. I think the intent was to internalize and simplify the skeletal and muscle structures. I don't exactly know how this will fit in with my cartooning practice, but it was an engaging exercise.

First, we drew a human torso, including as many muscles as possible, from memory: 

Then we viewed a diagram for a few minutes  and tried to recreate it (hence the different pose):

Then we drew it again while looking at the diagram:

I gotta admit, this one has a lot of life to it, compared with the others. That seems strangely counter-intuitive...

Then we did a skeleton from a diagram:

And in the next sessions starting adding more muscles:

As I say, these were interesting to do...but they seem to fly in the face of some advice I just received via email from another source, which warned about getting too fussy: 

...make cut-throat decisions about priorities, and stick to them. It demands that you prevent yourself from getting sucked into the "interesting" or "fun" details that leap out at you when you look at an image, and instead, absorb and capture the direction and energy of the complete figure as quickly as possible

 I am put in mind of this observation I had of John Porcellino. 

Anyway, ever forward.

Comparison is the thief

The other day I did this quick sketch (cropped a little for Instagram):

I kinda like it.

Yesterday, I decided to have a go at inking it with a brush. Here's what we got:

Aaaand... I dunno. There's some bits of it I like, but I'm really not happy with my heavy blacks. I think I need to dive more deeply into cross-hatching in a serious way, and focus on nib pens and not the brush.

Moar stylin

So, I am not really obsessed with this scene from the movie Sideways, but I am interested in trying to cartoon the heart of the image. As Ivan Brunetti says in his book Cartooning (Philosophy and Practice) that when successful "[e]ven the most simplified and 'cartoony' drawings will have a compelling presence and solidity. The ultimate goal is to make your drawings "readable,' to communicate what you are trying to express."

I feel pretty confident about readability; it's that presence and solidity I want to keep working on. Hence, three more versions of "I'm not drinking any fucking Merlot."

 

1.3 HB mechanical pencil 

 

pencil roughs and felt-tip marker

 

pencil roughs and (cartridge) nib pen

Sometime I just hate my stuff...

Practice pages from one of my workbooks the other night:

So lifeless... no energy. Not sure how to break through this.

Exercise 10.24.21

So,I tried a different art exercise book tonight -- this one is all about figure drawing. Don't know why I put it down...anyway, here's tonight's face:

That was freehand, but the book has lots of guideline templates to get you started,like this (also from tonight):

Here's a bunch of earlier sketches from this section of the book:

9,897

Exercise 10.22.21

I have a couple a books of art exercises, a one-a-day kind of thing. I am relatively consistent with them, but I am often not sure of the point. Here's today's:

I mean, it's fun and all, and I guess it inspires creativity in a general way, but it's not really practicing technique... and that's what I need (want?) most. (Check this out, towards the end.)