A Sprinkling of Girls

Q: How do I juggle a buttload of animation classes, draw for pleasure, and maintain a blog all at once?

A: I don't.

This was a pic I did last week, drawn from the typically nonsensical title of a glam-era Brian Eno song.

Bursts of inspiration like that are rare. More than that, though, the poses for drawings with less inspired subject matter just aren't that good. I've had a billion theories about why I draw better or worse at any given time, but these theories evaporate once I try and fail to push myself in the opposite direction. Yet here comes another!

It occurred to me last night that my desire to embrace simple shapes and flat design earlier in the year had come before I even knew what I was doing with fuller, rounder forms. If this was true (and I'm sure a lot more than that is true), it was gimping the fun in my drawings.

If you think that's fun, compare it to the one below.

I ogled the work of Kyle A. Carrozza (alias TV's Kyle) for at least an hour and a half before his gorgeous brand of exaggeration was effectively embedded in my head. Then I drew that picture and the next several. Even his relatively flat stuff is loaded with form and consistency of form. Obviously, he knows what he's doing and I would do well to learn from him.

Unfortunately, I still don't know how to block in drawings quickly and simply, like Kyle's blog shows he can. Once my "soft" lines are down, they're hard enough that the more tied-down lines have to be etched in ludicrously hard to stand out. From there, I unconsciously barrel into Cleanupville before the whole pose is even laid out. I've had enough training that I can spot really bad drawings and fix them, but it takes so much time it's not worth it. Anyway, I'm sure I'll look at these drawings next year and think they're atrocious.

I've drawn this Anita/Perdita-type character at her typewriter before, but this pic's better. Trust me. Unless you get some momentum through your pencil, your drawings of timid characters will just look like timid drawings.

Just adorable, dammit. This was done while I was still exercising some control over the weight of my hand, so it came out quickly.

More soon!