2007/07/18

Up in the trees!

Intelligence test: Are you smart enough
to figure out to CLICK TO ENLARGE yourself?
Because many blogs don´t feature this, and I would
hate to make my new readers miss out on that.



I noticed that I seem to be extremely
efficent in my drawing rountines when I am under
deadline pressure, but lose this work habit whenever
I am just drawing for fun. Instead of doing proper,
full-blown pictures, I do pages and pages of little
head, trees, and general random stuff.

Now this isn´t bad in itself and it does make
sense to practice, for instance, faces with more
concentration; but it´s not that I need a lot of
studies and sketches before starting a new piece.
Instead I just go at it and see where it goes, and
by filling it with a lot more details, it usually becomes
more varied and interesting than just sketches.

Sketches are to drawing what training is to
sports; it´s good for a while, but what you really
want is to do the proper thing. I more or less
wasted a good year and a half at my school just
sketching and sketching without ever going into
more effort and detail.

I also believe that I learn more from
doing whole pieces instead of doodling around,
because the thought of ruining a good piece
with bad elements demands much more attention
then when I am just filling pages with skribbles.
My sketches and my proper drawings aren´t that
far apart to be honest, the only thing that separates
them is that I start a proper piece with the intention
of scanning it and colouring it afterwards as a new
portfolio piece. And I always draw everything into
one sketchbook, so this sketch/piece difference
is a pure question of attitude.

BLAH BLAH
WORDS WORDS WORDS





4 comments:

Jeannetto said...

That was the big challenge for me after I finished school, because I didnt need to do big paintings or drawings. So I assigned myself projects. But my deadlines are vague and bendable.

Frederik Jurk said...

I´m glad you know what I was talking about - sometimes I don´t know if I get my points through ;)

Eli said...

Man I love this one, totally want it on a t-shirt. What you're saying about sketching is true and something I wish I'd figured out a long time ago. I am happy though that I have tons of old sketches that I have scanned into my computer (now that I've been turned on to the beauty of computer art at a late age) and can use them as a resource when needing to come up with something and not feeling inspired. Practice makes perfect but it doesn't pay the bills, only finished work will. Good thoughts and great work!

Steve said...

That's one motherfucker of a shaking tree.

Eli should write a book called 'Groovy Moustaches - and Illustration Homilies'. I sense we have a bestseller on our hands here, Houston.