Dissatisfaction

I’ve grown dissatisfied with my artwork. I’m focussing too much on outlines, not enough on texture and shadow. My linework seems monotonous. Time for some changes. Time to hunt influences.

I decided the above after I did the following. And after I got about halfway through a piece in fine marker on smooth bristol board. (Which works pretty well, incidentally. I was worried that the smooth bristol might not take my non-photo pencil, but it worked fine.)

( Yet another Melorne head-shot, this time in pencil on watercolor-toned paper, with criticism. )

Stinking and cross-hatching

Cough cough! When I first got to Ground today there were no smokers, but as the day wore on it seemed to get extra smokey. Or maybe that’s ’cause I was chatting in the corner with jcb and his girlfriend and a buddy of theirs, getting smoked at from three sides.

My artistic blues are over, most likely ’cause I spent the afternoon cross-hatching like a mofo! (The cute girl head above is from a few days ago, as is the Melorne head shot behind the cut, but the rest of today’s catch is fresh.) tnh just blogged about a school program that’s got half the pupils at an NJ elementary school learning to knit, and she says that knitting “produces a sort of serene buzz”. I think this is a side-effect of concentrating on something, or maybe of making small, repetitive movements with your hands, because cross-hatching gets me slightly tranced out. On the downside, there’s the hand-strain; Carla Speed McNeil calls it “cartoonist’s black lung”.

( Bunch of sketches )