Sketchy Schemes

For those of you that may not be keeping track on your own (well...first...shame on you), I did post my most recent drawing to my Shady Dealin's Etsy shop. Still no sales on the shop but I'm encouraged by the fact that there are actually a couple Etsy users that marked my shop as a favorite.

I do have plans for some additional monster drawings but I think I'm going to take a couple weeks off from that project. I'm not taking the time off from drawing so much as a break from that specific set of drawings. I've rekindled my love of comics over the last few weeks mostly through reading some Bone by Jeff Smith and various works by Mike Mignola. That reading prompted me to revisit some of the comic book ideas I shelved a long time ago. I began putting some character drawings together. That went...ok. I couldn't put a finger on it but something was missing. So, I went through some published comics and it didn't take long for it to be clear. My drawings were lacking life. They seemed stiff and awkward. Oh, technically, they were decent drawings. They had nice proportion, the shading was good, and even the hands were well drawn. The problem was they felt like you were looking at a drawing. Reading Jeff Smith and Mike Mignola feels like you're looking at action, motion, and life (yes, even with drawings of the zombies feel alive). I needed to capture that life...the fluidity that the eye wants to see.

I'm not exactly sure how to fix that but I do have a couple ideas to get me started:

1. Relax. Ease up on the technical side and work from the imagination. As previously proven, correct isn't always right when it comes to drawing.
2. Practice. I can't expect perfection right off the bat. Ok, I can (and do)...but I need to realize that's not realistic. I also can't expect change without effort.

These are a lot easier said than done. How do I put it into action. I just started a new Sketchy Scheme. Instead of trying to put together a whole, I'm spending my time putting together parts. I'm working on a lot of quick drawings that may or may not go together. So far, I've filled several pages with these drawings and each sketch has more life in it than a lot of the other stuff I've done. Really, it reminds me of a lot of the sketches I did during various lectures in school. Much easier and fluid.

As a side benefit, the sketches are a lot of fun...both to work on and to look at. This was also missing in those first drawings.

Anyway, I plan to follow this for a week or so. I've got a few days off of work at Christmas which should offer some good opportunity for either this assignment or whatever this assignment leads to.