At least, sincere.

I think I have some drawings to post... more than I thought. They're not as cute as I'd like but they are, at least, sincere. Back of the net!

Bob and Goya Man are friends.

Nature's Colour is Most Beautiful if we can but see and understand it

I haven't got a nice neat little collection of pictures today, partly because I'm trying so jolly hard to get better at everything. Yesterday following the suggestion of Bill Wray in the comments, I found these lovely mostly out-of-print books by Andrew Loomis, online in their entirety.

Originally I wanted instruction on perspective, but these books cover a lot more. Absorb! Wondrous free resources for those who crave knowledge!

Click on the image to find the rest of the book 'Creative Illustration':





I was thinking that maybe could write more on this blog about who and what I'm trying to learn from.... and why.

I like these books' extreme heterosexual male 50s-ness. I like that it's about 'commercial art'. It could bee seen to be a nice counterbalance for my silly-headed womanly English hippy tendencies.

I also like them because the author seems to genuinely care about teaching well.... communicating... in the clearest terms... but he has his own voice, he's not bland. I like it when people speak their own words.






Perhaps the only reason I ever didn't want to be 'an illustrator' was the crapness and mundanity of a lot the stuff I saw at illustration degree shows etc. Doing fine art seemed... well it's more glamorous, but that wasn't really it... it was more challenging, I could sense the frictions I was in for. Unfortunately they weren't so much sexy frictions as a nasty cultural labyrinth of poo, from which there seemed no escape.

Luckily now I have clear-headed mid twentieth century American chaps to help me into the land of sufficient competence. Screw postmodern cynicism, bugger ambiguity and 'interestingness'-masturbation.... Enough questions! I want answers! I think I'm entitled! I can handle the truth! I want to be good! I believe in truth and beauty! Gsaahh!

Remember the five Cs!





As I haven't assembled any sort of pictorial thesis of the crisp 'John Cena is a Bump-Lunk' calibre (but I'm working on it), I have a teaser picture, it's some boobies I painted with oil paints. The painting also has a head in it. I'm getting back into oils, gradually, between frenzied drawing sessions.

John Cena is A Bump-Lunk!

Maybe that doesn't quite rhyme with 'erumpent' like I wanted it to... never mind.






I've been suffering for my art... I just said 'Right! If I'm going to draw John Cena, I'm going to do it properly.' I had been floundering in indecision, but now I was going to make the sacrifices necessary to see this task through.

But sifting through the reference material was not always easy on the peepers.



(I also referred to this problem on my wordy blog)

Bless his big flat topped rectangular foam wax head.





With this subject, it was kind of a case of 'You can't spoof a spoof'... I actually found it quite hard to get the drawings funnier or more strikingly extreme-looking than the original.

Or... to capture some aspect of the uniqueness of the original and play on it til the cows come home.

He does look sometimes like his arms are on backwards. And that's not the only feature he has in common with Fred Flintstone.





In the past I compared Cena to Poochie from that Simpsons episode that parodied focus-group thinking. Well, that was a little bit unfair. Even though it was true. Cena's designated wrestling persona did in the past make him into an extremly undignified human vehicle for the most unedifying corporate version of the 'tude' that John K described on his blog recently....

But he's a good stick really, is Cena. Watch him fly!









In real life, he appears to possess no 'tude, no pride, vanity, shame, grace, or feminine characteristics. He's also a walking epitome of 'uglycute'. Well, I say 'walking'... he doesn't appear overly good at activities that involve coordinating more than one limb.










When I do these drawings, I start off comparatively careful, with my observational head on...





But then there comes a stage where I'm suddenly faced with a plethora of possibilities... oh no!









Sometimes when I feel I'm gaining control, it makes me feel drunk with power... other times indecision leaves me befuddled. What is my ultimate aim? Moody intense paintings? Cute lighthearted cartoony designs? Involved, extreme caricature? The ability to draw Cena from memory? A striking image for a myspace comment (that's slightly depressing..)





A lot of the decision seem to boil down to 'mood'. Do I want to do something joyful and silly, or something that caters to all my high faluting serious propensities...

Not that the two things HAVE to mutually exclude each other, it may be like a continuum... or it may be that I have to find a way to be serious while infusing my pictures with joy.





I have said that I find it possible to 'get past' a subject and into my own intent once I learn the subject really, really well.

Well gosh I'm having fun with this for the time being.

P.S. apologies to John C and his friends and family, I didn't mean to be mean or anything. All insults are delivered with affection.

John Cena, drawing, cartoon, caricature, WWE, lunk, uglycute

Escher Cheekbones and Heinous Seepage

I’ve kind of finished the infernal dragon. That’s that out the way.

(Click on any of today’s image for a larger version on Flickr. And you could even leave a comment there if you like. But if push comes to shove, I prefer comments here on blogger.)





In the last stages of this mixed media monstrosity, I used a lot of white lines with a thin brush and this stuff called liquid paper. I wrote a little note that said ‘white lines connected to my mind’. I could feel this an exciting little development that I will carry forward to the pictures wot I care about that have both grappling and nature in them.

I don’t normally do this, but here’s the photoshop mock-up that I used as the basis for the dragon painting, and liberties have been taken with perspective and picture fragments. It’s not much of thing in itself, but it kind of signals a little bit where I want to go with my next paintings, a more playful and hands-on approach to pictorial space.







I had been neglecting my other duties to do that. My last week’s wrestler mushes were sitting there begging to be more understood and stuff. Begging to be taken to the extremes of draftswomanship!





Biro frenzy! Unfortunately it seems that biro tends to seep through even the most opaque applications of acrylic paint. Bum bums! Does anyone know of some kind of biro-esque wonderpen that would refrain from such heinous seepage?





Now in the more recent two bottom drawings above, I used some of the information from the biro frenzy ones but tried to filter a bit of likeness back in. Particularly in Randy’s face I began to think about Escher, about getting some optical mischief in there with the wonky cheekbone adventures. I’ve seen some technically spectacular caricatures that are immaculately constructed, and look like Spitting Image puppets, but part of me thinks… why do it like that, when drawing on a 2D plane gives you so much more freedom, freedom to indulge in a play between illusionism and pure linear kicks. I think the bottom two would almost be more suited to being cleaned up like proper cartoon characters and have the shading and the scribbling beaten out of them. Also I would add that I was trying to make Randy a little bit more smug and bastardy, like he is, and that Kurt has got a bit crude and ugly here. He has features that lend themselves to just getting massive. So I still have work to do.

My latest grey blog is entitled birds do not require punk spirit to experience the urgency of life
, you could read it if you want to boogie some more with my thoughts.