Here's how I was drawing in the early 90's. Not the top one, the one below it. Note how hairy the line work is. (Incidentally, my line work looks a lot like like that now.)
I was studying anatomy at the time, from Hogarth and Robert Beverly Hale. This is the second rib cage I drew—the first one was un-see-able because of the scribbly lines, so I did this one. I knew I needed to get each line right the first time and not restate them. At that point I was doing it only for the sake of clarity, it was only afterwards I noticed how nice it looked.
That little ribcage drawing looked so nice compared to everything else that it sparked a revolution. I decided to draw everything that way.
It meant getting into the right mindset—sort of a zen state where you shut down conscious thought and just see where you need to put lines and execute them with pure confidence. Something like the mindset of a stuntman about to jump through fire, or an improv actor onstage. Sometimes I was more successful than others.
I called this The Trusting Line. The need to totally commit to the line, trust it, and execute it without the slightest doubt. Sometimes the line was right, sometimes not so much, but when you get in the zone you can do a lot of good-looking drawings this way.
Of course I was also influenced by expressionism at the time, by way of Kent Williams. This kind of commitment lends itself well to expressionist drawing, because it means a loss of accuracy but you gain something in the look of the finished piece, assuming it comes out well (which is sort of a crap shoot).
No comments:
Post a Comment