Quoth

This is my other submission to the Biennial Show.

Another Al BatMan sketch

I'm not sure if this was over my pencils or just one of Al's quick doodles. Either way, Al hadn't done much BatMan work so I feel privileged to have as many as I do. Would love to have seen him do a weekly BatMan strip ala Secret Agent Corrigan. What could have been...

Al-ien sketch

Another of Al Williamson's great little sketches. He had a habit of bringing his ink brush to a point by doing these little doodles. Just phenomenal.

I have a few more that I will sparingly post to fill the next couple of weeks of no life drawing.

Prairie Child

Submitting this to BBMM for their biennial show.  I'm also submitting this one as well as this one.  Oh, and a new drawing that I may post in the coming days.

Masters in Miniature submission

CMR museum accepted this painting for their upcoming miniature show.

No drawing last night...

so I'll be posting various things this week. This is one of a precious few Al Williamson original "doodles" that I am grateful to own. When I was a student of his at The Joe Kubert School he would come around to each student and correct their work by placing a piece of tracing paper over the student's page and fix our obvious mistakes. His corrections were remarkable and the ease with which he did them made one feel not so much inadequate but rather hopeful that one day we could do the magic in such a natural way. Al never put anyone's work down, but made you feel you were ever so close to being where you needed to be.

The Batman sketch I'm showing was actually Al's pencils over mine and then he inked his own pencils. Amazing man. Rather than feel awful about his no longer being with us, I prefer to think about how wonderful it was to have him for as long as we did. As much as he will be missed, he will be remembered even more.

And so another session comes to an end

This started out really Gibson Girl-ish, but did not end up so much. I changed the hair into a towel like object and really overworked the whole thing. Sigh... maybe better luck tonight.

Missed opportunity

I was enjoying this one until I hit a snag. I won't point that particular problem out but I couldn't even save it with photoshop. Sigh, this was looking good, too.

Eh & okay

This week just wasn't as easy as the last couple. The top image never came together and the second drawing was starting to work. Still not really happy with it, though. We'll see what the rest of the week holds.

Looking back at yesterday

Wow, what a storm. Our store had minimal flood damage so I count our blessings. It seems the tornado had an issue with the Metra. At least there were no events going on and with all of the businesses damaged and destroyed no one was killed it seems pretty amazing.

Oh, as to the drawing, conté and a nice pose. Happy with this one.

Egad...

you'd think I could've paid a bit more attention to the facial features.  Sheesh.  Anyhow, Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there.

Another of those two to a page drawings...

image uno.  Sara had a really nice hairstyle for our session and it took me some time to get it to look the way I wanted it to in the drawings.  Hence the unfinished face.

A simple gesture

Again, I think I am pretty happy with these gestures. Go figure.

Last pose of the night

Sit back and relax, Sara, the night's almost over. I really had fun with this pose, the softer shapes and the right hand hanging languidly over the arm of the old chair.

A little drama

Not much to say. Good pose and another drawing I'm happy with.

Good bye, Al

Sunday, a man, a teacher & a friend died. At 79, Al Williamson passed away. I know that his health was failing and that he wasn't the same man who had so much to do with my vision of art but Al will always be a singular influence in my life. He was not only a master of the medium of comics but he was a gentleman of no small measure. He showed a young, arrogant artist how to be a better artist and person. I'll never be able to make an accounting of how important he has been in my life. I last saw Al nearly 10 years ago in San Diego and it really saddens me to think I'll never get another chance to thank him. I've been blessed to have some very influential people pass through my life but I have always cherished the relatively short time I had with Al. I could go on and on about this man but how does one find the words to adequately describe and convey how one's artistic nature was fundamentally changed. I've listed my influences ad nauseum here and over the years, but Al was always at the top of my list for reasons other than strictly art. Perhaps The Fleagle Gang can get back together in Art Valhalla. Be seein' ya, Al.

Head Games

From where I was set up, the only real choice was a head study. Sara has an interesting face with lots of great shapes to really sink one's artistic teeth into. Her long hair is a wonderful design element that adds to any of the drawings.

The girl with faraway eyes...

Fifteen minutes wasn't enough for this one. Seems whatever time gets set it's never really enough. I had a blast working on her hand and was quite pleased with the finished product as far as it went. Great pose.

Two of two

Started to get into the groove with this one.  I really like the texture of the conté and the manner in which the shadows created the light.  I'm also kinda diggin' the right knee.  All in all, not unhappy with this one.

One of two

I put two on one page, making for a little smaller drawings than I normally do.  Probably something I should do more of.  

Catwoman Returns

Sara brought out the Kit Kat Club ears and turned in another terrific modeling session. I'm even pleased with the gestures this week.

Last Pose of the Night

Another that made me happy. I was really enjoying the left hand and the masses around the figure that helped to compose this drawing. And the face worked out again.

Coy

I was very pleased with the outcome of the face on this one. And the figure. And the lost edges. And... well, you get the idea. I'm pretty okay with this rendering.

25 minutes...

and some finishing during the break. I really like this one. Just something about the shapes piled on top of each other that gives this a sense of weight. I had a lot of fun drawing this. It pays to take some time once in awhile.

Lost in Translation

Shoulda finished the head, but the movement was too great so I left it alone. I like the lost edges on this one. I may go back on it...

Profiling is perfectly legal on my blog

Stretching the session out

The second set of gestures.  Tomorrow the drawings.

Small group, big results

Sara once again gave us some great poses and I, for one, had a great night. Not one am I ashamed of. Stay tuned this week for the proof. But first, the gestures. Since I only got seven pages of work out of last night due to some longer poses I'm going to have to stretch out the gesture drawings over two posts.

Missed opportunity

Short pose, unfortunately. This one had real possibilities. Maybe I'll get another shot at it tonight.

Repose

My favorite drawing of the night.

Relaxed

A couple of reclined poses from Sara. Pretty happy with these. The second one needs the face to be finished, but her head had moved by this time so I just left it alone.