vozwords: July 2016

Friday, July 22, 2016

UPDATE 7/22/16

Just got back from Colorado...sketching there with light and shadow...

It was a very fun trip...a central meeting point for the families of both my wife and myself. it was great to see everyone, and especially my own sister Sue. And not a bad location. I got lots of exercise either shooting baskets at the hotel or hiking on the trails. The altitude got to me a couple of time...or maybe I'm just getting older.

There were lots of sketching opportunities, which I tried to take advantage of. I also managed a couple of quick little watercolors.

Now I'm back home in beautiful Tujunga where I'm once again in the process of reinventing myself. I'm finishing up the last two issues of Mad Mummy that I plan on doing, and after that I want to spend some time concentrating on painting and illustration. While I dearly love comics, it isn't necessarily a medium where you improve. There are simply too many deadlines to meet to strive for any type of perfection.

Currently I've just finished four pinups that I tried doing a slightly larger size from the normal 10" x15" traditional comicbook size; these are 13" x 18". There is also a sepia tone added on to couple of them which I will also be adding to the other two. Robert Fawcett is certainly an big influence in this latest work...even more than usual. I have always loved his use of transparent washes over his ink lines.

Where I'm headed with painting I'm not really sure. It's fun, and I like doing it, but it is also a lot of hard work. But like anything else, if you want to improve, you keep working away. I find the biggest help in working toward that end is just to continually practice the drawing. So I'm still hitting the life drawing workshop at least once a week and doing a daily still life to warm up in the morning.