Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Day 19 - Fantastic Four Mike Wieringo






Mike Wieringo is hands down one of my favourite artists. I got to meet him at a few conventions and the man was a truly nice person. His work continues to blow me away, and in trying to copy from it - I realize I have a truly long way to go.

Drawing the Fantastic Four felt great. The drawings didn't turn out that great, but it was a lot of fun having panels with more than 1 character in them. Mike also likes to overlap a lot; something that didn't happen as much in the Spider-Man pages I did.

Earlier today I spoke with someone at the shop about this blog. He mentioned that he didn't feel the method I am using would work for a beginner. Furthermore, he said that it was was working for me since I already knew how to draw.

I don't really agree with this. I think this method can work for anyone at any level. The only difference is the speed at which a person goes will be determined by how much practice they put in. Remember, the purpose of this blog is to get a lot of drawing done in a relatively short amount of time, by copying.

If you are just starting out, you should spend all your time on stage 1 - gestures. Copy just gestures - don't move on to stage 2 until this becomes 2ND nature or at least much easier for you. In my case, I still have a lot to learn in stages 2 and 3 -which is why I am dedicating myself to doing this. I am not going to move on to stage 4 (rendering) until I feel comfortable with these earlier stages.

Once you feel comfortable with stage 1 - start doing stage 1 and 2, but with a focus on stage 2. Do this until you feel you got a grasp of it. Don't move to stage 3 until then. Again - copying to do any of these stages, will help you get a lot of drawings done faster, which in my opinion is the key to succeeding.

Remember back in school when you first learned to read/write - you wrote out each letter over and over on a page. Sometimes you traced the letters out on a pre-printed pad that had the letters as dotted lines. In both cases, repetition in doing the alphabet helped you absorb that information into your system. It's the same thing here. Just more fun -because at the end you have a picture of the Fantastic Four or some other character instead of the letter 'a'.

Anyhow, this is just my 2 cents. If you disagree or have any other tips you want to share, please feel free to comment.

2 comments:

  1. Weiringo is AWEEESOME. Tellos is my fav and I'm gonna go draw that right now.

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  2. I agree that your method can work for a beginner. I remember copying from comics when I was a kid before I really knew how to draw. I just liked what I saw and wanted to reproduce it.

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