Day 27 Norman Rockwell

After working from comics for the last few weeks, it was a nice change of pace to work from a true master - Norman Rockwell. I also loved working bigger. As with the drawings from Marvel Previews, I was able to focus on one image per page here - which made things much easier.

What I love most about his work is all the little details that he puts into an image. Every item is a story point, and nothing is extra. He also captures great expressions (body and facial) in his characters. The costumes with worn shoes and soiled clothes finish off the images to create a warm fuzzy fealing. Yeah - he drew propoganda, but he was good at it.

One of the things I started trying to do a bit more today (in the 2nd drawing) -was to block the heads in as cubes rather than simply spheres or egg shapes. Basically I am trying to add front, side and top planes to the head to help me place features. Still a long way to go, but it's a start.

In the drawing with the plumbers - I drew the character's heads as 2 dimensional shapes, rather than volumes. This seemed to work well in this case because the characters were drawn from the side/profile views. The 2nd drawing had a lot more angles, so using cubes felt better. Even still, I wasn't completely satisfied with the results.

Both images above were completed in about 1 hour total. There wasn't enough time to do the backgrounds, or really polish anything, but after looking at the results tonight I already have some things to think about for tomorrow.

I know that some of you folks out there looking at this blog do a lot of drawing each day, while others almost none. If not, it's worth asking yourself 'do I want to draw more?' -not 'why am I not drawing more?" because really its all about wanting to do it and not looking for excuses why you can't do it. It doesn't have to be book sketching, but if it is - I know you will have fun!

I recently heard an interview on CBC radio with a man who did a survey of some of the most successfull people in their professions across the USA and the number one factor of success was ...
persistance.

not talent.
not luck.
...
just plain old 'stick-to-it-ness'

those who were successful, worked at their professions for a long time, and reached the top, as many others dropped out.

If you want to be good at anything, you got to keep at it -but that means, you also got to get started. If you keep putting off what you really want to do - you will be succesful at not accomplishing it. See, the same rule that helps you reach success, can help you not reach it too -if you are persistant at avoiding that which you wish to accomplish.

remember - the more you don't do, the better you will be at not doing it. You will be a success at avoiding reaching your goals. It doesn't matter what your goal is - you get to decide.

Just decide what it is, and start taking steps, even baby steps are good. As long as you are moving towards your goals.

sorry for being so preachy. sheesh.