Day 33 book sketching in the kitchen

I took a photo of 2 pages tonight. the 2nd page (the one on the right) I didn't draw, but I included it because I had mentioned yesturday Springer's technique of cutting of characters. This page really demonstrates that, and helps create the mood. Last night, I was planning to draw this page (and I still might) but in the end I went for the page on the left.

Book Sketching Day 32 - Volunteer Some More

After 3 days on this book, I have to say I am super impressed by the way the artist (Benoit Springer) lays out a page. He sets up scenes in a location, and then proceeds to move the camera around that location, much the way a camera man might. Each angle hooks up to the next, in terms of object placements and character placements. I wouldn't be surprised if he maps out each location in advance.

The locations aren't super complicated, but he manages to maintain a consistent location regardless of the angle he uses.

Another observation worth noting is the way he likes to cut off characters. Look at the 2ND row -3rd panel. In the actual comic page -he cuts off a characters face with a word balloon. This is intentional. You can see there is room to move the word balloon over -but he purposely put it over top the characters face. I drew it in (since I don't put the balloons in.) Note - in French comics, the artist draws in the balloons on the actual art. It's not added in at a later stage the way its done on American comics.

You will see this occur again in tomorrows page. Although I haven't done it yet - I picked out the next page to draw and you will see he employs this technique again.

Besides consistency, I am also enjoying the amazing compositions Springer uses in each panel. The focus in each panel is always clear. His cutting off of characters works to support the focus of each 'shot'.

see you tomorrow.

Book Sketching - Day 31

Day 30 - volunteer

Missed quite a few days this week. My 3rd son was born this past week, and things have been busy to say the least.

Tonight I have started on a new book - Volunteer featuring the art of Benoit Springer. He's truly a great artist, and it was a great amount of fun to draw from.

the photos continue to be blurry -but I found out the reason is that my camera was dropped a few weeks ago. Hopefully, I can get it fixed or find a new one soon. thanks for baring with me.

Day 30 - delayed

Hi Folks,

Fell behind today on the book sketching. Not a lot of sleep - as the new baby decided to arrive 2 weeks a head of schedule. Not premature, but definately early. Good news is, he's healthy and really cute. Mom is also doing great.

The plan is to catch up on all the drawings so that by end of this coming week - I should be back on schedule.

Cheers,
Dan.

Day 29 Rockwell around the clock

Day 28 + 28.5 More Rockwell

Another night without the camera - had to take the photos after I finished these, but FYI: the last 3 drawings shown took about 1 hour, and the first drawing (circus image) took about 30 minutes with all stages done. This goes to explain the post heading of 28 and 28.5. Tomorrow night I will likely spend 30 minutes to complete day 29 -before moving to post 30.

Working from Rockwell continues to be a challenge and definitely trying to capture the subtleties of his paintings isn't happening for me yet. ha ha. No doubt, it will be a long time before this happens, but the drawings are so cool to work from, it really doesn't matter too much. The process is really the fun part.

Tonight my wife asked me if doing this for almost a month now, I see any improvement. The answer is yes and no. Yes - in that I am more confident in my approach and no because the more I do, the more I realize I need to learn. As I move from artist to artist, and image to image - it becomes clear that some drawings come easier than others -so that the only real constant improvement is in the refining of the process I am using.

I started something new during stage 1( the gestured stage) tonight. I am trying not to lift the pencil off the page too much (if at all as i work through the gesture.) In the past I was putting in one line for the overall pose, and then adding demarcation lines for the shoulders and hips and finally roughing in lines for the arms and legs.

Now, I am still doing this, but it's all done with one continuous line, as I move through the figure Tomorrow I promise to get in some photos of all the stages and hopefully make this a lot clearer to anyone out there that might be curious about this.

In stage 2 I am also moving towards slightly more organic shapes for the chest and pelvis areas. Images will follow in tomorrows posting.