Scribblerian!

As you can see, sometimes, when I say 'sketch', I really mean "scribble". Aa much as I might wish otherwise, I don't always have a very strong idea of what is going to end up on the page when I sit down to draw. While sometimes ideas just spill out of the pencil, other times the ideas must be coaxed out, encouraged to find their ways onto the page, or bludgeoned over the head and dragged out. These two pages are good examples of what's going on all those times I lack the strong idea.

In the first instance, at least I had real(ish) life to draw on. On the way home from work one day, as I was driving through an intersection, I happened to look over and saw this girl sitting in her car, waiting for her light. Looked just like I drew her! Well, sort of. The glasses and hair were definitely right on. But, since that's all I had to go on, I made up the rest. This is known as "artistic license", my best friend. The evil scientist-looking guy on the other side of the page was initially nothing more than a few arced lines I had drawn down- testing out a head-shape, I think(ultimately not used for its original purpose). Anyway, a few days later, I was flipping through the sketchbook when I came back across the lines, and I started sketching in some more. Eyes first, then nose, then mouth. Once I saw how unpleasant he looked, he obviously had to be wringing his hands in an appropriate evil mastermind-way. And again, I really had no idea what was going to end up on the page until it was done. I like working like this- it keeps me from going back to the same well too often (intentional projects like HP aside). I often let the shape I sketch out determine what I'm going to continue drawing. "Function Follows Form", so to speak.

The second page is Kommandant Blitzendorf, an "idea" inspired in a roundabout fashion by a dinner conversation between myself and two friends of mine. All I'll say of the conversation is I have a tendency to occasionally intentionally mis-hear things (yes, intentionally), and it often gives me some pretty ridiculous ideas, or at least funny stories. This character is essentially a combination of Commandant Klink from 'Hogan's Heroes', Yosemite Sam, and Tim Conway's character Dorf. You really probably don't want to know any more than that, and perhaps I've already said too much. Also on the page is a very rough sketch for a figure of a cowboy-type figure. I couldn't get a solid lock on what direction I wanted to take that, so I shelved it for the time being.

The other thing you'll see on these pages are all the notes I leave myself. My mind wanders while I'm drawing, oftentimes to something else to draw further down the road. Since I can't do it all at once (that would be exhausting, then boring), I write myself notes on these convenient sketch pages so I can return to them later on if I'm looking for something in particular to draw. Or, if not an idea for a particular sketch, I'll write down something I've hear or seen or has occur ed to me- a story idea, or the background idea of a sketch, or the voices in my head, whatever. I'll say no more on these scribbles other than you'll probably see the results of these down the road.

That's about it for tonight. It's been a long day...

See you on Wednesday!

Music: "Earthbound" - Rodney Crowell