Cloaking Devices

I try too hard.

No, seriously. Not with most things in my life, but with drawing, I tend to try too hard to get something perfect the first time. And when it is inevitably not perfect, I get frustrated to no end. Part of the problem is that I tend to like art styles not natural to me (cartoony, clean lines, etc.). Part of the problem is I just don't spend enough time on fundamentals of drawing, like anatomy and composition. And part of it is I don't take the time to loosen up, letting the picture find its way out, as it were.

Luckily, I've got friends.

Sean and I were sitting around a couple weeks ago. He was drawing some insanely accurate and realistic picture of a real person, and I was... not. I was just staring at the paper, waiting for inspiration to strike. No doing. Sean saw my impression of 'polar bear in a snow storm', and offered to give me an idea of something to draw.

"Cloaks."

Um, okay. Reading comic books, it's easy to imagine the uses and poses for cloaks (or capes, as we in the know call them). I did try for a little variety, with not just the super pose, but also some other types and/or styles. It came out alright, but something still wasn't working. I was trying too hard. Sean and I had been discussing how he needed to loosen up his style, to get more comfortable with sketching- letting the picture find its way out, so to speak (which is crazy, if you've ever seen Sean draw- his so-called 'sketches' would be hours of work for me). So, we talked a little more, and I went back at it.

This isn't that one.

Still, it was the first I'd drawn in a while, and I like the shapes of the comic-book guy (as opposed to the shape of the Comic Book Guy, which is mostly pear-shaped), and the wizard-type. Meh. first time in a while I'd actually just sketched in general. I'll post later results... well, later.

This weekend, with luck, will produce some more sketchery. I'm headed home tomorrow, and plan on drawing with the Brothers Weaver while watching some scary movies. Good times, folks.

That is all.

Music: "Nights in White Satin" - The Moody Blues