"Do not forget the face of your father..."

I've been reading Stephen King for over 20 years now. I'm pretty sure my first King book was Night Shift, one of his short story anthologies (he writes some of the best short stories ever, in my opinion). I quickly moved on to his other books, with 'Salem's Lot still one of my favorite books to re-read. I've read up and down amongst the many, many books he's written. But, until a year ago, I'd never read his supposed magnum opus, The Dark Tower. I don't know what kept me away from it; it seemed too weird for me (yeah, I know- can you imagine?), or too boring. I mean, some cowboy is chasing a wizard across the desert? Please.

Thank God I picked up that first book.

I tore through them, one after the other. I was amazed at just how good the story was. To me, one of King's strengths is his ability to tell tales; well, I'd heard this story a hundred times before. And yet, never like this. He really drew me into the story, and the characters were so well drawn, it felt like they were real people who somehow became trapped in these seven books. The Dark Tower series now sits as another well-loved favorite in my pantheon of Books.

Anyway, before I go completely off the rails here talking about the books, the drawing above is one of my first attempts at the main character of the series, Roland Deschain. Roland is an awesome, awesome character. He's literally a man on a mission, and the things he does to complete this mission are amazing and horrifying. He's an incredible, flawed hero.

Also, dude has a rough go of it. Check out that right hand.

Anyway, if you find yourself looking for something to read, might I suggest The Dark Tower? I give it 5 stars out of 5. For what that's worth.

Ah yes- it's a long weekend coming up, and I'll be away Sunday and Monday. So, no posts until next Wednesday. Try to hang in there.

See you Wednesday!

Music: "Streets of Laredo" - Johnny Cash

That's a fancy shootin' iron, son

Continuing with the western theme...

I had this idea to do this perspective shot of some manner of outlaw holding a pistol in the air. So, this is what I came up with. Normally when I'm drawing a figure, I'll lay out the entire figure as a stick figure, then go in and reposition the limbs and body, till I can get a reasonable approximation of what I'm going for. Then, I'll start adding the 'meat' to the body, making it look (hopefully) more human, and more like what's in my head.

Not so, here. I pretty much started with the gun and worked my way down. It was initially working out pretty well; I was pleased with the positioning, and the body, and so on.

Then I tried the damn legs. I don't know what it is about legs that makes them so hard to draw- it's not like I've never seen them before. But, like so many other things, legs are a weakness of mine. It's just so hard to figure out what to do with them. Maybe that's why I'm such a lousy dancer. Anyway, I struggled through and got them onto the paper. And THEN I realized they weren't in perspective with the rest of the figure. They'd be fine if I'd not tried to exaggerate the gun and hand. But, since I did, the legs look all stumpy and misplaced.

Ah well, chalk it up in the learning curve. Better luck next time around.

That's it for now.

Music: "Something to Sing About" - Sarah Michelle Gellar/ James Marsters

Cue the Morricone!

I finally bought and watched "A Fistful of Dollars" over the holiday weekend. I figure, I've seen it referenced in a dozen movies and shows over the years, the least I can do is watch the original. It was fun. It's great to see a younger Clint Eastwood having this much fun with a role. Plus, guns. And a poncho. And a suit of armor getting shot up. And so on. It was a lot of fun.

Strangely enough, though, I'd drawn this some time before I'd seen the movie. I wasn't thinking of Clint Eastwood's role specifically when drawing this, but it's hard not to imagine him when thinking of western characters. This was basically an exercise in lines for me- I wanted to go with an angular, cartoony look for a character. At the time, I was also thinking some about Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, whose main character is a gunslinger. So, two plus two equals the above.

While fun to draw like this (nearly reducing faces and figures to basic, stylized shapes), I've come to realize it's almost impossible, for me at least, to translate those drawings into a consistent look. If I tried to draw a front view of this face in this style, I'd have a hell of a time making it look the same. Ah well. Time to spend more time drawing.

Now, to go find two warring groups to place myself between- after all, a man has to make a living...

Music: "Beer for my Horses" - Toby Keith