Scribble scrabble ... or one man's mess is another man's gold...

The NCN is about to have their annual Convention, and Im sorry not to be attending this year. With two kids in college the financial burden is just to great this time to justify it.... sigh.....
One of the things I will miss the most is throlling threw the garbage to get the discarded scribbles of fellow artists to get an idea of what they were thinking when developing a drawing.
A scribble can tell you a LOT abotu how an artist breaks down the features of a particular subject, and Im always fascinated by the various approaches. I dug these two gems out of the trash last year after the "speed competition" where we all are given permission to scribble out recognizable caricatures in seconds. I put "flesh " on these scribbles although I dotn know who they are supposed to be anyone know?

Its all about the hair.....

This dude here has some SERIOUS high hair action going. As I was sitting sketching him I wondered if he combed his hair with a rake or some other garden instrument. He also had this evil grin that was was kinda "1970's serial killer-esque" The characters you see in New Yawk City... like no other place in the world....

my apologies to Sean Gardner

I set out to draw one of my favorite caricature artists, Sean Gardner, and for some reason literally crashed and burned not only on the likeness, but on the coloring technique as well.

I started out KNOWING what I WANTED to do with this face, but as sometimes happens in caricatue drawing, I got so excited to draw the picture, exaggerate the likeness do the coloring perfect that I commited the sin of letting my Left Brain do TOO much thinking and I crashed and burned. In order to do GREAT drawing you have to take an almost zen line apprach to a face. Just draw the face... dont get excited, or unexcited about it. Just look , draw, see and let it happen... I KNOW this makes total sense to all you caricature artists out there.....One of my favorite books of all time is "Drawing on the right side of the brain" which goes into this right brain drawing concept brilliantly. If you havent read it, I highly recommend it to ANY caricature artist.

.......Okay, commercial break is over...

I thought about NOT posting it, but then re thought it again. Maybe it's important to not only show great caricature but also horrendous ones, like this. Its part of the whole process of being and artist, and no matter how good an artist I think I am, I always gotta remember that Im only as good as the last picture Ive drawn. Sean If you are looking at this, my apologies! I will do another one!

In my defense, I WAS rushing to draw this. My wife wanted me to take out the garbage or walk the dog, or something..... Just goes to show you that good art doesnt just "happen" and cant be rushed! it takes TIME!