Life Drawing from Mighty Good Coffee: Round 5

As always, here are my life sketches from this weeks session at mighty good.

When I started doing this, it was a struggle to get out there. It seemed like there were a million other more important things to do on a Saturday morning than "doodle" some people at a random cafe. However, it's become one of the highlights of my week over the past two months. 

I've been tossing the idea around in my head, and I'd like to start getting a consistent sketch group together. I've gained a significant increase in confidence by making this my ritual, and I'd love to share the experience. So, here's the official call to action. If you like to draw, eat delicious scones, or creep on total strangers, come join me at Mighty Good coffee from 10 am -Noon on Saturdays. Let's make this a thing. 

This guys computer was way too small for him. 

I've noticed that most of the people that I get to draw have really tired/ drawn/ stressed out expressions. This guy caught my eye. I don't know what he was reading, but he was tickled pink.

Life Drawing at Mighty Good Coffee: Round 4

My apologies for the late update everyone!

Here are my sketches from this week's life drawing at mighty good. Nothing too special happened this session. Though, I did try a cinnamon scone instead of a cherry one. That was earth shattering in it's own way. Though, I suspect less interesting to you.

This guy was a bit strange. He sat like this with that sneer for 10 minutes. I don't know why, but I think he has the tortured soul of a true artist. Or a broken arm......and no health insurance. 

This second sketch might not seem like a big deal, but it was a major milestone for me. This is a regular that I see every week, and every week I try to draw him. This is the very first time that I feel that I've successfully captured his character. I have dubbed him turtle man in my head.

Secondly, Noah Bradley put out the first lecture of his art camp class on youtube for free. It clocks in at a whopping 2.5 hours and is well worth the time it takes to watch it!

Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQfF-P70V2Q

Life Drawing at Mighty Good Coffee: Round 2 (Are you really sucking more than usual today?)

Have you ever had one of those days where everything you draw just isn't that good? It doesn't necessarily suck, but it's just not up to snuff. Maybe it happens at the best possible time. Like when you're drawing in front of you friends, or even better, in front of a bunch of curious strangers. It's so tempting to say "I swear I'm good! Or at least, better than this!"

I had a day like that yesterday. It got me thinking about something I had heard in Chris Oatley's ArtCast ( http://chrisoatley.com/category/podcasts/ ). Chris Mentioned that students and new budding artists seem to be more afraid of or even paralyzed by failure. 

I admit that I'm guilty of this. It took me a year to get around to drawing a 3 page teaser for my comic idea. All because I knew that if I started right then it wouldn't be good. There is so much to learn right?! I have at least 10 great books about the best way to layout your panels, and another 3 about proper story telling. Oh yeah, then there's that great podcast about character development. Wouldn't it be hasty, or even irresponsible of me to start before I learn all I can about it first?

I think this mindset is a product of two things.

First- There are two types of artistic growth that are necessary to "level up." The first is an increase in skill....duh. Ok, that's a little obvious, but the second is the ability to discern when something is right or wrong. This is analogous to a chef refining his/her palette to detect when flavor of their meal isn't quite there yet. Maybe the soup needs some more salt and a bay-leaf. Or, a musician's ability to detect when they're flat or sharp, or slightly out of time. Artists go through the exact same process. I think the ability to dissect your work is necessary to consistently improve and deliver. The feeling I was having was do to growth in the second type of learning that exceeded my skill in the first.

Second- The internet. Yes, let's blame everything on the internet. My dog sheds everywhere. That's the internet's fault too.

I think that the fear that Chris mentions is a vicious cycle between these two things. The internet is so accessible and chalk full of tutorials that we can research art forever without putting pencil to page. This, in turn, increases our ability to discern good art way above our ability to make it. We'll start a piece and immediately think that it's terrible. So what do we do? Go straight back to the internet, because we haven't learned enough yet to attempt the piece that we started. 

Around and around we go.

So, what should I do to beat this thing? Well, I went to the internet. (Irony noted). Everything I found told me to just do the damn thing no matter what it is. Turn my internal editor off. (He's an ass hole anyway). Looking at art on the internet only increases that second type or skill. Putting pen to paper will increase the first one.

So, here are my life drawings from yesterday. Not perfect, but at least they're done. 

I also have the first page of pencils finished for my comic. I'll throw those up later today and prove that I'm not a total hypocrite. At least, not all of the time.

Life Drawing at Mighty Good Coffee: Round 1

This was a great week for finding new resources for illustration. I stumbled upon Chris Oatley and Noah Bradley's websites and podcasts, which are all about creating comic books and the business of freelance illustration. Many of their talks can be found on youtube as well.
http://chrisoatley.com/
http://www.noahbradley.com/artcamp/
They also both host art schools of their own. One day soon, I'll attend and post about them here.

I also found Will Terrell's youtube channel. Among other things, Will is a fantastic Caricature artist. His channel is filled with great life lessons, art pointers and demos of his own sketchbook. He has a very bubbly personality that is just plain fun to listen to. I couldn't help but to smile.

In one of his videos' he recommends trying out a midtone sketch book. I picked one up yesterday and tested it out by sneakily drawing the patrons at Mighty Good Coffee. It's a great way to unwind before starting your weekend OT.

This man gazes sorrowfully into the distance. They ran out of scones....

This guy was contentedly doing his weekend sudoku.

I'm new to drawing moving targets, but this was a fun exercise. I'm going to do this every Saturday from here on out. I can't wait for the next one.