Old drawing here. The signature says 1988. Pre-figure drawing classes. I believe this one was part of a series of portfolio drawings I did in order to get work in small press fiction magazines. The only story I can associate with this drawing is that I’m pretty sure the monster was inspired by a critter from Niven and Barnes’ Dream Park.
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Now that you mention it, he does have a large head. I never noticed that. I more see the wrongness of his muscle structure. He’s definitely got short guy proportions.
any thoughts on why you resisted taking figure drawing classes?
Right now I couldn’t tell you. I probably thought the work was better than it was. I’m sure that I was also rrreeeeaaaallly sensitive to criticism. The proportions are wrong? The light source is off? You’re saying that I have no talent and should never pick up a pencil again? I hate you! I hate everyone!
The first teacher I had for figure drawing was very gentle and gave very little criticism. The second one was much more specific about what he thought worked, didn’t work and needed work in a drawing. He annoyed me. When I took a second class with the first teacher I found myself missing the criticism that the second teacher had given. So I took another class from the second teacher.
Huh. I’d thought we shared the idea that what burst full blown from the head (wasn’t it Aphrodite did that?) was superior to the schooling that teaches you what everybody else has already done. And the idea that the imagination was better than the mundane world. Didn’t fantasy trump reality?
I know I had these ideas. I didn’t see them as dogma. But I definitely had them. I hadn’t thought you’d avoided classes out of sensitivity to criticism. Cuz you just seemed so dern talented.
Funny, I like teachers and I try to do what they want the way they want. But I often do something a little off, too. And usually they like it. Once in awhile I get dinged for it.
Some sensitivity to criticism. Some lack of awareness that I’d had anything to learn. Some assumption that the teachers wouldn’t be teaching me anything that I wanted to learn. Some failure to understand how valuable it is to draw what’s in front of you regardless of whether or not you’re interested in it. Whoever does or doesn’t do something for just one reason 🙂 ?
Certainly I thought I’d learn something from the Kubert School. I applied. I worked up samples to be accepted. But the Kubert School was for comic book artists.