before computers … everything was done by hand

this is a drawing of a hawk or eagle smiling… it was done with an ink pen on a piece of paper. Line weights were hard to control but most people just used a rapidiograph of varying widths to achieve the differences. there was no %800 percent zoom, so you couldn’t draw anything vanishingly small. In illustrator you can zoom in 3200% or some other ridicules number. This flys in the face of logic. The human eye is unable to see anything that small. it blends shapes together. I imagine someone could create an image that was meant to blend together but that would be a novelty and not the norm. As you can see the points on the corners aren’t laser sharp. things aren’t tweeked to minute perfection. Lines are put approximately where they should be. The computer allows one to move lines after they are put down and move them some more and again and again. creating a cycle of infinite changes. This allows the designer to second guess himself. and second guessing your art means death. None of it makes perfect sense. Hopefully someone will look at it. but other than that it captures a place in time when someone thought this looked cool.

I am always interested and amazed to see what people come up with. From the simplest scribble by a child to a labored over illustration, it tells alot about who made it. A peek into their subconscious mind. I guess that is why people are afraid to create art, they don’t want people to see the real person behind the mask. and that is the ultimate shame.

color version

here is the final color version, I traced my pencil in ink, then colored it with prismacolor markers… the color is from reference and some guesswork. judging by the colors in his reference photos I picked some background colors that seemed appropriate for the subject. like if he was into barbie I would go hot pink, or what ever. its a judgement call.

I think he needs alittle more modeling in the face but overall it turned out ok. my next one will be better…..

thanks