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here is an illustration of a milkmaid for a yogurt brand. They ended up going in a photographic direction so this goes on the scrap heap. So many of my drawing are for getting across a concept, and don’t actually make it to press. In this case they already had a milk maid they were using and wanted to stick with that…. this is a girl I work with named Jenny Pohlman. She graciously posed for a reference photo then I drew this version from that photo. Line art is easier to reproduce than photos for many reasons. I have always loved line art over photographs. I like to see the lines, the thicks and thins. where the artist puts a dot to represent an eye or a shadow. there were some masters of this art form who are lost to time. Line art is the basest form of illustration. And is the cheapest way to produce a representation of something. Mostly line art is relegated to instruction manuals and back panels. But it can also be the most communicative. A line art illustration can speak to any nationality. There is no language barrier. If you look at lego instructions they are all line art with no words. So they save money by not having to translate their instructions. When I was young I used to build plastic models of various things. I would get the box of parts, and a sheet of paper. With that you could assemble a replica of an old biplane, or a modern jet, a tank, a car or a ship. then you could study the miniature, and see where the people would interact with the object. and imagine it in action. Many times i looked into the box of parts and thought “how the hell will I put this together?” Start with step one, then two, take a break, step three, until you got to the end of the sheet. and before you would be the final product. Almost anything can be accomplished using this method. before you can become what ever you want to be or go where ever you want to go you always have to start with step one.
I never had much use for this low brow art form … partially because it is hard to do and puts your work up to the scrutiny of everyone who looks at it. “that doesn’t look like him!” “I look like that?” “my nose isn’t that big” etc…
but I inherited this task from Fedi the previous staff illustrator. Part of being creative is allowing yourself the space to fail. This is vital to the creative process. When ever you are doing something new you can’t predict if you will get it right the first time, so you need a space to fail. So if you do fail you can try again, and again until you do it right.
Sudsy Malones was a bar/laundrymat in clifton a suburb of ohio. Basically they would book anyone. If you showed up on any given night you and your buddys could play there. Every band started there. We would get up there, to play on a tuesday night for a few drunks and people doing laundry and knock over cymbols, fall over the drum set, break strings, while trying to play our songs we just wrote. I remember playing the opening chords to a song I wrote then forgeting the first line and just staring out at the few people with blank in my head …
but eventually you learn from your mistakes and build up your skills, better then you ever could in a practice space. It was a reality check, but not a complete death if you failed. This space is hard to find at times. Mostly you have to create it in your head.
This is where I was when I started the caricature deal. I had never done one before, but can draw so I just needed to apply my skills to this. I take longer then the people who do this everyday at kings island, but I also ad color and have more specific props … anyway
oh yea here is a drawing I just did, living the dream…livin da dream
