compo2 week 5 where does this come from?

During one of the chats, Glenn mentioned once more he did not want to make “mini me” versions of himself, he wanted us to follow our own personalities and styles, which is happening in composition class: we are all soooooo different, and getting more different each week, that’s the nice thing with Glenn (*one* of the nice things, lol) he pushes you to go further along YOUR own road, no matter if he’s interested in it as a member of the audience or not, he gives us the tools to become ourselves.

While discussing this, he mentioned that being Botticelli was not the absolute goal: Dr Seuss’s drawings “work”, the Simpsons or Sponge Bob graphically “work”, same for Bugs Bunny and co, because they are consistent and expressive (my formula).

And I remembered an image I had seen about a year ago: I was in a street in the south of France, one street post lit up (night was coming) and I saw there were thousand of dead bugs (om mane padme om) in the lower part of the transparent globe containing the bulb itself. The kid in me saw an eye’s pupil there, and I could imagine the lamp post bending down toward me to better see who I was.

I get a ton of “images” like that from daily things, I store them in my brain for later use.

In any case, for some reason, it came back to me this week, and I did this:

 

It looks out of a children’s book, and some more “children’s book” ideas came back to me (see next week lol).

The main construction problem was using and magnifying the height: ok the kid is tiny and sitting, the eye of the lamp is just above him, but the drawing only has a meaning if it’s clear the lamp first stood tall and then bent down to read the comic with him.

So I did a long body for the lamp, but it looked….. lonely as a snake.

As I had drawn the background green (to better make the orange hair of the kid stand out and give a sensation of depth behind him) I remembered another forest scene: in the movie “Totoro” the meeting between Totoro and the older sister at the bus stop, by night, with the umbrella (see that movie if you haven’t!)

Yes: a bus stop! And this also explained what that kid was doing by night in front of a forest: he’s waiting for the bus! So I made a big tall red bus sign (should have written “bus” by hand instead of using a font, it would have better matched the rest of the image). That gave some upward space to the image by attracting the eye of the viewer: the lamp post had some space to stand tall before bending down!

Glenn loved it and laughed a lot (and noticed my use of the red sign 😀 smug mode engaged…..)

I got very positive reaction from several fellow artists: ok this was not the School of Athens (re last week) but it was far more fun and interesting!

Glenn has always pushed us to go “out there”, to have our work, failures and all on display, get some flamings, make friends, be an artist, not a closeted one who only shows his work to his mom who knows nothing about art (I got a lot of useful feedback from other artists on facebook!)

This blog is part of my effort to be “out there”: I’m not perfect, I’m learning, working hard, making the most of my having such a great teacher – some people wont like my stuff (and might be right!) it’s ok, I’m working on it!

I decided it was time to take a further step with this drawing: I registered it at the Library of Congress and European equivalent (reproduce it without my permission and you’ll have to face Wolverine and pay for all legal costs on top on what you’ll pay me buwahahahahaha!) and I then put the image in large size for print on demand at society6.com (under the name Anton Von Flugelhorn in case you want to buy one) The goal is not to make money, or sell a lot, but just to be “out there”.

I ordered a print of it myself, it’s giclée and it’s amazing quality, I was afraid the night scene quality was going to be killed by the printing – oh no! it’s superb museum quality print. Stunning work, society6!

I’m working on other images in the same style (got a lot of weird ideas in store).

Perhaps I’ll make a children’s book if I get enough ideas (I generally have too many :c)

None of this would have happened without Glenn kicking my ass (via internet lol). I’ve now been for two years studying with him and I see the result: did I even wonder how to draw the folds on the kid’s clothes or the kid’s cartoony face? Nope, I just did it – good or bad *I did it*! That is the result of hard work with a great teacher to guide you. and studying the old masters is a must-do when aiming to draw cartoons (cartooning is tougher than realism, but don’t tell anyone!)

Now…. to make even better drawings…. and have even crazier ideas! I rush back to my pens!!!

See you next week, draw draw draw and be free!