Art & Story Blog

UPDATE: More after the jump…

(Logo design by Enrico Casarosa. Used with permission.)

Tomorrow, Saturday March 29th, is Sketchcrawl 18. People will be gathering in cities and places all over the world to sketch. If you enjoy drawing from life and your environs, please join in the fun. Visit http://sketchcrawl.com/forum to find people sketchcrawling in your area. All are welcome. I’ll be joining the L.A. group at Lake Balboa Park in Van Nuys, where the cherry blossoms are supposed to be in full bloom. Hope to see you there. Look for more from me in the next day or two, as I post my results from the crawl!

I’ve been drawing upon various themes lately in my sketchbook, one of which is “pretty girls.” It’s not an unpopular subject among cartoonists and illustrators, in case you haven’t noticed, but it’s certainly a worthwhile one. That is, if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s fun to study different types of women or qualities that I find attractive and try to translate that to a (at least somewhat) pushed, cartoony sort of character that still comes off as pretty or sexy somehow. It’s a subjective process. What it is that makes a person attractive can be an elusive sort of thing. It’s not always in the details, and there is no single type that best exemplifies beauty. I’ve mostly been exploring petite types and models or young women. Typical, but hey, that’s what I’m drawn to at the moment and that’s what I’m exploring. Beauty is personified in all kinds of people.

Of course, all that egalitarian sort of talk aside, the most important pretty girl in the world is my fiancée, Jamie. Here’s a drawing of her.

Here’s a noir guy for you. That slightly goofy rumpled detective who comes off as nothing but cool, due to his calm confidence, charisma, and cleverness (pardon the aliteration).

This is based on a guy I saw performing on Letterman last night. I don’t know who he is, but I liked his skinny shape.

It well could be this fellow’s last laugh. Here are some more ol’ timers from the doodle book. Geezers are fun to draw.

Perhaps inspired by yesterday’s sketch of Jules Engel, I decided to take a shot at drawing myself as an older gentleman with his dentures out.

I just came across this great archive of interview videos with Jules Engel, “Golden Era” Disney employee, UPA co-founder, and founding director of Experimental Animation at CalArts. He taught Christine Panushka, who would later become head of that same department. I had the privilege to study under Christine when I was 16 and attending the Animation program at California State Summer School for the Arts (at CalArts).

Some of Engel’s other students include John Lasseter, Henry Selick, Tim Burton, and Glen Keane, among many others.

I looked up the weather at around 5:30pm. “76°, feels like 76°.” I set up the mini-Weber on my front steps and at around sunset, I lit the coals and took these pixelly photos. In the dark, I grilled artichokes, short ribs, and chicken breast while sipping Sapporo from a glass. It feels like summer has begun here in Los Angeles. Here, there is no spring. Maybe it will rain again. Maybe not. There are only two seasons, really. Summer and Rain. Slumlords roof their buildings with Scotch tape and construction paper and pray for global warming to come faster. At least for today, the air feels sweet and light, the smoke wets my appetite, and this dusty little corner emulates perfection.