Welp, I’ve gone and dug myself a hole again.

See, I have in mind to do a little project. I self-published *coughKINKOScough* two trades of a comic in college, but I haven’t done much with the form since then. Of course now I’ve got a comic idea in my brain, and it’s not letting go. Unfortunately, this idea is relatively specific about the drawing style it wants.  And it’s not a style currently in my repertoire.  Dammit.

So I’m going to expand my repertoire. (And yes, that does hurt, even if you go slow.) I’m going to accomplish this by the time-honored tradition of copying until I understand how the hell the artist does whatever it is they do.

Today, I’m embarrassing both him and myself by attempting to learn the ways of Mike Mignola. Well,  Fritz Leiber as done by Mignola, anyway.

So here’s what’s going on. Awhile ago, I got it into my head to draw a Tauren lady, and thought it would be traditional/fun to make her a hunter, and draw a pet as well. So I got some WoW references together, gave it a try. And well, it sort of sucked.  You can tell, right? It’s that one at the top. The weighting is just wrong. The figures are carrying their weight in a way that would make sense in game, but as I was drawing something a little more realistic it just looks odd. And it’s not like there’s one spot that’s a problem, it’s basically equally odd all over, which is pretty much unfixable.

I was understandably a little depressed by this, and put the drawing away. As I was in a mood to do inking this week (rather than sketching) I was looking through my file of unfinished things, and saw this poor girl. Rather than going back in and attempting to fix the drawing I already had, I decided to use it as primary reference for a new drawing.  So even though I was in an inking mood, I wound up sketching anyway. Don’t believe it when people tell you art is all about doing what you want to do.

Digression aside, the second drawing went much better. See how they seem to be actually standing on the ground now, instead of vaguely hovering?  I also fixed a few narfy things, like changing the side the quiver was on, (because that’s the side the free hand would actually pull from) and making her braids extra long (because that’s about how long my hair is, and I like it better that way).

Even though it’s at least four years old, this picture still captures something. At the time I was doing a lot of ‘darkened room’ type pictures, ( Moonlight and Stonework were also from that period.) basically teaching myself to think in terms of negative space rather than positive. Thinking that way doesn’t look very different at the sketching stage, but it prepared me to deal with the concept of layers in Photoshop. Plus I can’t imagine making my black and white WoW drawings without being about to toggle back and forth between negative space drawing and positive space drawing.

Okay, so what’s all this ‘negative and positive space’ crap about, you ask?

Most simply: are you drawing black lines on white paper, or white lines on black paper?

No, I’m not fucking with you. This is a deep question for an artist. Okay, so most of the time the actual paper or canvas is white anyway, but I’m speaking about conceptualization here. Whether you’re dealing in positive or negative space matters an awful lot to the eventual mood and focus of the drawing.

Sure, it gets more complicated when you’re talking about color pictures, but there are some obvious examples: Rembrant and Carravagio are mainly dealing in negative space (white on black) while Monet is a pretty strict positive space (black on white) guy.

Most casual draw-ers don’t even realize thinking in negative space is an option. This is partially because most of us are as young children given a white piece of paper, a dark marking utensil, and are carefully coached to draw the outlines of an object. (Even ‘coloring in the lines’ supports this way of thinking, as it’s a solid darkish form on a white background, hardly ever is it the background you’re ’supposed’ to be coloring.) I clearly remember the first time I was expected to deal with negative space in an art class. We were doing batiking, in which you mask part of a bit of cloth with wax, dye it, boil the wax off, and repeat. I got so frustrated I about cried in class, in highschool no less. I blame this partially on the teacher, who was so used to me quickly grasping the concepts that she didn’t really spend the time to explain the process to me, but also on my own stubborn refusal to let go of the first premise of my artistic pursuits up until that point, which was that everything begins with black lines on white paper.

People in the D.C. area are starting to get a little twitchy. Evidence: the sudden emergence of a popular parlor game called Name That Storm!

Snowpacolypse, Flurricane, Snowgeddon, Snoverkill, Snoverload, Snow boy, and snOMG are current favorites.

But I’ve been making good use of my trapped-in-the-house time. I’ve been taking a lot of pictures of pretty jewelry, and have added a gracious mort to my Etsy page!

But before you go there- c’mere.  I like your style. Special pictures, just for you.

These pictures will go up on my Etsy page in a few days, but for now, I give you first dibs.

(Edit: I might have a craft show this Saturday from 9am-2pm at the Lyon Park Community Center in Arlington VA, depending on snow. )

Breaking in a new tablet. I always seem to have to go through four or five pages of crapish sketches before I get something decent, no matter how ‘warmed up’ I am. It’s similar to the intimidation of the blank page- just with more pages.

Speaking of more pages: perhaps the single most helpful piece of advice I can give someone trying to learn to draw is to use up a lot of paper. I almost wish it was more complicated, but it’s simple, and hard. Start sketching. When something feels frustrating or stale, get a new sheet of paper.  ( Don’t throw out the old ones, reworking partial ideas is often a great warm-up.) But if you’re sketching, momentum is more important than trying to make a complete picture on your first or fifteenth try.

Sometimes, my fiance and I WoW together. These are our mains, gettin’ down with their funky selves.

I think I’m getting a closer handle on a consistent ‘WoW’ style, but this one is still a ranging shot. While I like it, particularly the poses, it’s too busy. I expected the shading to help direct the viewer’s eye more than it actually does. I was being too cautious about contrast…again. (Can I just hire someone to hit me with a wiffle bat inscribed with ‘too subtle’ when I do this? Please post resumes in the comments.)

This is also the capstone to my Valentine’s Day self promotion week! So if anybody wants to commission an illustration or a piece of jewelry for their significant other, drop me a line.

This was for my brother’s wedding invitations. My brother has for all of his adult life had very long hair, and well, 98.5% of your typical depictions of a groom just weren’t going to cut it.

Originally this was just a pretty drawing. Then one of my friends saw it, and exclaimed ‘Oh, that looks just like [me and my significant other]!’ As I’m a pretty firm believer in letting my art be what other people think it is instead of trying to keep a stranglehold on meaning, (plus it did sort of look like them) I said ’sure’.

Years later I digitally inked it, and now the person in the suit sort of looks like a crossdressing lady.

Sure.

I think we’ve reached the point where I have to warn the diabetics in my audience: this week’s posts may require you to increase your insulin dosage.  Please consider checking your blood sugar after reading your RSS feed.

Just a reminder- all this sweetness and light is a gentle suggestion from me to you. Commission me to make Valentine’s Day illustration for you or your significant other! Or both! Or hey, a piece of jewelry if you’re into that sort of thing.

Leave me a comment with your email if any of the above piques your interest, so I can get started well in advance. Because overnight shipping charges are a bitch.

Confession Time: I was one of those teens who was afraid to dance.

I thought that everyone was watching me. And I didn’t know what to do, because weren’t there moves or steps or something? Also I don’t like this song, let’s wait for a good song.

But I did learn to dance. Mostly,  I stopped caring so goddamn much. It helps  if you’re willing to get a little tipsy, and if you have a friend who will (loudly) verbally encourage you. But the main point is that dancing is a form of play- and most adults suck at play. We take it too seriously, and try to think too much in words, rather than kinesthetically.

And that’s why couples who dance are always precious and beautiful, even if they’re just shuffling around the floor. Because when you are playing with your favorite person in the world, joy just rolls off of you.