You know how it is when you play fetch with your dog…
He/she jumps up and down giddy with the anticipation that you are about to lob that tennis ball somewhere. As you release the fuzzy orb into space, the dog bounds after it with the energy of NASA rockets, snatches the ball before it comes to rest, and races back to you re-entering the atmosphere at breakneck speed. As you reach down to retrieve the orb for another launch, the dog immediately turns into a ferocious beast with growling and fangs ready to rip you to shreds as if it had been infected by some strange being from another world it may have encountered while on its journey.
If only the dog returned with some kind of superpower like the Fantastic 4.
Back in September, I picked up one of those neat Toned Tan hardcover sketchbooks made by Strathmore. While not perfect for my way of working (I wish the paper had more tooth), I have been having fun experimenting a bit with sketching on this mid-toned paper with some darker, lighter, and colored media.
Just felt like drawing a lion yesterday, and as I started the sketch, that old Aesop’s Fable story The Lion & the Mouse came to mind, so I added a mouse in the mane. Some get lice, the lion gets mice. (As a side note, one of my favorite depictions of this story was illustrated by veteran artist Jerry Pinkney whose stunning version of the story rests firmly in my personal library.)
Two posts ago, I showed you some sketches of real Russians drawn from real life while really in Russia. While I didn’t personally see any elephants while visiting that fascinating country (maybe they were hibernating for the winter – I’m not a zoologist, so it’s probably true), my mind still wandered to them one cold Russian day, and they made an appearance in my sketchbook.
I wish I had a more expressive pencil on me at the time, but armed with just a .5mm mechanical pencil, a few elephants emerged from the cold recesses of my mind. I present them to you here with a little digital enhancement.
Elephants truly are funny looking creatures, but so amazing at the same time.
This past January, I decided to trade the warm winter of Los Angeles for three weeks of winter in frigid Russia. I hadn’t really experienced much of a winter since the days of my youth on the east coast of the U.S. Let me tell you, Russia REALLY knows how to deliver a winter.
I learned that when venturing outside on most days, it was advisable to cover up every single part of your body in abundantly warm clothing. Unfortunately, one must leave their eyes exposed to the elements for the strangely necessary need of vision, otherwise everything else is covered.
I wear glasses, but learned I could not wear those while out and about because my own breath would fog them up, or worse, would freeze on them rendering them useless. Once I removed them, I could then see, and my breath was now free to collect on my eyelashes where it would form icicles – or as I called them, eyecicles.
You may think I am kidding, but I am not. For several days over there, the temperatures dropped to about -32 degrees celsius. Translate that to fahrenheit, and it is -26 thank-you-very-much.
So, spending time indoors was a much better activity than walking around. My last three days there were mostly spent attending a seminar at a Bible seminary. A friend of mine was translating an English speaker into Russian for the students, so I sat in the back learning a few things myself. However, I also sat in the back drawing all the other students in the room, which is really what this post is about – my sketches of the Russian men I met during those three days.
It pays to carry a sketchbook with you wherever you go…
My favorite is the one with glasses I made real large in the middle. The man looked like he could be in an animated movie!
Over the past year, Bongo Comics’ Bill Morrison and I have been working on putting together a fundraiser for the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. This week we launched the auction on Ebay.
We have 85 items featuring the work of over 70 of the nation’s top cartoonists, illustrators, and animators, most of whom donated their own work to our efforts for which we thank them!
All the money raised goes to the NCS Foundation, a fully licensed 501(c)(3) charity, to help them continue their work in assisting cartoonists in need, providing scholarships to students, and further promoting the cartoon arts which has been the hallmark of the National Cartoonists Society since its inception in 1946.
To see the art and to place bids, CLICK HERE to go directly to the NCS Foundation seller page on Ebay!
How about a little warmth during this season of cold weather? I’d like to think that real snow people might steal a kiss or two when humans aren’t looking.
A little ink and gouache creation on brown paper…
He’d better be careful – don’t want to make her melt!
