Back to business.

OK! Galaxy is in the bag (mostly), I have 12 days off. This beast should resume no later than next week. 

Intermission.

Things have insanely busy at work and home and I've fallen wayyyyy behind here. I just did one today and have a couple old ones to post up, then I am going to try and get this machine oiled and cranking again. Sorry folks. Life.

Day 42.

I've been pretty pleased with the last 2. The backgrounds are generally wonky because I just roughed them in. Time is still an opponent here. As the figures get done more quickly, hopefully backgrounds will get tighter and the figures slightly more detailed and inked at times. It's imperative for me to find a balance. Too little detail looks flat to much looks too Image. 

Day 41.

Hi everyone! I'm Spider-Man. Later.

Day 40.

This one is kind of funny. I was cleaning off my desk, throwing away papers, abandoned ideas and deformed Spider-Man attempts. I looked through them and this was the one that was most finished, but it wasn't very good. So I thought it might be a slight twist here if I tried to fix up a shunned one today. I took what was working in the body and made revisions what wasn't. I stopped at the lags and let them hang. 

Day 39.

I am trying to stop drinking caffeine and boy is it messing me up. Spider-Man swinging right back into a groove. See you tomorrow.

Day 38.

This miserable bastard makes me think it might be day 1 again. Please look away

Day 37.

Another 2 minute masterpiece. Like I said, just crank em' out and catch up.

Day 36.

I need some aspirin.

Day 35.

This one's not too bad. I did it in a couple minutes at my desk.

Day 34.

So begins the stretch of metaphoric road I shall refer to as crap mile. Crap mile as it's know is a place not uncommon with lateness and lack of ideas. Let me translate. I'm behind. Super behind, so this batch and the next will be pretty bad because at I this point I just need to get caught up again, then I can expend more effort. I didn't have any ideas for this, it's my first Black Spidey. I wanted to draw him like a blob the way overlaps, tangents and foreshortening sometimes make black Spidey look blobby. I failed. Thanks for looking.

Day 33.

I kind of dig this guy. I wish I did a background, but maybe I'll revisit it later. Sometimes when his arm twists, I stare at the paper thinking: "How the heck does the red and blue move around his arm." I think I already said this about something else, but the arm twists are easily the most difficult part of drawing Spider-Man's costume. So, if I did say that in an earlier post, I've changed my mind. The webbing seemed tricky at first, but once I developed a pattern it became pretty simple. It tends for me to be the most enjoyable part because that's when the figure really becomes Spider-Man. Up until now the drawings have all been pretty sketchy, so I've been phoning the webbing in. As I move to complete more finished Spider-Men, I have to make sure I do a better job with the lines and spacing. 

Day 32.

A swinging pose. Stiff, but stiff on purpose. I was kind of thinking of how Spidey lands in the movies. That lower foot is kind of reaching out for the ground. 

Day 31.

I was going to cheat and make this Daredevil,  but I opted to not go there yet. Anatomy is getting there. Going to have to work on fluidity more.

Day 30.

Meh.

Day 29.

I found this neat marker at work. So I did a Spidey with it. A quick minute or two drawing.

Day 27.

This is post one of super, super, duper catch-up time. I'll scan and post the first half tonight and the second tomorrow or Wednesday. This is a quickie.

Uhh...the hurricane, I guess.

Yes. I am going to do it. Due to the forces of nature rolled up, blow out, represented by a large multi-colored pinwheel on Doplar 4000 and named Irene. I am officially behind. I'm going to post some stuff tomorrow evening and hopefully be back on track by Friday. Sorry, I couldn't help it. There was no electric and way to much interesting stuff to photograph. Hopefully the DC relaunch doesn't set me back a few more days. After all it's only one book tomorrow, right?

Hooray!

4 whole members! Yes! Wait...well one doesn't count because it's me. Plus the other 3 are friends I've strong-armed or guilted into joining. I would say this outstanding blog has now officially become marginally successful (I'm just kidding...It's not successful, yet).

Day 28.

All anyone could talk about today was the damn hurricane. In fact, I drew this while someone was talking to me about the hurricane and the flooding.  Another real quickie. It's been a busy week so these were really tough to get through. Especially with that horrible earthquake, and now the hurricane. What's next? My money's on locusts. Anyway, Spidey tries to take a night off and watch Something Borrowed ( from Blockbuster of course, no New Release delay). But here comes the hurricane. That's the ol' Parker luck.

Day 27.

One minute drawing. Hands were last, I ran out of time. 

Day 26.

I tried to do this one up-side down, but Spidey wound up with a disproportionately small body. Plus, why the hell is he tiptoeing again? First drawing with a setting! Yay!!!

Day 25.

Super-cool super hero kick! I just made this one up as I went along. No particular focus or purpose. 

Day 24.

It's tricky to see but that's actually Aunt May on the receiving end of his fist there. Noooo. A punching pose I worked up to help me better understand the trapezius and deltoid relationship from a back view. 

Day 23.

I have an admiration for the guys who do those quick Sharpie sketches at cons. Yeah, that's right, I'm looking at you Bruce Timm. Anyway, I mess with them at work sometimes because they're quick to do and even if they're a little off they still look cool. 

Day 22.

My good pal Steve asked when I was going to stop screwing around and get to a drawing of Spider-Man shooting webs. So, I did this. It's kind of a 90's pose. You know... where people hid whole sections of anatomy to try and increase the dynamics of a figure. I picked up the new ASM hardcover the other day and there's a 2 issue story penciled by a guy named Reilly Brown. Reilly did some really cool poses of Spidey through those 2 issues. I borrowed the idea for this, it's based loosely on something he had done in that book. I was thinking about how to make the web-shooting pose, read the book and thought something like this would cool and different to what I've done so far. Is it me or does it feel like Autumn already?

Day 21.

Getting home late, thinking of what to do and composing it is the hardest part of doing these. The precision of the anatomy is a work-in-progress, so I do it to the best of my knowledge while I continue to study, so it's not a big deal. But kicking off with that initial idea sometimes makes me dread these. So, what I am trying to do is ideate at work. Friday, I did about 10 or 12 really fast 30 second sketches of different swinging poses. I picked this one, a couple others are workable too, but I went with this one. It's pretty awkward which is why I picked it. It's kind of point where Spider-Man has just grabbed a new web-line and he is at the apex and utter starting point of a brand new swing. His legs inverted back in preparation to kick forward and propel himself. It's a little stiff in the legs, but as I said. It's a really weird pose.

Day 20.

I had no ideas. I just started with a couple circles and turned it into a wall-crawling pose. The only thing that I had planned was the cropping of the figure. I knew I wanted him to be coming from off the page. I wasn't sure what to do with the head. I originally had him looking up, but it was really boring, so I revised it so Spidey's turned his head in response to danger. 

Day 19.

This was a quick doodle I did at work. A very fast, somewhat loose and unfinished stab at capturing the same angle Kirby employed for his iconic cover to Amazing Fantasy 15. It's a pretty neat composition, pretty much only seen when people are pay homage to The King. 

Day 18.

Some sketches of muscles, balance. Just some practice stuff. These unfolded to some season episodes of Family Ties. 

Day 17.

I like how this one turned out. His left hand was a pain. I just eventually said screw it and went with the next thing dealt.

Day 16.

So, here's a collection of foot studies. Some have webbing others you'll have to take my word for it that Pete's got his spider slippers (or booties) off. These were borrowed from Andrew Loomis' incredible Figure Drawing For All It's Worth book. I borrowed his poses as a matter  of convenience, because real feet weren't an option. I'll take some photos of both my and my wife's feet in the future. But for now thanks Mr. Loomis! Again I'll do more hands and feet, because they're tricky, important and I need the practice.

Day 15.

Fairly quick upper body sketch (with quicker webbing!). I've stayed away from legs the last few days because I've started to examine the anatomy more closely and need to get comfortable with how things actually transition and flow as opposed to how I've learned to fake it. I've left in some erased lines from where the figure was totally blocked in. Those lines show a lot of discomfort I think. 

Day 14.

A pretty simple study of the back. Looking for muscles and how the deltoids look and work with the muscles of the back. I will definitely be doing more of this. Again as I get faster, maybe I'll post a localized study and a full figure each day. I'm making this up as I go.

Day 13.

Fairly quick head study. I need to do more of these. I want to create my own Spidey, and for me, the eyes are the trickiest part. They have to be perfect and really define the rest of how you draw him.  I started doing Romita-esque eyes, but have changed it up. Perhaps I'll do a sheet with a few of these heads and really explore what I can do. I really like thin Spidey eyes but they're a rarity these days.

Day 12.

I don't know what's going on here. It kind of looks like he's dancing. 

Day 11.

It's been a long day. I needed something easy tonight. Something that takes little effort and no thought. I resolved to do a bunch of 60 second drawings, that came to be more like 30 second drawings. There's an Anthony Bourdain show called No Reservations I DVRed last night.  Anthony gets a tour of the Southern California desert by the super-awesome Josh Homme. I can't stop watching. In fact while I drew I was watching with one eye on each. These little quickies tell a lot. I'm going to make it a point to do some more of them.  These suck so they can only get better, right?...right?

Day 10.

I did this last night. I sketched it out real quick and was going to leave it at that. As it sat on the board in the living room, I kept sitting down and sitting down until it became what it is now. 
It was a cool pose and sits nicely on the paper. I struggled with muscles on the arms from this angle. I'm pretty sure the outstretched one is rubbish, but I still like it. 

Day 9.

I spent some extra time here making sure this looked pretty clean. I think this is my first swinging pose. But it's Spider-Man, so I've probably got like 300 more to go. Once I can do a stretch of sketches like this, I'll start adding more concept to each day's drawing and finishing them off more. Also, I'll start doing some mask-less Pete and branch out with the more ambitious ideas I've worked out concepts for. Bed time.

Day 8.

Late on Friday, after I scanned and made the last post I started this one. It was after 12, so it counts as day 8. I was feeling good and found a rough figure I did the second day and got to work. But...it was late, I was tired and my wife was watching Jersey Shore so my brain was fried and things weren't going my way. I put it down, went to sleep and came back to it last night (still the 8th day) and made a bunch of improvements. Considering what it looked like. I am pleased with how it came together. It's dirty and kind of loose, but it was a lot of fun.

Day 7

I know the legs are a complete mess, but this was a tricky sort of pose and again it was invented, without a shred of reference employed.  So, that being said I can live with it.  Tonight marked the first time in this thing where I just hammered one of these out. Pretty cool, after only really a week. Problem is, now I'm trying to find time to draw stuff that's not Spider-Man. On a side note, it's Mob week on AMC and Shark Week on Discovery. Maybe they should combine them. 

Day 6.

This was one of the roughs I rocked on the train yesterday. It was lightly blocked out. I used that structure and worked it out today. It's a bit tighter than the last few days, maybe because it's bigger, I'm not sure. The webbing on his costume is starting to feel intuitive, both direction and spacing is pretty tricky to lay down quickly and have it look good. It's interesting to see how artists handle the space on the side of the head. It can get messy. I'm bummed the figure is placed so awkwardly on the page. I'd have liked to finish the other side. He looks a little too scrawny, at least in the arms for my taste, but overall, I'm pleased. I developed one of the other train sketches into a Daredevil. Maybe if I finish it tomorrow, I'll post with Spidey.

Day 4.

Day 4, 2 days later. Eh. It's bad, but I cranked it out late night after a long day just to get it done. Which I suppose is also a good exercise. I swiped a Romitaesque pose after the first one was bombing, not much changed. Double duds. oh well.

Day 5.

Ahhh! What happened to day 4? I'll tell you what happened. I finished it late last night (real late), brought it to work to scan, didn't have time...then, left. it. at. work. In a pile of papers. Great. Well, at least I remembered it as I was stepping onto the subway car, oh wait, never mind. I'll have to scan and post it tomorrow with 6. Anyway, a rare thing happened today, I was able to draw on the train. Well, at least block out a few ideas. One of which was the above crawling Spidey. My first step into wacky spider poses. Which overall I think I am going to avoid taking to to McFarlane like extremes. I finished this up at a meeting at work. Again it's somewhat unrefined, but more finished than the last couple days (albeit with a tiny head). Again, although something we've seen Spider-Man do quite often, the pose was invented. I did the larger head study to continue working out Spidey's eyes. I want to create something part Ditko, part Romita Sr., modern, but classic. Paolo Rivera has nailed it. I don't like big eyed Spider-Man. I need to keep working at it.

Day 3

I struggled with this today, mostly because I'm not employing any reference for these, not yet anyway. So, I doodle around and work to arrive at something I can control and make presentable. The first 3 so far are created. When I start off, I seem to think every day needs to be closer to complete than not. Which I think is the wrong approach. So today's was done over the course of about 3 minutes. Which reminds me that these quick and dirty sketches can be just as important as a completed drawing and should tend to be how I approach these for the next weeks.

Day 2.

I'm using this book by Michael Hampton I picked up called Figure Drawing: Design and Invention.   It's a little counter intuitive to how I normally would approach figure drawing, but that's a good thing. It's put together well and has a nice breakdown of muscles. Which is why I got it. This one's a bit rough, but I kept it simple still. Very static, and in this case unfinished (BBQ, burgers and ribs). Spidey is way more sculpted than I would ever really make him, but it's more of an exercise in muscle placement with webs drawn on it.  

Day 1.

 

I wanted to start off pretty simple. I had some trouble coming up with something I felt could work. In the process I managed to work out about 15 or so thumbnails for future posts down the road. Pretty neat stuff actually. Once I was finished, I had a few minutes, so I photocopied the pencils and inked it real quick. My comic inking is crap, so that's also something I want to work on. Inks are below.

Here we go.

For a while now, I've been looking to reboot how I do things. How I draw, see objects, see anatomy and understand it. I always wanted to be an artist and I am, I make my living with it more or less, but I rarely draw anymore and my skills are not where I want them to be. I've been reading a bunch of books, researching how art and drawing was taught years ago and have come to to the conclusion that my education was not what it should have been. It did not give me what I wanted at all. So I am breaking down what I know and rebuilding it. Studying Bridgman, Hogarth, Loomis and some other instructors, I am moving to more fully realize what I can do.   


The plan here is to draw and post a Spider-Man everyday. Why? Because I love drawing him and I think it'll be a lot of fun. Plus, it would be a neat way to trace a year's worth of progress. Also, he has an overall simple design with a minimal amount of features allowing me to crank one out on a busy day. Through Spidey, I'll document my progress over the next year. One Web Head posted for every day, drawn everyday. My parameters are pretty open. Red and Blue, Black, Peter Parker, whatever. Maybe even a Daredevil here or there. I'll start with mostly pencil sketches and rough drawings, possibly even some tight gesture poses or costume studies, then down the road, move to inks, markers and hopefully some paintings later on. We'll see. Because I am insanely busy and commute 6 hours a day. Some days probably won't see updates, but the drawing will be done, posted the following day and dated in the title.


I'm going to start in the next few days, perhaps even tomorrow. We'll see, Dr. Conners might need me at the lab...