Batmania!

A Batgirl update for all you fans of the Belle Epoque Caped Crusaderess. Adding background and some crude shading for this draft. I'd be happy to hear any critiques of my lighting scheme, as I'm brand new to it. I feel like I'm taking my first steps into a larger world.

Charcoal Still Life

I drew this in my drawing-I class over the period of three classes. It's medium vine and compressed charcoal on Arches White Cover. I'm pretty pleased with it, even if I say so. The longer I stare at it, though, the more problems I see. The creator's curse. I wonder if god looks at us sometimes and goes "Yikes! I really should have put more work into that area. Ouch, that's wayyy off. Too late now, I hope no one notices..."

the Desert Hare

A short biography of the Desert Hare:

Growing up on ranches in the American South West in the late 1800s, Mary Ellen Hernandez was locally notorious as a rough and tumble trouble maker. At 15, she played cards, smoked cigars, and was generally known as a short fused drunk, not to be trifled with. Despite her rough-hewn personality, she showed promise as a crack-shot and in 1898 she was recruited by Annie Oakley as part of a troop of "50 lady sharpshooters" ready to fight in the Spanish American War (see wikipedia article "Oakley promoted the service of women in combat...")

Around 1899 or 1900, however, she and some of the other girls went to Nevada after the troop was disbanded (never having been called upon by the military). Trained as soldiers, and feeling their oats, the gang ranged the country side as vigilantes, although they garnered a reputation as being almost as bad as the criminals they pursued. It was around this time that Hernandez earned the nickname "the Desert Hare" for being a dusty, crafty, fleet-footed nuisance.

In 1905--after an incident that the usually outspoken Hernandez refused to speak about even later in life--she fled alone to Mexico. She spent the next few years in flophouses, leading a generally rough and miserable existence. Sometimes working as a gun for hire, often to gold prospectors seeking protection from locals as they hiked into the mountains, Hernandez occasionally made ends meet.

Around 1908, Hernandez met fellow ex-patriot 52 year old Constance Jackdaw, an eccentric tough-as-nails lady-explorer and anthropologist. The older woman had traveled Central and South America extensively, on archeological expeditions, lending her expertise to anyone who would hire her. Jackdaw took Hernandez under her wing and gave the brash, intelligent, but semi-illiterate youth an education. The two spent the next decade getting into misadventure after misadventure. In all their deeds, the ladies skirted the lines of legality, and certainly crossed the lines of contemporary social boundaries. Together they gained quite a reputation.

By 1922 Hernandez's life had changed dramatically. Having found time to attend university, she held a Doctorate in Pre-Colombian Art and Archeology, and led a somewhat settled life in San Francisco. She found work as an editor on an Archeological Magazine titled Pleasure of Ruins. Despite her settled life, her spirit and personality demanded she lead a double life of excitement, and at 39, she still adventured extensively. Often while editing the magazine, far off locations called to her and she would drop everything to fly off to meet adventure face to face. She often traveled with Jackdaw, then aged 66, along with their fellow explorer, self described "salty old jungle archeologist" Beto Benavidez. Together, the three regularly flung themselves into the wilds, chasing the ghosts of the long forgotten past, and tangling with gunslingers, bandits and grave-robbers of every description.

I'm trying to figure out why I'm having such a hard time making comics. It might be that the comics I tend to try are the kinds of comics I can't stand reading myself. Wordy action comics, where hammy cliches abound.

What is it that I like in comics? Why am I not emulating it?

Here's a short brainstorm on my favorite comics and what it is I like about them.

Hhellboy: visual imagery, graphic clarity of action, interesting and original mystical doodadery

Daniel Clowes comics: realistic inane banter, enjoying hating of stuff, originality of characters and action, a finger on the pulse of something.

Jaime Hernandez: beautiful understanding of human anatomy, gossipy, cute ladies, human characters, inspires nostalgia for an things I've never experienced

Arrg, this is interesting, because I never put any of these things in my own comics, but infuriating, because I don't know how to start doing it. Why do I have this disconnect when I start drawing comics? I forget everything I've learned and everything I want to do, and try to ...I don't know live up to some uncoscious idea of what making comics is supposed to be. I can't just put a good drawing in the panel, I have to put a depiction of what the action is supposed to be. Composition, appeal, figure-ground all go out the window, as a sacrifice to what's supposed to be happening

It could also be that my theories on comic making far outstrip my actual comic making experience. I once had the same problem with drawing, and the only way I got to two to catch up was by drawing 15 minutes a day. So... how about drawing comics for 15 minutes a day?

yeah...how about it?

Old Fashionedy Style Work Sketches

Sketching at work from vintage publicity stills.