I want to dedicate this blog post to the guy who found me on kijiji and bought my drawing table. We met last Friday after work he called me to let me know he was on his way. He sounded very eager to buy my drawing table and I was really curious why but I wasn't the type to pry into his reasonings.
He drove up in a shiny red souped up car and came up to the garage to inspect the item. He then proceeded to tell me the reasoning why he wanted it was to get back into drawing. He told me he was a mechanic and he really didn't like what he was doing. I thought it was a really cool profession as you could fix up any old car and make it look amazing. He then said he's a photographer... *paused* and said he really sucked at it. I laughed a bit not because he sucked but his blunt honesty about it. A quality I can respect in a person. He then said the one thing he was good at in high school was drawing and he wanted to get back into that and maybe go back to school for it. He looked around my age or a bit younger but I had to admire that drop everything and go for what you really want attitude.
We parted ways and I thought to myself that story is a lot like mine minus the fact I hate what I currently do. I like what I do now but I always loved drawing and thought it'd be a good way to spend the weekend drawing. So I thought what should I draw? I could draw a hot chick in a slutty pose but that idea quickly passed as it wouldn't have any meaning and would be pointless. I wanted to draw something that had some sort of meaning maybe even illustrate something to the effect of telling a story like RSA. So I came up with a story about the industry I currently work in and what it means to me.
I'll explain that in another post but for now I just wanted to share the sketches that lead up to the final but still a work in progress design. I wanted to show them as a point that you don't have to be drawing amazing stuff or need to worry about being perfect. Just starting something is good enough.
I was trying to figure out how I wanted to layout the mermaid girl. I couldn't figure out a good pose for the arms as I didn't want to do that behind the back or head pose. People normally do that because they can't draw the hands but I didn't have a problem with that and I relished a good challenge anyways. I was thinking maybe a chain around the neck like princess Layla but my mind was going in the wrong direction so I left it. Did a quick doodle of what I thought the face should look like but my girl friend said she looks mean.
I switched over to work on the left side and figure out how I wanted the monkey to look like. The idea I wanted was a flexible monkey wou looked like he had no joints or bones. My girl friend also said that he looks more like a mouse than a monkey.
I wanted to solve the arm pose I liked the idea of showing the tail end of the mermaid but had no idea of what I wanted her arms to do. In this drawing I was thinking she'd be flexing her arm going YES, YES, YES! but I know most people wouldn't get that reference. I contemplated drawing a Santa hat but discarded that idea.
This pose I was thinking of a squid behing held by the mermaid. Oh yeah the hands still had to cover the breasts as I didn't want to make it R rated but at the same time I didn't want it to look too slutty. I did some gestures to figure out how I wanted it to look after sketching out the one in the middle and thinking it was looking to Madonna vogueish.
This sketch I was thinking okay can't think of anything for her hands to do so why not give her something to hold. I thought of a trident... then maybe between the breasts but at this point yeah... my minds wandering again. Hence the face which was a representation of my own face. So I moved onto another area.
I decided to sketch out a squid or jellyfish something aquatic that I didn't already have. I was toying around with the idea if I drew one arm and duplicated it. Then I went away and my girl friend wrong a comment with an arrow. You can't see it but it says "I AM SUN" and she drew her own version of what a squid looks like. I LOL'ed hard but I'm gonna keep that one and it gave me an idea to put eyelashes on it.
Here's another sketch of my "SUN" octopus. Also played around with a less vogueish pose but it left the breasts too exposed.
Okay one thing a high school drawing teacher taught me was never fall in love with a line. He meant that if you like the way something is you'll try to work around that but sometimes it won't work but because you love it so much you'll run this endless cycle when it's just easier to erase it or scrap it and start anew. Deep I know but here's an example of it. I tried to make that pose work but in the end it couldn't work so I scrapped it in favour for a side pose.
I liked the idea and thought hey why not try making her comb her hair like a harp or something. Then I finally nailed down the pose.
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