Robert Fawcett!

I have been in awe of Robert Fawcett's drawing ability every since my friend (and teacher) David Hadlock showed his work to me in college. I was completely floored to find a tiny, almost hidden booth at Comic Con that was selling amazing original drawings and paintings by classic illustrators from Windsor Mckay to artists from the 1980's, maybe even more current, not sure. The gallery is called Illustration House, and is in NYC. Against practicality, I purchased this original illustration by the incredible Robert Fawcett! I will try to find out from Roger Reed (one of the owners, along with his father the famous drawer Walt Reed!) when this was made, and for what publication. It is gouache, and is about 15 x 20.

Comic Con aftermath

Whew. That was a LOT of people! If I go again to the con, I think I will just take photos. I didn't get much this time, on overload, and couldn't deal with the crowd to stop and get out my camera, etc. I hope the panel I was on seemed interesting to the audience. I enjoyed taking the train there, and came back on Saturday with Luis and Nicolas to really drink it all in. We really couldn't get into any of the presentations that we were after, had fun just shopping around. But taking photos and sketching would have been a great pastime there! Saw current and former students, and friends, too. Here are a few measlely sketches (one of Nicolas, 13, not wanting his face sketched). I really loved the two people dressed as paper bag hand puppets, life-size! the drawing doesn't do them justice.

Belly Dance+Comic Con!

Going to Comic Con this year (next week!) to be on a panel of Illustrators for Film. And so I decided to do an illustration in Corel Painter to take along to hand out (it was suggested that we bring something). I used bellydancing as inspiration because I have been taking a class for a year or more from the fabulous Fahtiem, and it is really FUN. My friend Paula and I went to a bellydance fair on the Queen Mary this summer and saw LOTS of outfits! Seemed like a good match, goth bellydancer and comic con. I made the pencil sketch, and tried several stabs at painting it digitally, but it was kind of a struggle. I wanted to do something that really looked 'digital' and sort of moody. So I ended up scrapping the original sketch, and did the dancer in black from scratch in Painter. I am taking a class in Painter at the moment at Studio Arts, a local tech school, from Alex Ruiz, a concept illustrator. His style and tastes are really different than mine, but I am learning some fun techniques to mess with.

If you want to see some nice tribal inspired bellydancing, check out you tube videos of Rachel Brice or for cabaret style, Fahtiem.

(Just added one more version, that I had worked on in class, using the lighting effects in Painter)