NYC Contour

I moved to New York I've taken to location drawing again. I've rediscovered the joy of the tedious, drawing what you see, not what you know, and all that business. This was brought about by a great location drawing class at SVA taught by John Ruggeri. John is great because he's not afraid to get in your face and point out your incompetence in a definitive way, a quality I tend to admire. Each of these was made on location on 18 x 24 bond. I'm having fun with these, so look forward to more of the same. (They're just crummy photos, I'll scan them another time).


September 11 2008
18 x 24, graphite on bond
Spring St & Thompson St, Soho


September 11 2008
18 x 24, graphite on bond
Grand Central Station


September 18 2008
18 x 24, charcoal on bond
9th ave & W 17th St, Chelsea


September 18 2008
18 x 24, charcoal on bond
9th ave & W 14th St, Chelsea


September 18 2008
18 x 24, charcoal on bond
9th ave & W 12th St, Chelsea

As a bonus, here is a contour-ish-thing I cooked up a while ago. Inspired by the staggering math-based digital art of Joshua Davis.

BWS

Trying out some new nibs and looking at the work of Sergio Toppi and Barry Windsor Smith.

When I was a kid one of this first graphic novels I ever owned was 'Weapon X' by Windsor Smith. It was a gift from my uncle, and I was in speechless awe of it's violence and gore. As you know, reading violent and gory material when your six or seven years old makes you feel like a total rebel badass. The drawings were miraculous to me, and i copied them endlessly.

Recently I was amazed to discover that, not only did Barry draw the story, he wrote and colored it in it's entirety. He didn't letter it apparently, so the keeps me from calling him the ultimate mainstream control-freak. It really is an astonishing piece of fiction keeping all of this in mind, and it holds up to stuff today. I encourage you to go look it up for some quality superhero ecstasy (I'm reluctant to call it 'super hero', the main character is a violent, murdering animal if anything, and nobody wears tights, if anything). Needless to say, Barry's work was a big deal for me, he was the man.

Dekalb Delight