Right now I've picked up something I that pretty much had just hanging around my drawing board for the last two months. When I started work on it, I just felt that it was going to suck. The drawing had a lot of problems that I felt I couldn't solve. So I left it on the drawing board....But then I thought well, no one other than my fiancee had to see it. And the only reason that she might is it is that my drafting table is in the living room. I have to remind myself that its okay to fail. But I don't have to like it! Also that its good to fail every once in awhile because you tend to learn more from failure than from success.

Does anyone else have a wacom tablet? I've had mine for around 3 years or so, I've never really had any problems with it until this morning. I was trying to do some pixel art work when I noticed that the pen wouldn't stop drawing if I pulled up from the tablet. It even would draw if the pen was a few centimeters off the tablet. The tablet itself seems to work fine with the mouse, because I use it all of the time, its just the pen that is acting up. I tried deleteing the preference file and that didn't help. I also installed the latest driver. I'm starting to think that I might need a new pen, which really wouldn't be that bad since my pen is getting gross looking anyway.

Anyone have any advice or tips.

Thanks in advance!

Seriously derbyartist looks like he has been working for the New Yorker for the past 40 years! But he is only 21. Unlike hughferriss people already seem to know that he is awesome. Great stuff, honestly I don't know when he got good, it just seemed to happen. Most guys you kinda see the progression, but with this guy its just there. Go check it out.

I've been pondering why I feel so strongly about good and bad art lately. Why does it bother me so that artists out there are lazy about their art. Or rather why does it bother me when they don't take it as seriously as I do. And I do take it seriously. Its like the scene from Pulp Fiction when the get away cab driver asks Butch about how he felt about killing a man in the ring. That is how I feel about art. I don't care if lives are ruined or feeling are hurt. If you aren't serious about it then don't step in the ring.

A bit extreme..yeah.

But then again you didn't have to endure my first semester in art school. I had a teacher that would make students cry on a regular basis. " Oh did I break your concentration". She was like that hard. I'd have a headache by the end of every class. I had her at least 3 days of the week and often for at least 3 hours of the day. It was hellish. You would be trying your best to do a great drawing while you were worried that she wouldn't like what you were doing.

And the weird part? She liked me, she called me a true artist which was the highest praise that you could get out of her. But she said that I wasn't really an illustrator, which was fine with me. Because at least she knew that I was serious about what I was doing.

Now that I look back on it I almost feel like it was a traumatic experience, sort of like what movies make basic training out to be. Honestly I don't know if it was worth it, but it definitely shaped me. I reinforced that art was serious business, life or death serious. In fact it wasn't much fun after that. I didn't stop drawing, but I didn't like going to class as much. I guess her classes really let you know how you felt about art. The fact that i could find joy in the middle of that shit storm is prtetty amazing. But I definitely had moments where it was just me, the paper and the model.

I should also say that I grew to dislike most of my classmates. And the feeling was mutual. So yeah i feel like I have paid a lot of dues. Every artist does really in one way or another. You will suffer for your art. But I will have to say that its worth it. Because I can really get a sense of how far I've come with it. Which to most isn't that far at all, but its enriched my life and given me purpose. You can't really ask for more than that.

So yeah now you know something else about me that you might not have before.

Why do once great artists start to suck. I guess this could be related to my last post about why some artists never get better. Although that was more about amateur artists. This is about pro's like Boris Vallejo. I used to love that dudes 70's and 80's work. Now... yuck I can't stand it. John Byrne is like that as well, back in the day he could do no wrong. Now? his comics are pretty sad. Although the commissions that he does are pretty tight.

Some artists keep getting better like Gil Kane, George Perez or Larry Elmore*. But most start to suck or they never get better which I guess is just as bad. I guess this really applies to bands even more than artists. A lot of the musicians that I liked fell off big time.

* My friend that has that Elmore painting doesn't like his new stuff. But I still think he is getting better. Part of that is that we grew up on all of the TSR artists back in the day and nothing tends to be as cool as it was when you were 12.

So you guys know that I'm on Deviant Art a lot during the day, right? One thing that I always see comic book guys advise wannabe's is that you have to draw all of the time. And I agree with this, to a point. See, the thing is that I see a lot of prolific artists on DA and elsewhere that never seem to improve. Year after year they draw the same low quality stuff. And yet they arre drawing all of the time. But they aren't improving at all. Now I know that its hard to get better sometimes, you plateau for a bit before you hit the next level. Also the better you get the harder it is to improve, but if you suck then you should be getting better fairly quickly. So why don't these people get better faster or at all?

Any thoughts?

The fact that my girl had a bratwurst ready for me when I got home...and that I got some professional level love on DA.

So early this week I mentioned how I sent away for this. I got it at Jstationary, which is out of stock so the link no longer works. I have to say that Jstationary got it to me fast and cheap. It was only 2.50 for shipping and handling. I ordered it on a sunday and got it that Wed. I have to say that this is hands down the best brush pen ever. I've always thought that most brush pens sucked, basically they were felt tipped markers in brush pen drag. The pentel brush pen is the best sketching tool that I've come across. I'd say that I liked the Pentel color brush a little more because of the size of the brush hairs and the handle. But it doesn't draw the ink out, you have to squeeze it. I'll have to get one of those as well to compare. But so far the brush pen is the sketching in ink tool of choice here.

However it doesn't replace a real brush since the ink doesn't flow effortlessly like a real brush would and it can't get as thick as a real brush would. So while it will go in my bookbag my real brush will be used at home.

So yesterday we had an impromtu B.S of comics at T.'s house. He was inking over some professional pencils while I was playing around with his Pentel Color brush. I liked it so much that when I got home I looked online for them. These things are fuckin' incredible. They are almost like my Rapheal brushes. I can get super thin lines with them and get thick lines as well. The place that had the Color brushes wanted 8 bucks for shipping so I opted not to get one. But I found the Pentel brush pens here. I've heard a lot about these and I'm guessing that they are pretty much the same except for the body. The shipping was reasonable so I ordered one.

I've always wanted to make my own desktop picture and I've finally gotten around to it  :  ) Make with the click to see a larger version.

So this comic art collector decided to commission artists to draw what happens one minute after a classic comic cover. This is an awesome idea.Check it out!

But when I read about all of these web comic people attending Mocca I feel like my convention has been hijacked. Although to be honest I never was nor will be the type of artist that Mocca tends to attract...which is the Fantagraphic "indie" artist or the web comic artist.

I consider myself to be a late 70's early to mid eighties comic throwback. The ideal venue for me would have been Heavy Metal( late 70's and early 80's) when it was good or Epic Illustrated which was always good during its too short run.

I miss fun comics. I think that is one reason that I don't read a lot fo books because somewhere along the line people were tring too hard and stopped focusing on fun comics. Like Jim Starlin knew how to make fun comics. Dreadstar, Breed and Warlock. Just simple fun that didn't take itself too seriously. Jack Kirby another fun artist if you can get past the funky at times art. I think that when the comic companies when to the full scripts it sucked a lot of the fun out of the books. I feel like writers were trying to show of their skills and forgot how much you could get out of an artist that was a good storyteller. But the trouble is that not every artist is a Gil Kane and too many were trying to be Rob Liefield.

I remember reading Neal Gaiman's Eternals and being bored to tears. I have liked some of his work but, there is a guy who doesn't make fun comics. And that is what comics should be, not that they can't be other things like Fun Home one of the best comics that I have ever read; but in general they should be fun. Especially if you have guys in tights beating each other up. I think that this is one of Watchmen's failings...its not a very fun comic. Alan Moore must have realized this when he when to to do Supreme...thosee books are fun. I think that people are too busy trying to be Alan Moore clones and are boring the shit out of us quite frankly.

Stop it! Keep comics fun.

One artist that comes to mind that creates fun stuff is Jason Pearson. Bodybags is just amazing...go and get it now. Its like a Quentin Tarantino movie on crack. And the art just makes me want to quit drawing.

This is what J.G. Jones has to say about using references : J.G. Jones: All of the above. I often shoot photos of friends and family for reference. Also, Google is an artist’s best friend, especially for location shots and stuff like that. I have to say, though, that I laugh at guys who don’t hide their sources very well. Sometimes you’ll see a cover and say to yourself, “Didn’t I just see that girl on the cover of last month’s Maxim?” Weak.

I took this form an interview he did here.

I finally found some realistic looking skulls that are fairly cheap! Honestly I think that every artist should have a skull replica by their drafting table. You can get one here!

So I'm coloring another piece that I finished awhile back and guess what? its taking me forever. This is the reason that I'm not willing to work cheap, because this shit just takes way too long. Basically I'm done. But I have to clean up a bunch of crap on the scan itself and then I have to go over everything and make sure its filled with color. You would be surprised at all of the little spots that you can miss.I'm guessing that this is gonna be three hours.

So I have this piece I'm finishing which most of you have seen and then I have something that none of you have seen. After that I work on penciling something...I'm not totally sure where I'm going with it so I really can't say anything yet.

I just got five favorites on my Deviant Art gallery. It may soundstupid but it feels cool to know that someone who doesn't know me likes the stuff I put up. And it was for somethying other than my voluptous women so that was an extra bonus.

Now time to get shit done!

I'm almost finished inking my latest piece. I've been working on this on and off since last month. I started inking it earlier this week and I'm about done. If this isn't the most detailed thing thta I've done its in the top three for sure. until I started inking it it looked like a huge cluster fuck...so its nice to see that I was able to see my vision through. I just hope that I'm able to follow through on the colors. Speaking of which I have another piece that I've been working on that really needs to be finished. Moodwise its light years away from this though. I should try and get that done tonight.

In other news I still haven't heard from the comicbook person. Honestly, if they aren't feeling me or they found someone better that is cool...but to not even acknowledge that they recieved my email is pretty fucked. That is a bitch move if you ask me. I mean fuck them, honestly the last time I got rejected for something at least the person had the consideration to let me know what was up.