Thursday 18 June 2009

Another Dredd

For the last couple of days I've been feeling a bit down on my drawing. I just don't feel like I can clearly identify my style and say I'm 100% happy with it - it's a touch too dependent upon a clean clear line and that can be time consuming.

There's a lot to be said for a quick expressive style both from a economic and a dynamic point of view. I see such breathtaking results in other artists' work that benefits from quick, expressive penmanship - but when I come to try that myself, even when at my most confident, I am just not happy with the result.


Here are some rough pencils for a Judge Dredd pin-up type image I am working on. Right now there are some nice things going on in those sketchy lines but I know as soon as I start to ink, it'll lose that spontaneity.

Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD

2 comments:

Matt Soffe said...

I know exactly what you mean - when your sketching with pencil, it doesn't really matter if you mess up - and as a result you end up with nice, free lines and strokes. As soon as I hover over those lines with a pen, I start to stiffen up. You have to fight to remain loose, which sounds like a contradiction, and sometimes I can do it, other times I can't. But we must press on brother! This Dredd pose is superb, Joey two-guns they'll call him, in the Bronx!

james corcoran said...

I often have this problem too, sometimes I'll ink with a darker pencil instead and then adjust it in photoshop, that way it retains more of the movement and texture of the original pencils

Best wishes James