Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Sam of the Spanish Main

It's a terrible habit, and I'm not proud of it. But sometimes while sketching at a restaurant I turn my friends into notorious outlaws. 

"You made me look horrible," my perfectly nice-looking and generous pal said when he saw the sketch.

"But it's not you, it's a pirate relative of yours." 
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6 comments:

Tom Hart said...

Great character study. The eyes make it.

Mitch said...

I like it! I suppose this is an example of the blend of imagination and realism you alluded to in a recent post or comment?

I've done this before, without initially planning to. It can be a great way to turn a sketch that isn't working out into pure play.

Do you think there's enough material here to write a sequel to Imaginative Realism?

Rich said...

"Turning friends into...etc."
In business terms, perhaps it would be called an

"unfriendly takeover"...ha ha

Bartleby said...

there is something interesting i noticed, you have done something with the letters, there are a few that are identical. the s's in sam and spanish, and the m's in sam and main. do tell...

MoStarkey said...

It doesn't have to look like them, it just has to be a good drawing.

James Gurney said...

Bartleby, good eye. I had another name initially for the pirate and didn't like it, so I changed it to Sam using other letters

MoStarkey, I agree. Every drawing should make a definite statement, and creating a character is one kind of statement. I think next time, though, I'll tell the person in advance that I"m not drawing them, but rather a character, so they can have fun acting.

Rich, I suppose so. In caricature conventions they do merciless caricatures of each other all the time.

Mitch, Although I'm not currently working on a new book, I think there's a lot to add to Imaginative Realism and C & L from the perspective of observational drawing and painting.

Tom, thanks. I often forget to make the eyes smaller. One caricaturist friend said that the first thing he thinks about is which features to make smaller, not which ones to make bigger.