Warm Ups?
on June 17, 2009 at 5:48 pmHi, Folks!
It’s time to resurrect the long unused Art Talk. Here we go!
Today I began penciling page 1 of Johnny Saturn issue 10. As usual, I penciled the first panel, realized it wasn’t good at all, and thoroughly erased it. I always have problems beginning a new issue, or a new project! It never fails! Today was no exception.
Why do I have this difficulty? Well, I didn’t do any warm up sketching, for one. Many of the Silver Aged artists would do warm ups for up an hour before beginning their main job. John Buscema used to draw on the backs oh is original pages, and fill up stacks of typewriter paper. Gil Kane devoted an hour every morning getting into top form.
Now in my fifteenth year of actively cartooning, I have never made warm ups part of my daily routine. This year is different. In my figurative work, Benita poses for me and lets me get warmed up before I go the Indianapolis Art Center and draw live models. I want to get the most for the experience, and coming in cold doesn’t help that.
What should one draw during these warm ups? Excellent question. In earlier times, I would have limited myself to photos of dancers, athletes, or nudes. Since I go to the Art Center, I really don’t see the point in drawing from 2D photos like I used to. Lately, I have taken to copying the work of figurative master Andrew Loomis, as seen in his classic, criminally out of print book “Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth.” Let me be clear on this: Loomis was better than Burne Hogarth, who wrote those popular and useful books that are so well known among the community of comic artists. Burne was good, and I may well get around to studying his books again, but Loomis is the master.
You might wonder, why would I study the work of another artist when I’ve got photographs I could work from? Well, studying the techniques of the great masters is a tried and true tradition, is it not? Plus, trying to replicate a master’s drawing line for line gives you a bizarre insight into the mind of that master. You begin to see the world from his perspective, how he perceived his subject matter. This can be enlightening, to say the least, and perhaps even transformative to the artist.
What am I going to do in the morning? Warm up, of course.
Scott.
I've never really used warmups. Not that I'm "too good" or anything, but I didn't hear of the technique until a few years ago. I'm always in too much of a hurry to get to work.
But on the other hand…. I end up scribbling for an hour or so at the beginning so I guess I do warm ups after all.
) and Norman Rockwell stuff. Crazy combination, I know! No one captures expressions like Rockwell though.
Yeah, I think "copying" other artists' anatomy etc is great practice. When I was starting out I used to draw a lot of Manara (Not for the reasons you think!
You really learn a lot that way.
Well, you bring up several things:
1) I've always been a huge Norman Rockwell fan, have studied his work on my own, and believe he would have been a groundbreaking cartoonist if that had been his interest. We have one of his pictures hanging in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and I love to get close to it and see the brush strokes.
2) I'm totally with you on Manara–that guy can draw! I have nothing but praise for his work.
3) Warm ups are new to me, too. I began doing this because every day, the first thing I draw is crap. Draw panel one, erase, draw panel one again! This just did not make sense to me.
4) I've turned my warm ups into study. Today, for example, I drew anatomical pictures of the arms and legs. Might as well learn while I warm up!