Con Sketches part 2

After a couple of rough starts (see the last post), I started to hit my stride with the limited tools that I had. I know it sounds weird, but I’d prepared myself for one situation and had to change my game-plan halfway.

To give you an idea, it’s kind of like preparing for a 100m race, and then someone tells you that it’s actually 200m. You can do it – but it’s not what you’ve prepared for. That’s what it was like not having the ink wash. I had to change tactics immediately, but it took some time to adjust.

Years ago I was speaking to another artist and he clued me into a tactic that artists use at conventions. There are a couple of these to help save time.

1. Draw in profile. That way you only have to draw half the face. This is a time-honoured tactic.

2. Have three templates for each character that you rotate through. The idea behind three is that if you get four requests for the same character in a row, chances are that the fourth person won’t have seen the first version you did.

3. Draw really badly. There are a couple of big name artists who do this. They just churn out thoughtless crap. It’s disappointing, but there are some guys whose talent is far greater than their passion for comics.

Don’t begrudge the artists their tactics. As I said, I drew 73 sketches over the weekend. I can’t imagine how many some of the big name guys would churn out if requested. They have to use these three tactics for speed, efficiency and to just stop them from burning out.

Over the course of the weekend, I did all three, sometimes all on the one page. Although, I never meant to do the third one, there are two examples of that on this entry. A lovely lady asked me to do a picture of Pan from Pan’s Labyrinth. While I had seen and enjoyed the film, I had NO idea what he looked like. So she kindly sai, “Draw your version of Pan.”

What a great suggestion. But it looks nothing like the one from the film.

The other crap picture I drew was the one of Ted. Yes, that’s Ted. I just totally blanked out on what he looked like. So what you see here is my vague likeness of Ted. I mean, that flannel is pretty accurate, isn’t it?

I’m showing you the close up of the Batman sketch as I don’t mind that one at all.

The chick in the hat is Grace from the Innocents comic book. If you skip waaa-ay back through my blog you will find the covers I did for that comic book for last year’s San Diego comic con. This kind gentlemen brought back his sketchbook with this picture of her. I drew him a Clare.