Reference Your Imagination

Creative ideas swirl all around us every day, all day. This is true, but sometimes we do not have a reference point for a preexisting idea. Sometimes our personal experience is so limited that we have to refer to other sources to drive our picture-making or creative endeavor or even to solve one of life's wealth of problems.

Violin And Violinist Sketch click: Here

This task of conceptualizing is often time-consuming. There are many rabbit trails and often we can be so enraptured in this task that it takes away from time to solve the actual problem.


The important thing is that at the end of this time you can come to a conclusion that is based on reality and not on your mental image of it.



The hard lessons learned by understanding this result in a spirited piece of art and a growing visual vocabulary. Practicing understanding the mundane will pay off in dividends when under a deadline. This practice is grown through drawing multiple versions of a subject from multiple angles and sources. This has been my primary drive for mastering the quick-sketch and has been the foundation upon which I am building my inking skill.

Consider your discipline. Are you taking every possible measure to understand your subject? What techniques do you use to learn for the sake of the end result?

Royal Colors

The day that I started using a limited palette was the day that I started getting watercolor and color usage in general. I do not claim mastery, but the basics applied always make for a better painting or piece of art. Because I have consistently been working on my comic book, I have only been able to work with color to a minor degree. Most of them are quick studies. Still painting with color brings my heart joy.

Some day I will be combining illustration and fine art, comics and watercolor, and mix medias at will to get the look I desire. Until that day I will continue my small form experiments. It is in fact this ability that makes the most of my imagination. What is your curiosity?

In my small experiment I chose just 3 colors.  My  colors were yellow ochre, lemon yellow, and purple. The color choice was rather secondary to the internal argument as to whether I should have a cool painting or a warm one. Nonetheless, the gold sky and the purple trees seemed to be apt to describe the beauty of God's creation and identify the fact that he gave it to us as stewards. Check out the full image by clicking on this link: We Must Be Royalty.

Special Vanishing Point

Stiff lines, bare angles, and semi-technical math are my new friends. I have desperately wanted to achieve the technical perfection of the most skilled comic artists and draftsmen. A little bit of perspective will always do wonders for your piece. So I sat down for hours on end and studied the manuals I had on hand to figure how to best solve my creative problems. 

So, earlier this year that I had to get more serious about perspective drawing, if I was going to continue to be serious about creating comics. It has been a blessing. It has allowed me to see my art in a new way.

Alas, perspective drawing is not for the faint of heart. I am truly in awe of architects, technical illustrators, and engineers. To be accomplished in rendering for three dimensional production is a skill that takes time and patience. Translating from line to form or form to line is a broader way of thinking.

For the illustrator, cartoonist, or painter it is truly secondary. Some times perspective gets in the way of the image. Hours spent hashing out measurements are usually better spent on color or caricature or just creatively inventing.

In this preliminary drawing I first discovered the benefits of a special vanishing point and it did wonders for the finished drawing. I am not yet ready to share the finished page, but you can see here in my Sketches page that if a drawing requires proportional sides the task can be tedious. 

Arapad character

This is the completed, inked, and colored version of my main character, Teleki's best friend, Arapad. More to come.