I’ve been drawing for a long time. I’ve never had any formal training, it’s always been a matter of me taking pictures or drawings I liked and reproducing them. My “style” therefore is an amalgamation of different things I liked about other people’s drawing styles. I think it’s safe to say that that’s who most artists develop.
One of my first drawing memories is of me taking my “He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown” book and record set and drawing Snoopy in his WWI Flying Ace getup that was on the cover. I must have been six or seven at the time. Later, I remember drawing the cover to Star Wars comics, issue #4 (the one with a giant Vader reaching out for Luke, Ben and Leia). That would have been at the age of twelve or so.
In high school, I would draw my own comic book, filled with one page gags, featuring amongst others, an alien character called Zurbert who wanted to kill everybody. I can’t remember any of the other characters though, only that they (and the comics themselves) were all pretty bad.
I also remember finding it cool that my English teacher, Mr. Gallant, would doodle during school assemblies. His stuff was a lot more abstract than what I was doing, but he liked to draw. Just one of the many reasons why he was my favorite teacher.
Also in high school, I would draw a LOT of Star Wars and Peanuts stuff, again more mimicry. During my university days I discovered manga and anime and that too influenced my drawing (big expressive eyes and all that).
I once again tried my hand at drawing comic books in the months prior to getting my job at the tax centre. Fun ‘n’ Fantasy was a parody of my roleplaying group. I think I managed to draw and post seven 25 paged issues of that online before I lost the drive to continue, which was sometime after I started working. Fun ‘n’ Fantasy was my first prolonged attempt at drawing my own stuff, rather than just drawing established characters.
I remember Fab telling me that a couple of his artist friends told him that Fun ‘n’ Fantasy was a good comic but that I couldn’t draw. It was the first time someone who was not a friend or a family member gave me any kind of criticism. Don’t worry. It didn’t hurt my feelings. I’ve always known my style is pretty limited. Most of the strips were frontal views from the shoulders up. I’m okay at comic portraits, less so at action poses. Backgrounds and objects? Forget about it!
Fun ‘n’ Fantasy was over ten years ago and I didn’t draw much after that, until I started working on Age of Animus. It feels good to be drawing again. It’s different now since I mostly use a drawing tablet. Mechanically it’s very similar to the pencil and paper method, but there are some differences. Having to look up at the screen instead of down at the paper being chief among them. I’m still learning how to exploit the tools at my disposal and I find myself experimenting a little more.
My Red Rich picture on this site is the piece I’m most proud of so far.
The Animus Funnies are designed to be drawn quickly. As such, they’re much simpler drawings than what I’m normally capable of. Even then, I normally draw at least two strips per weekend and it takes me over three hours total. I was heavily influenced by Order of the Stick when I designed the characters.
I wouldn’t expect those same friends of Fab’s to say I’m a good artist, although I would hope that they would recognize that I’m better than I was then. Maybe? I hope. Well, so long as they don’t say I’ve regressed!