What makes a "Good" drawing?

Fantastic quirky tote bags by Mogu Takahashi via Japanistic

(The cat is asking [Who are you~?] or [huu ah yuuu?]

Shinzi Katoh

What does it mean to "draw well"?

As Shakespeare says "There neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so."  

When I was a young art student at SVA, I would've probably condescended to art like this.  My opinion at the time that they would have been "Nice but not that good."  

I was into very illustrative, anatomically correct artists, like Arthur Rackham, Windsor McCay, Ryoichi Ikegami, Titian, Rembrandt and Jacques Louis-Davide.

Isn't it amazing how your tastes can change 180deg?  Lately I'm obsessed with artwork made up of simple line, simple graphics, and clean design.

Recently I'm into the work of Dave Shrigley and James Victore (I regret never taking a class with him at SVA! RGH!) - examples:

Dave Shrigley

James Victore

one of my fav comics "In Me Own Words by Bigfoot" by Graham Romieu

I think in the limitation, the artist can do more.  Limitation of color, line, space - I think it makes the image better, more focused.

And it's not as easy as it looks to draw like Shinzi Katoh.  You can tell these were drawn by adults and not children: there is a confidence to it; there were probably many trial and error sketches to get these characters right.

It's all about the idea.

If the idea is good, how you execute it is just icing on the cupcake.

Many artists strive to make themselves technically good but can't cultivate a strong idea.

I'm one of these people.

I've never been clever enough for illustration, but I'm workin' on it.

Making edible things

top to bottom

1. cucumber raita with cilantro
2. banana bream cupcakes with cream cheese coconut glaze
3. baked apples with cranberries, golden raisins and walnuts
4. eggs for breakfast
5. key lime marmalade
6. banana bread with left over coconut glaze

I've been baking like a fiend this month!  And I guess, cooking things in general.

I'll spare you the many, many mistakes and missteps that inevitable in learning something new.  

But visualize if you can, a grapefruit marmalade gone horribly wrong: left just a bit too long on the oven, past the point of caramelization into full on black-char-burnt mess.

Frankenstein Friday

Hey friends,

Here is a recent page from my Frankenstein graphic novel

No lettering on this one yet - but maybe you can deduce what is happening.

HINT: Frankenstein doesn't assemble the body from cadavers as in the original text...

Peacocks + Paper cranes

You can find some of my design work for Seltzer Goods on their website this week.

Spotted the pen at the Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner!

Other bits from the week

"Okay, I'm just gonna take a look here... 
EEEh??  Th-this is ME?"
[heart is thumping NON-STOP!]

cute make up bag Ami gave me many years ago

More proof Superman is lame and Batman pwns him

Ate at Lucky's twice this week!  Lunch both times:

feta spinach wrap and their amazing turkey burger with Russian dressing

 Made chicken satay with akmak and thai tossed salad with Billee

I wish I was 13 so I could take classes with Haruo Shiga.  

Here he is instructing the kids at the art museum to make a giant paper crane :

Work in progress

latest project for a client

We realized the cropped image works better, since space is infinite it should extend to the edge of the page.  But I think I'll use the floating vignette in another project, since I like the look of the frayed edges.

Why is little space-kid holding a spoon?

More on that later!

Colors from the week

Ephemera at the paper auction

I tried making Tom Ka Gai soup but it wasn't like the ones I've had at restaurants :(

Al + Tomoko sent us some okashi...

Our new neighbor

Billee and I made strawberry cobbler this Tuesday 

Rexy, Ted + Lisa's dog 

All the mini sketches I did for Free Comic Book Day at Friendly Neighborhood Comics May 2nd!