Inspiration Thursday!

Welcome back! I hope you've been enjoying the blog. When last I left you, just a few wee hours ago, I was having some issues with a Michael Golden sketch I was inking. Not ISSUES issues, just... issues. It felt like something was missing from my inks. A little verve or energy. I think the issue with a tight penciler such as Golden can be the rut of just feeling like you're 'tracing' (insert your own Chasing Amy joke here); I needed some help.

Enter Inspiration Thursday!, a day where I attempt to recreate, or use, or imitate, some part of an artist that's been inspiring me. This week I realized was perfect for P. Craig Russell, an amazing artists in his own right and also one of my favorite inkers (in general, but also on Golden). I pulled some Russell comics, particularly his Elric stuff (check out here and here for examples) and tried to figure out what was going on that I liked and if I could pull from it for my own work.

It's amazing, the misunderstanding that's necessary for artist creation. You can't really think of everything that an artist is everytime you sit down at the board. You find things that fit in with your work, or that inspire you. In Russell's case it was the grace and seeming perfection of his craft. I realized, while looking through his work today, that it's that word 'seeming' that is most important. Look at those pictures I linked to again: there's a grace there for sure, but that's achieved not through an attempt at being perfect, but an attempt at being supremely confident. Choosing the lines and throwing them down. It was that sureness I needed to reach for. I went back to my board and tried to bring that sureness of line to the Michael Golden sketch. I think I approached, if not success, than where I really wanted to be: intent.


Here's your 'Inspiration' sketch of the week!