Sunday, January 12, 2014

The Holy Grail of Forceful Cartooning


The Harvey Kurtzman exhibit last spring at the Society of Illustrators was amazing in every way, but for me the coolest thing in there was this fight sequence from Help #1. They had separated Will Elder's finished drawings from the Kurtzman marker roughs they'd been rubber cemented to, and displayed both versions together.





Marveling at these images in my drunken fog at the opening, I saw in a flash what a helpful warmup exercise they would make. Sketching freely in ink, I  try to reproduce as much as possible of the energy and vitality of Kurtzman's roughs, incorporating something of the wit and precision of Elder's finishes, while retaining the freedom to be playful and inject something of my own.

Kurtzman's
Elder's


Mine, take 1

Mine, take 2























Having toyed with this exercise for awhile, I've begun assigning it to advanced students in my figure drawing class. Speaking of which, the Illustration and Cartooning info session is coming up Tuesday evening at SVA. Come talk to me about cartooning. Cartooning is fun.



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