Randolph Crider: September 2011

Sherlock Holmes: Time Traveler

Mark Crnolatas and I put out some comic books ten years ago (wow, has it been that long?!). We still talk about comics, and sometimes they actually get made. This has been floating around sketchbooks for close to three years now, it was penciled and colored last year, and lettered just now. Hopefully it wont take so long for us to do something next time.

Taking A Break From Drawing To Go Draw

I've been super busy drawing things for other people lately. It's been amazingly great, although I think I'm at a point where I enjoy drawing from life the most. There's this stop and smell the roses aspect to it that can't be replicated in a studio.

So, I hit the Murray Hill drawing group for the first time in way too long. Great group of folks, and the coffee shop down the street has really good fig bars. It's also the first time I rocked a straight up pencil in my sketchbook in a good long while. I think it's time to bring that back.

I'm getting to a point where I'm comfortable ( I didn't say good) with longer poses and super comfortable with short poses (I do 12 one minutes a day here: Figure Drawing Tool ), but I'm still figuring out the ten and twenty minute poses. All drawing, even life drawing, is about icons, and I need to work on my shorthand, to figure out what I'm capable of in that time.

Guess I'll keep drawing.

May The Bridges I Burn Light The Way

Earlier this year I did a card for Spaces Monster Drawing Rally event. Basically a room full of art types draw stuff for an hour and then auction it off to benefit the gallery. They do it at a few other non profit galleries across the country, and it reminded me a lot of the draw Tuesdays at 111 Minna.

Because of a bunch of nonsense, I didn't get to draw the flier I wanted and used a monster image from my sketchbook (of which there are many to choose from). When the event came, I saw it as an opportunity to draw the image I originally wanted.

I knew there was no way I could bust it out in an hour, so I spent the afternoon before the event drawing it to ink at the event. Some people thought it was a cheat, but it was a real struggle to get it inked in an hour. It's not often I have to publicly work through hand cramps.

The piece sold, and I officially contributed to Spaces. With that, I think I'm entitled to do a project there. After seeing this :MOMA Art Critic, I think it's high time we get some real work around here.

I've never drawn dinosaurs, so I'm pretty sure that makes it experimental.

Down And Out At Ingenuity Fest

Ingenuity fest is a big three day arts festival thing in Cleveland, and this year I got involved with all the nonsense.

I produced 20 illustrations for act three of Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom, which is an adaption of Cory Doctorow's (Boing Boing) Novel of the same name. It's a really great story, and was a blast to illustrate, despite having two weeks to get it done.

With the deadline, I used it as an opportunity to dust off what comic book chops I've accrued over the years, and I'm pretty happy with the results. It's the first time I've seriously used a brush in a long time, and its just like riding a bike. A really nice bike, with streamers and everything. I had so much fun, that I'm hoping to find the time to get some more comic work under my belt in the coming months. God knows I've got enough scripts around the house.

Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom is shown four times: Schedule, and it's going to be at some libraries after that. If you live in Cleveland, come check it out and say hi. I'll be hanging out in the doodle bar wearing a La Parka mask.