draw #5

THE “HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ON COMICS AND CARTOONINGNUMBER 5WINTER

2003

$5.95

IN THE U.S.A.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKE WIERINGO BUILDING POWERS BY BENDIS, OEMINGAND THE POWERS CREW DRAWING HANDS BY BRET BLEVINS

DESIGN—THE DEPTH ILLUSION BY PAUL RIVOCHETHE MUST HAVE ART BOOKS FOR YOUR STUDIO BY TERRY BEATTY

THIS ISSUE CONTAINS NUDITY FOR THE PURPOSE OF FIGURE DRAWING. INTENDED FOR MATURE READERS.

WINTER 2003 • VOL. 1, NO. 5

DRAW! SPRING 2003, Vol. 1, No. 5 was produced by Action Planet Inc. and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Michael Manley, Editor, John Morrow, Publisher.Editorial Address is PO Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082. Subscription Address: TwoMorrows Publishing, 1812 Park Dr., Raleigh, NC 27605. DRAW! and its logo are trade-marks of Action Planet Inc. All contributions herein are copyright 2003 by their respective contributors. Action Planet Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishing accept no responsibilityfor unsolicited submissions. All artwork herein is copyright the year of production, its creator (if work-for-hire, the entity which contracted said artwork); the characters featuredin said artwork are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners; and said artwork or other trademarked material is printed in these pages with the consentof the copyright holder and/or for journalistic, educational and historical purposes with no infringement intended or implied. Static Shock, Bizarro, are TM and ©2003 DCCOMICS • Tom Strong TM and ©2003 America’s Best Comics LLC. • The Human Torch,The Invisible Woman, The Thing, Dr. Octopus, Mr. Fantastic, Sleepwalker, Spider-Man,Modulus TM and ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Powers TM and ©2003 Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming • MR. X is TM and ©2003 Vortex Comics.• Tarzan is TM and©2003 The Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate • Tellos TM and ©2003 Todd Dezago and Mike Wieringo • This entire issue is ©2003 Action Planet Inc. and TwoMorrows Publishingand may not be reprinted or retransmitted without written permission of the copyright holders. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

SUBSCRIBE TO DRAW! Four quarterly issues for $20 US Standard Mail, $32 US First Class Mail ($40 Canada, Elsewhere: $44 Surface, $60 Airmail).We accept US check, money order, Visa and Mastercard at TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Dr., Raleigh, NC 27605, (919) 833-8092, E-mail: [email protected]

ADVERTISE IN DRAW! See page 2 for ad rates and specifications.

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THE PROFESSIONAL“HOW-TO” MAGAZINE ONCOMICS & CARTOONING

Logo Design • John Costanza Front Cover Illustration • Mike Oeming

FEATURESPENCILING A FANTASTIC INTERVIEW WITH CURRENT FANTASTIC FOUR PENCILER MIKE WIERINGO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

DESIGN DESIGNING FOR DEPTH BY PAUL RIVOCHE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

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HITTING THE BOOKS REVIEWS OF VINTAGE ART BOOKS TO HAVE IN YOUR COLLECTION BY TERRY BEATTY . . . . . . . . . . . .54

FIGURE DRAWING DRAWING HANDS BY BRET BLEVINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

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2 DRAW! • WINTER 2003

We’re here, we’re here, we’re here! DRAW! is back from our long hiatus. In the timesince we last met I attended the 2002 San Diego Comic Con and had a blast. It wasgreat to meet so many of you DRAW! readers there who stopped by our booth to chatwith Bret and myself. The drawing demonstration that Bret and I gave was filled to therafters, which was a great surprise and lots of fun. I just let Bret do all the talking andmost of the drawing.

The biggest news this time around is the official launch of DRAWMAGAZINE.COM!That’s right, DRAW! will now have an official online home, where you can surf in tofind the latest news and updates, back issues and links, peruse and post on our messageboard, view our online tutorials on drawing, inking and more. You’ll also be able to getin touch with regular DRAW! contributors Bret Blevins and Paul Rivoche as well asAnde Parks. I also want to thank you all for your patience and support as we work toget the magazineback on trackschedule-wise.Look for on-time

quarterly shipping from now on!Once again a big thanks goes out to my regular contributors Paul

and Bret for another series of great articles and making this job easi-er. I’d also like to thank the Powers team, (Brian, Mike, Ken, andPete) for giving us a cool cover and a glimpse behind their workingprocess on one of the most popular comics being published today.

A big tip of the hat to Terry Beatty for his great and informativearticle on art and illustration books that all artists should try andacquire for their bookshelf (watch those eBay auctions fly), MikeWieringo for opening his files and supplying ample copies of hisamazing work and sketches (more than I was able to print unfortu-nately). So enjoy this issue, then surf onto our new website and dropus an e-mail, and look for DRAW! #6 to show up with the EasterBunny in April.

Best,

Mike Manley, Editor

The DRAW! message board is up and running, so please post feedback and ask questions at: http://66.36.6.76/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi

FROM THE EDITOR

E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.drawmagazine.comSnail mail: PO Box 2129, Upper Darby, PA 19082

Figurativ

einterpretatio

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DRAW!: Let’s begin with a brief bio. Give me the specifics.Where were you born? Did anyone introduce you into comics?

WIERINGO:Well, I was born in Vicenza, Italy in 1963. Myfather was in the Army when I was born and that’s where he andmy mother were stationed.We left not long after I was born, andwe moved all over the place for years. We lived in NewYorkstate for a while, Virginia, over to Germany for three years andthen back to Virginia in the U.S. in 1974. I’ve been in the U.S.ever since. My dad was actually the one who introduced me tocomic books. He would buy comics from the base PX(Post Exchange) when we were living in Germany and he’d letme read them. They were mostly DC comics like Superman andBatman, but he would occasionally buy the odd Marvel like X-Men or Spider-Man. But overwhelmingly, they were the DCbooks.

DRAW!:Why was that? Did you find DC just more appealingfor some reason? DC’s were certainly more accessible in othermediums like TV and cartoons.

DRAW! • WINTER 2003 3

WIERINGO:Well, these were the books being bought by myfather in Germany that I’m talking about. This was when I wasbetween 8 and 10 years old. I didn’t start buying my own comicsuntil I was 11 years old and back in the O.S. I wasn’t allowed togo to the PX myself because there was a lot of drug dealing andviolence going on, on base (if you can believe that... but it hap-pened). But I remember my dad telling me about the comics hebought when he was a kid—things like Airboy, The Heap (a pre-decessor to Swamp Thing), Blackhawk as well as Superman andBatman. I read what he bought, but when I got to buy my ownbooks, I was into the Marvel stuff.

DRAW!: So you were you into comics and cartoons as a kid?

WIERINGO:Yeah—I really took to comic books immediately.The first time my dad brought some home, I was hooked. It’salways been that way. I can very easily get drawn into the “reali-ty” of whichever comic book I’m reading/looking at. The comicbook medium has always affected me in that way. I can open acomic book and get sucked in from the first couple of pages—

WIERINGO: This is a panel from FF #61 where Ben is on the track of someone who played a practical jokeon him. It was fun to show the public’s reaction to this lumbering monster running down the street. I tried togive the guy in the foreground a Sam Jackson-kind-of look.

PENCILING MIKE WIERINGO

THE FANTASTIC PENCILS OFMIKE WIERINGO

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For over a decadeMike Wieringo’sanimated and

appealing artworkhas graced some

of the biggest iconsin comics. From hisbreak-out run onThe Flash to his

amazing work onSpider-Man to his

creator-ownedwork on Tellos, tohis current run onthe first family of

comics, TheFantastic Four.

DRAW! editor MikeManley conductedthis interview overthe internet and by

phone with theeasy-going, busy

artist from hisArtamus Studio in

Hillsborough,North Carolina.



even in the bad ones. It’s like my brain is tuned into the languageof comics, so it’s very easy to get immersed in whichever bookI’m looking at, and it’s been like that for me since childhood.I’ve always enjoyed cartoons and movies as well, but nothingconnects with me as much as comic books.

DRAW!:When did you get started in the business?

WIERINGO: I got started in late 1991 drawing a Doc Savagemini-series for a small publisher called Millennium Publications.I was working on samples at the time and had a pretty friendlyrelationship with the artists of Gaijin Studios (guys like CullyHamner, Brian Stelfreeze, Karl Story, Adam Hughes and others)and they hooked me up with the publisher at Millennium. It wasquite a learning experience, I’ll tell ya. The difference betweenworking on samples and trying to get them “perfect,” and work-ing on pages on deadline was a real eye-opener, no doubt.

DRAW!:What was the hardest part of this for you? The work-ing when you don’t want to, or get tired, or drawing things youdon’t find interesting?

WIERINGO: All of that, yeah. But mainly it was, and remainsto this day—drawing what someone else has written, as opposedto drawing my own stories. I guess the thing I had the most trou-ble dealing with is the fact that I had been drawing my own sto-ries for many years before actually starting to work as a free-lancer for anyone. From around age 11 or 12 I had been creatingmy own little comics of varying length with stories either aboutmy favorite existing characters from Marvel and DC or from myown knock-off characters. Every kid that likes to draw comicshad their own versions of their favorite existing super-hero (Iwould assume; every kid I knew that drew did), and so I hadyears of my own storytelling and pacing habits in place. Not allof them were good, mind you, but it was very hard to go fromcreating and drawing my own stories to trying to get inside awriter’s mind to try to convey what they’re looking for in a story.It has also been a challenge from day one todraw things that I’m not used to drawing orreally don’t have a lot of interest in drawing.One of the big problems I have with some ofthe writers I’ve worked with is their pen-chant for writing long scenes that takeplace with a couple of characters sittingand talking at a desk or in asmall room or what haveyou, that will go on for5, 6 or 7 pages attimes. It’s difficultto maintainenthusiasmfor

some-thing like that when you

have to draw it. It’s great fortelevision, but not so hot for comics. I

think some of these guys would love to be writing forepisodic television instead of comics, because that’show their scripts read at times.

DRAW!:What or who were you studying at this time artistical-ly? Who were you learning from?

WIERINGO:Well, I was a huge Brian Stelfreeze nut,to be honest. Up to the point that I discovered his work

when visiting a Heroes Convention in Charlotte,NC. I had been into the old fan favorites like John

Byrne and George Pérez, but when I saw Brian’s work,it was so unique and from such a different point ofview, it just blew me away. My mistake was in try-

ing to really emulate his work at the time. I’ve discoveredover the years that personally, for me, trying to draw “like”someone else is a very frustrating and ultimately fruitlessendeavor. When I was younger and just getting started doingsamples and getting little nibbles from publishers, I was like amagpie and was trying to incorporate stuff from every new artistI was exposed to that enthused me and it was getting menowhere but confused and lost. It wasn’t until I let my own nat-

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ural tendencies take over that I started to feel more comfortableand started to make headway.

DRAW!: How far along in your career would you say that was?Were you doing any study of artists and art outside of comics atthe same time? Did you feel you had to conform to a “housestyle” at all?

WIERINGO:Well, this was fairly early on. It was after I hadgraduated from college (in 1991)—but before I started gettingwork from the “majors.” On the Doc Savage mini-series theGaijin guys lined up for me, I was trying to do a BrianStelfreeze riff, but it was so difficult for me to even “try” toemulate his work. At the time, I didn’t really much understand

his working methods and his own influences, so it was prettymuch alien to me. I was just trying to emulate the surface stylis-tics without really understanding the mechanics of what he wasdoing—so it was kind of clashing with my own natural tenden-cies, which are much softer, rounder and bouncier lines, so itlooked really weird, stiff and clunky. As far as studying art andartists outside of comics, I was exposed to a lot of work while incollege that was eye-opening and really expanded my world-view of drawing and painting. But my personal goal was alwaysto work in comics, so I kind of put those elements aside when Ifirst graduated and spent most of my time taking in more comicbook related influences. It’s not been until the last several yearsthat I’ve begun to look outside the comic book world again forinspiration.

Speaking of the animation and illustration stuff we weretalking about earlier. Over that past several years, I’ve been buy-ing as many of the “Art of...” Disney books that they publishafter each animated film comes out. I’ve also been buying thingslike the Society of Illustrators award books and books likeSpectrum. As far as feeling as though I had to conform to ahouse style, I don’t think I ever felt that early on. I guess as thecomic book business has imploded over the years, and especiallythe “mainstream super-hero” aspect of it, I’ve felt some pressureto conform my work to what’s “expected” in the long-underwearbooks. A lot of that is probably self-imposed pressure. It comesfrom reading too many critical posts on internet message boards,and that’s something that I need to stop doing. I really need tolearn to just draw for myself and enjoy what I’m doing formyself instead of worrying about what others think of my workor would like me to do with my stuff. I think that if I makemyself happy with my own stuff, it’ll show in the work and thuspeople viewing it will enjoy it as well.

DRAW!:You mentioned when we talked earlier that you gotstarted later. You went to college later. Were you taking art class-es? Did this add any seriousness to your approach to breakingin, to your work ethic?

WIERINGO:Well, my parents couldn’t really afford to sendme to college right out of high school, so I went to work in thegrocery business. For a while, I kind of lost interest in drawingsince I couldn’t go to art school like I wanted right out of highschool, but after a couple of years of working my ass off, I real-ized I could get stuck in the cycle of working and buying stuffand I didn’t want to get stuck in the small-town community myfolks lived near, so I set my sights on saving my own moneytoward going to college. Drawing comics had always been myultimate goal from childhood, so I was pretty driven after awhile to get to art school and get some drawing classes to helpmy meager abilities at around 20. I think that working for sixyears before college (I started at VCU in Richmond, VA at 24years old and graduated at 27) helped me to build a real workethic and drive to reach my goals. I really hated working in thegrocery biz, so I was very set on reaching for the “brass ring,”so to speak.

DRAW!: So do you feel that since you had “real world” work-ing experiences before getting into the comic biz, it helped yoube more “professional” in certain respects. More responsible?

(ABOVE) WIERINGO: This is the layout and pencils for apage from FF #60. I love the humor Mark Waid writes into hisscripts. This was a funny scene. LEFT: This is a sketch for anillustration an acquaintance who owns a plane asked me to dofor the side of his plane—kind of like a WWII “Good Girl”illustration. He wanted her topless and I didn’t want to do it,so it didn’t go anywhere. It was fun, though.

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DRAW!: I think it could be really funny, strong material.Sounds like you have a real passion there even talking about it.Do you follow the indy side of the biz? Do you have any desireto do small press or mini comics?

WIERINGO:Well, I have a strongnegative passion about thewhole situation. I suppose Icould create a comic thatwould be funny by creatinghumorous situations andcharacters within the frame-work of the grocery business,but in reality, the job wasjust incredibly monoto-nous and thankless andthat’s why I hated it somuch. I buy many,many more smallpress and inde-pendent comicsthan I do any-

thing else these days.Super-hero comics just

don’t interest me much any-more. I’ll buy certain super-hero books if it’s beingdrawn by an artist whosework I really enjoy, but as faras the cape stuff is con-cerned, I think there’s notmuch new under the sun story-wise, so they don’t do muchfor me. I’ve really gotta thinkthat the real, long-term life ofcomic books is in alternativework. So I always keep an eyeout for fun and interestingstuff being done in indy andsmall press areas. I wouldlove to do work in thesmall press area myself. Itwould be a real blast to justlet go and create any kind ofstory I wanted to and nothave to worry about trying to“market” something to the

majority of the audience readingcomics these days in an effort to

really generate big profits.

DRAW!:You’ve had the chance to work on some of the biggesticons in the comics biz. When you start working on a characterlike Spidey or like Superman, do you take time before you actu-ally start working to try and “work out” your ideal or your“take” on the character?

WIERINGO: I feel very, very fortunate to have had the oppor-tunities I’ve been given. Working on characters like Spidey and

Things like answer your phone? I know that sounds funny, but alot of artists get bad reps for just not answering their phones.

WIERINGO: It’s a combination of the “real world” workingexperience and the fact that I come from a very economicallylower-class background. My folks livein a very rural area and myfather’s income was neververy high. We had every-thing we needed, don’tget me wrong, but weweren’t what you couldcall middle-class byany stretch. So growingup never having muchmoney, it has made mevery fearful of return-ing to that state ofexistence. They saythat most folks areonly a few paychecksaway from beingbroke, and I’m noexception to that. Ihad a few “fat”years at the tail endof the comics boomwhen there was a lot ofmerchandising art money to bemade from Marvel and DC’s creativeservices departments, doing stuff like ChefBoyardee can art and Cookie Crisp Spider-Mananimated style trading cards made me a lot ofmoney for a couple of years, but that all dried upfast. So it’s tough to keep head-above-waterthese days. It keeps me working.

DRAW!: Could youpull any experiencefrom that time anduse it in your work forcharacters and situa-tions etc.?

WIERINGO: I could, Isuppose, but it wouldn’tmake for very exciting comics (talk-ing about my time working in the grocerybusiness). It would make for the sort ofdepressing Joe Matt kind of auto-biocomic that was big a few years back, but I kind ofdoubt that people would enjoy reading about someone whoabsolutely hated his job in the produce department of FoodWorld and would wish that he’d get hit by a car and killed everymorning on the way to work, which is how I felt most of thetime. It’s just too depressing. I guess if I could work in somehumor it would make for a good sort of sit-com comic, but I’mnot sure I’m into that kind of thing right now.

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THE DEPTH ILLUSION

DRAWING AND DESIGN PAUL RIVOCHE

This article is meant to investigate how to create, andways of strengthening, the “Depth Illusion”—the illusion ofthree-dimensional space created on two-dimensional paper. Thefocus will not primarily be on typical perspective rules and tech-niques such as vanishing points, horizon lines and so on. Thoseare very important, and should be studied, but they are not themain concern here. Instead I want to concentrate on other factorsaffecting whether or not an image has a sense of depth.

Sometimes, despite employing perspective convergence,studiously making all your lines obediently converge to a vanish-ing point on a carefully placed horizon line and dutifully follow-ing all the “rules,” there’s still no “illusion of depth”! Let’s see ifwe can discover the other factors which either add to or takeaway from the creation of a sense of depth in a drawing...

THE TWO-DIMENSIONAL LANGUAGEThe first thing to clearly realize when investigating the “DepthIllusion” is that there really is such a thing as a “two-dimension-al language,” with its own, and sometimes complicated andpeculiar, set of rules, and its own psychology. In the eagerness tocreate a successful image, and to contemplate mentally all the

fascinating nuances of figure gestures, vehicles, backgrounds,and so on, it is easy to forget that, in the end, all of these three-dimensional dreams end up flat: as flat lines and shapes on aflat, two-dimensional piece of paper. That piece of paper is likea “bottleneck,” a gateway, which the artist must contend with inthe process of transmitting his images from himself to the view-er. A picture starts as a visualization of three-dimensional formin an artist’s mind, and ends, if the image communicates suc-cessfully, as another three-dimensional image in the viewer’sbrain. But in between lies the transmission device: the decidedlytwo-dimensional flat piece of paper. It takes a while to realizethis piece of paper has entirely its own language, with its owngrammar and syntax, and that what we see in our three-dimen-sional vision must be translated into a two-dimensional languageof overlapping, spacings, scale, and many other factors. Sincedoing a drawing is all about making choices, we must realizethat some choices more clearly communicate three-dimensionalform, while others obscure and camouflage it. The artist whodraws has a chance to edit, to stage his lines, shapes, and forms,choosing the ones which will best explain what he is visualizingto the viewer. Because that is exactly what the two-dimensional

DREAMING DESIGN



language involves: a lot of explaining and translating. Weexplain three-dimensional forms to the viewer usingtwo-dimensional shapes and one-dimensional lines and points; oryou could say we translate three dimensions into two. It’s notenough to just “trace” or “copy” reality literally, or the exactshapes from a photo, to achieve depth; one soon discovers thatsomething is lacking if that approach is employed. What is lack-ing is the editing process, the process of accommodating per-ceived forms to the limitations of drawing. In the quest todescribe form and space, the cartoonist must distill things down

ABOVE: If I was to do this sketchbook drawing over, I think I’dposition the elephant’s trunk a little more to the right, so it would lineup a bit less with the edge of the stall behind it. Composing a draw-ing is a constant juggling act, a series of compromises between dif-ferent necessities. The subject has its needs, which can’t be forgot-ten, but neither can these sorts of staging problems be neglectedeither. Sometimes different demands compete with each other, whichis why it’s a juggling act.

and eliminate accidental effects and placements—anything thatdoes not communicate clearly. True cartooning is an art ofintentional arrangement, using the two-dimensional language.

LANGUAGESo what is meant by “a two-dimensional language?” What is itexactly? Its components, its vocabulary, are lines and shapes—really all the various marks we draw on flat paper. We can call ita “language” because all the sorts of marks we can make, andall the various ways they can be arranged, will all communicatedifferent things. Some will have more clarity, and some muchless. The goal is to discover the order, the reason, behind whatwe do—then our expression will be more clear, more powerful,more intentional and less accidental. We strive to communicateform—which is three-dimensional—using a solely two-dimen-sional communication device, the flat surface of the paper. Inthe end that’s all the artist has: flat lines and shapes shuffledaround on the flat two-dimensional surface of the paper—onlytwo dimensions, height and width. Out of the realities and diffi-culties which arise from accommodating this simple reality aris-es “the two-dimensional language.”

In many styles of drawing found in animation andcomics we strive to suggest three-dimensional form and space.Those are the sort of drawings which this article concerns itselfwith. In other, purposely “flat” styles of work, and purely deco-rative drawings without any focal point or points, the goal is notto create “depth,” in which case some of these remarks may notapply. Furthermore, most of my comments here have to do withline drawing—plain lines without blacks or tones or color, theraw foundations of the structure of an image. There are manyworthwhile things which could be added about the uses ofblacks and tones to create depth, but for purposes of space I willhave to leave those comments for another time.

DEPTH BY DIMINUTIONFirst, consider “depth.” To the human eye, things appear todiminish in size the further away they are, which is one cue ofmany which help us decide the distance of an object, at least inthe case of objects whose scale we know beforehand. Noticethat proportions—i.e., ratios such as the ratio of the width to theheight of an object—do not change as things diminish, as longas they are seen flat-on to the viewer/picture plane. When thingstilt, and the object is no longer parallel to the picture plane, thenforeshortening occurs—the apparent narrowing of an object.

SENSING FORM AND SPACEIn a picture, the scene portrayed can range from being fairlyshallow to deep space—infinity. People can’t “see” depth directly,because obviously empty air can’t be seen. That may sound silly,but it’s the first step to realizing that to “see” depth, people mustrely on cues from objects—visible forms. To judge the intangi-ble, i.e., invisible space, people are used to seeing and focusingon tangible objects. We use the placement, relative sizes, angles,and so on, of visible things around us, to make spatial judg-ments. In short, visible objects are used as “markers.” So in acomposition, if you want to achieve a sense of depth, you mustclearly mark and illuminate the progression of space into thedistance for the viewer, using various signposts. It isn’t enoughto simply slap down a few converging perspective lines and



think that is enough. In viewing daily reality in front of us, ourtwo eyes give us stereoscopic vision. We judge depth by com-paring the small differences between the views from each of oureyes. The comparison of these two views helps us overcome anyconfusion which might come from odd overlappings or place-ments of the things we see—we simply move our heads and getmore information about the three-dimensional forms in front ofus, by gaining a new view. But in regarding a flat, still drawing,no such advantage is available to us. No amount of moving ourhead will help us to “read” and decipher a two-dimensionaldrawing. The artist must make up for this lack by employing thetwo-dimensional language, by artfully and intentionally arrang-ing his work to compensate. Everything about the three-dimen-sional forms and spaces of his scene must be explained by theartist with one view, with flat shapes and lines. If you have prop-erly drawn forms, clearly placed in space, “depth” will follownaturally. Problems often come when everything is habituallydrawn too flat, in simplistic cutout shapes, and when everything“sticks” to each other and to the picture plane. Many times thishappens when there is no evident foreground, middleground, and

background, or when those elements are present but areobscured by each other, or tangled into each other.

SPACINGThe sort of spacing used in a drawing greatly affects whether ornot it creates a feeling of depth. Evenly sized divisions andspacings of lines, shapes, and forms usually suggest flat planes,not ones receding in space. If there is too much equality acrossthe picture surface, whether it is the too-even spacing of smallerindividual lines or breakups, or the too-even spacing of variouslarger picture elements, the eye associates this regular divisionwith a flat surface. So it is good to get in the habit of using per-spective spacings, as suggested by the diagram, even if you arenot drawing the receding boards of a fence or similar subject.You can use perspective spacing, for example, in the positioningof figures in a crowd, clouds in the sky, and so on—the applica-tions are endless.

USING ALL THREE PLANES AND AXESFor depth and compositional interest it’s helpful to have formsmoving in all three axes rather than only one or two. This cre-ates a three-dimensional feel by marking out each axis for theviewer. It’s very important to convey information about all threeplanes of the form you are depicting—you must explain thesubject’s length, width, and height. If you draw in in a style thatsolely consists of a staggered series of flat cutouts, in may seemto be “three dimensional,” but isn’t really. That’s fine if done

ABOVE: In this image of Mister X tracking down a woundedrobot, I was careful in my choice of where to place the horizonline, setting it at about the level of Mister X’s gun, and on thesame level as the robot’s severed arm. This purposely focussedattention on the gun and the robot’s damage, and also split thedifference between looking up at the robot and down at the rub-ble on the ground plane. Looking up at the robot made him looklarge and dramatic; and looking down allowed me to add to thedepth effect by keeping the receding layers of rubble visible. Toolow a vantage point would have meant that only the first row ofrubble blocks would have been visible, which would have hadmore of a “cutout” effect because none of the tops of the blockswould have been visible. I was also careful to overlap the rubbleblocks and other picture elements clearly, aiming to stage theshapes for clarity. To add to the depth effect, I included two levelsof windows: the nearer ones outside the broken wall, and muchmore distant ones in the city. This gave the picture more “depth offield.”

BELOW: By sketching real objects around you, from differentangles, develop your “perspective sense”—the sense of howmuch foreshortening is appropriate to a given angle, what sort ofspacing is correct for the perspective you have chosen. After awhile it becomes second nature—you get more of a sense ofwhat works and what doesn’t. The best way to develop this senseaccurately is to observe from life.

MRX

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03VO

RTEX

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SPOTLIGHT POWERS


BRET BLEVINSDRAWING HANDS

he human hand is a miracle of functionand design—an instrument of wonderful dexterity,strength and grace. Our opposable thumb is generallycredited with the rise of Homo Sapiens as the domi-nant species of Earth—the hand’s sensitive flexibilityenabled and encouraged the human mind to create tech-nology and reshape our environment, and continues to doso. When drawing hands, you are engaged with a uniquemarvel of the natural world—approaching them with awewill help you understand their complexity.

Although knowledge of anatomy is crucial, the subject istoo deep to cover in this article—I suggest using the materialI’m presenting in conjunction with a good anatomy bookdesigned for artists. Our focus in these pages is the capacityof the hand to express human emotion. The face and twohands form a triad of visual expression that is capa-ble of remarkably subtle communication—asevery child quickly learns, interiorthought and emotion is often revealedmore clearly by these silentmeans than through speech.Indeed, the amazing struc-tures that crown our armscan literally place lan-guage in the handsof mute or deafpeople wholearn to talk bysigning.

It’s usefulto keep thisimage of “speakinghands” in mindwhen posing the handgestures in your fig-ure drawings—whatare the hands in yourimage “saying”? Alwaysremember their impor-tance as expressors ofinterior emotions,thoughts, intentions andattitudes, and composethe hands as condensedvisual “dialogue” thatpunctuates the charac-ter’s body language.

Of course, inmany cases the posi-tion of the handswill be determinedby the need to

explain a physical action—there is limitedemotional nuance to be gleaned from thegripping of a hammer or the motion ofunscrewing a jar lid—but even here youcan find opportunities to convey char-acter and personality if you are atten-tive. Watch someone eat leisurely,savoring the food, and compare theiractions to someone on the runscarfing down a hurried meal—the difference in body languageis startling. For a more whimsicalcontrast, compare thedemeanor of a child eatingvegetables to that of a childeating ice cream!

Beginning with asketch done from life,I’ve made a seconddrawing that clarifiesthe forms by simpli-fying detail andaccenting theimportant con-tours, the thirddrawing is apure“rhythmchart,”and thefourthis anarrowdiagramof the bigsweepingrhythms ofeach pose.Train yourvision tonotice and“feel” this

underlyingmovement—think of it as visualmusic—learn to hone in on the melody lines first, and worryabout flourishes and detail later.

As I mentioned above, the rhythms of the hand echothose of the entire body—everything is a flowing connection, asthese two whimsical sketches illustrate.

DRAWING HANDSBY BRET BLEVINS

T



ABOVE: Watching (and sketching) as patrons eat and drink ina cafe, musicians play instruments, carpenters work, childrenplay with toys—examples to study are endless. Especially instruc-tive for our purposes, though, is to watch people talking andthinking with their hands. You can often read a person’s thoughtsby watching what their hands are doing. In these examplesnotice how the action of the hands immediately suggest an interi-or state of mind, and how shifting the hands changes the charac-ter’s attitudes and thoughts.

BELOW and RIGHT: Surprisingly, I often see figure drawingsthat haven’t integrated the hands with the body—take care that acharacter’s hands agree with the rest of his or her body. A gauntperson doesn’t usually have plump hands, and vice versa. Abricklayer’s hands don’t belong on a hairdresser, etc.

RIGHT: The essential means of achieving this clear communica-tion is, as always, an understanding of rhythm. Grasping therhythm of the hand (which echoes the rhythms of the entire body)requires close, intuitive observation. Fortunately, the hands arealmost always unclothed and exposed, so opportunity for study iseverywhere—including the ends of your own arms! A smallhinged cosmetic mirror is an invaluable aid for drawing yourown hands. Here are a few studies of hand rhythms.



LEFT: To strengthen the expressive clarity ofa drawn hand, an awareness of our oldfriend silhouetting (see DRAW! #1-4) is crucial—though hands present challengesparticular to their structure. From manyviewpoints the fingers inevitably overlap,forming an indistinct “clumped” silhouette—care must be taken here to prevent confusion,or simple lack of drama (visual interest).Often this requires a strong accent on thegesture’s defining fingers within the shape of the entire hand.



A second problem specific to the hands are the loose folds ofthin or padded flesh that permit the fingers and palm theirextreme range of movement—when the edges of these foldsare intensified by the heightened contrast inherent to linedrawing, the hands can easily appear withered, gnarled, ortoo old for the rest of the body they belong to. Here a kind of“interior silhouetting” of the forms is needed—we’ll use theterm streamlining. In essence this means accenting the edges ordirectional lines that most succinctly convey the rhythm of theentire gesture, and minimizing or deleting those that don’t—notice how the angles of the forms have been sharpened byslightly exaggerating the change of direction—making theshapes easier to “read.” Even where the need for clarificationis slight or subtle, careful streamlining and “sharpening” canstrengthen a drawing.



ABOVE: Once these notions become a habit of mind, drawing the complexities of the human hand is much less intimidating, and afteryou’ve filled a few sketchbooks with accurate observation, it becomes easier to “animate” the expressive power of the hand in the realmof stylized character designs. In these examples the basic visual gestalt of the human hand has been mutated into mild or extremevariations, but they convey the intended meaning of the character’s emotion or attitude because the underlying natural rhythms andgestures “read” as the expressions of a more-or-less human consciousness.

DRAW! #5Interview and sketchbook by MIKE WIERINGO, BRIAN BENDISand MIKE OEMING show how they create the series “Powers”,BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw great hands”, “The illusionof depth in design” by PAUL RIVOCHE, must-have art booksreviewed by TERRY BEATTY, plus reviews of the best art sup-plies, links, a color section and more! OEMING cover!

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