Looking back at my old sketchbooks from 1996 and 1997, I was using the pen heavily. I still enjoy it. There is something about having a nice black and white inked drawing that isn't going to smear like a pencil drawing. I gravitate to black and white more than color too which is probably from my art background but also the graphic arts where I look at black and white and inked works as easy to reproduce for print.
I remember enjoying these looser ink drawings at the time. I don't know if it was one of those "breakthroughs" that artists sometimes talk about but I was experimenting with a looser distorted form. The inking of shadow and texture could give me some realism but it was liberating to distort features for fun and effect.
I was also probably influenced by those Big Head illustrators out there. No, not "big head" like in "ego" but those illustrators that would purposely make the head bigger and the body smaller with their figures. C.F. Payne, still a favorite, does this style with great success and I even have notes from a demo he did during a SJSU visit but these pen and ink drawings probably have more inspiration from the works of David Levine. I probably got my Levine books at about this time.
I probably should go back and do more of these type of drawings. They were a great way to loose up and not end up with a too tight drawing.
I'm almost tempted to try this style with some comic books. It certainly is a far cry from my traditional comic book superheroes look but it might make for an interesting book.
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