Figure Drawing with Frank Cho

BIG WOW! coverage continues!!!

Right after the Joe Jusko demo was the Figure Drawing with Frank Cho session. I did this last year and it was a blast. Essentially it is live figure drawing by Cho but the audience is invited to join in. Like last year, our model was the voluptuous Ivy, the Baketress (is that a word?) from SoCal.

We did two poses at about 30 minutes each and then Frank critiqued several of the audience member's drawings and added corrections.

For those not familiar with Frank's panels, leave the kids at home. As much as he draws cheesecake, he's not shy about talking about body parts either.

Frank's drawing was projected onto a larger screen. The lighting on the model was low and challenging but we made do.

Frank makes it look easy. The secret to drawing well? Just Draw! Draw! Draw!

Ivy's elaborate Dejah Thoris (John Carter of Mars) costume. My own personal preference, I much rather draw curvaceous models like Ivy than skinny ones. Curves are MUCH more fun to draw.

Later, Frank would critique audience member's drawings and correct them.

More corrections.

A break between poses.

So, how did I do? Below are my four drawings. Four and not two because I think I just draw too fast, something trained into me. I had this problem in my figure drawing marathon a few weeks back. I need to slow down and look more carefully.

I do prefer the close ups.

Last year, I had my work critiqued and, while the drawings were not bad, a lot of the form got lost in all my rendering with my pencils. But since December, I've been using a mechanical pencil instead of the traditional array of HB, 2B, 4B, 8B, etc. While the mechanical pencil doesn't give me the value range for a great pencil study, I noticed it is great for my pre-inking drawings. But these drawings still seem very loose.

Joe Jusko Demo at Big Wow!

Saturday was a day spent at the BIG WOW! convention in San Jose. With no Wonder Con in San Francisco this year, many of us were looking at this and March's IMAGE CON in Oakland to take the edge off. BIG WOW! has been around for a few years under different names like Super Con. Previous years haven't always yielded the best of conventions like the times back in the Oakland convention center were guests and artists were leaving early or recent years in its newer San Jose location were one could be done with the dealer's room in an hour and the masquerade, if the contestants were not called up for a 2nd and 3rd time, could have been done in 5 minutes.

In many ways, this is a very uneven convention but its strength is the line up of artists whom attend. One of the convention owners, Steve Morger, is also the art rep for Frank Cho, Travis Charest, and others so that helps to land the talent. Paying for the big talent to come on out to sunny California and treating them to wine tasting after the con also helps. This is a good relaxing con before the craziness of San Diego two months later where fans and get some good face time with the artists and, I imagine, the artists have time to chat and hang out with their peers.

I was talking with Steve Wyatt, the other owner of BIG WOW! back at March's IMAGE CON with Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go's (I know, right??) and I was mentioning that they really need to play up their strengths at this con. Last year, they started doing some art demos with Adam Hughes and Copic markers and a figure drawing session with Frank Cho where audience members were invited to draw along and then Frank would critique and correct the drawings. I absolutely loved it and, with such an array of artists on tap, they could really make this con something special going beyond just a good con for buying original art to a destination for artists wanting art seminars. And I think the owners were listening as more art-centric panels and demos were on the agenda for 2012.

Having arrived a little late, I only caught the last few minutes of the Coloring Comics panel but was just in time for a two hour acrylic painting demo by Joe Jusko, whom I had just purchased his book minutes before. While the volunteers setting up the hardware for projecting the presentation 45 minutes in was a little distracting (I think I get spoiled with how smooth of an operation the San Diego Comic-Con is), it was a great two hours to just watch, enjoy, and learn. I took photos so here is what went down...

Joe starts with a pencil drawing on crescent illustration board. He says he prefers the cold press (rough surface) over the hot press (smooth surface) because the hot press feels like he is painting on glass. His subject for today is VAMPIRELLA....

Normally he paints on a drafting table but this easel was for the purposes of the crowd getting a good look at the demo.....

Joe likes to work with glazes by thinning out the acrylic paint with water, much like watercolors. Oils take too long in the fast-paced deadlines of the illustration world but acrylics dry faster. He keeps a denim rag on hand to wipe the brushes and usually has a hair dryer to quicken the drying process if need be....

Jusko began by blocking in the skin tones. He says he likes to get this down first, as the most important part, and then work on the rest of the painting to match. Some artists work the background first then the figure but I believe Joe said he does the opposite. He will mask out the figure when working on the background.

Joe was under some time constraints here with only a two hour demo but he said normally he could do a paint from one day (working maybe 12-14 hours) to 3 to 5 days. Under this compressed situation, there was no time for backgrounds and a limited time to work on rendering....



Joe would put in some darker browns to start shading the figure.....

 With the limited time, Joe wanted to concentrate on the face, really the most important part of many paintings.....

Getting some hair in there helped with the contrast. Personally, I don't think I could ever work that tight standing up at an easel. I just don't have that kind of control and it would drive me bonkers. After shading the face, Joe went back with a lighter tone for highlights on the skin, which really makes the figure pop.....

And there you go. Less than two hours of work which just shows you how labor-intensive illustration can be. But what Joe has so far is beautiful. Thanks to Joe Jusko for sharing how he works. Many of us artists appreciate learning from the pros and, personally, acrylic was always the 'kiss of death" for me so I always did my illustrations in watercolor. I might just have to give the acrylics a try again.

Thanks again, Joe!

 Next up....Figure Drawing with Frank Cho!

Oh boy!!  :)

Best Rapture Ever!!

(Detail of Frank Cho's figure drawing sketch)

So how did you spend the Rapture that was suppose to happen yesterday? I spent the day meeting up with my friend Trevor as we ventured over to the BIG WOW! COMICFEST in San Jose.

After taking a year off and re-branding it's self with a new name, the con formerly known as Super Con returned in much the same way it had in previous years. The con doesn't get much foot traffic, the masquerade only had 12 contestants (shortest masquerade/30 minutes), and the media guests tend to be uninspiring. However, what the con does excel in is top of the line artists as one of the con's owners, Steve Morger, uses his connections to roll in some great names. Part of the enticement for these artists is a visit after the con at a local winery and I have to think their travel and room might be getting paid for since it doesn't seem like much money is being made for them with the lack of people. But it is a great chance to talk to the artists who would normally be swamped in San Diego in July for Comic-Con.

One thing the convention did do right this year was some of the panels. Taking advantage of the stellar artists line up, Adam Hughes was tapped to give a demo on his use of Copic markers. Master artist of the female form Frank Cho was also given a panel for a figure drawing session. And THAT, my friends, is how I spent my Saturday afternoon post Rapture!!  :)

(My angle of the model)

About 1.5 - 2 hours were set aside for the panel where Frank would draw and talk about his process for drawing the human figure. But the audience was also invited to draw with Frank and the last 30 minutes was given to Frank critiquing several of the drawings.

(Frank Cho sketches our model, Ivania Turner)

A nice long one hour sitting pose was chosen. I wasn't use to such a long pose so I dived on in and did a quick sketch before moving up to the longer sketch.

Our model was a baker from Lancaster, California, Ivy, who dressed up as Ms. Marvel. Her body type was very curvaceous, the classic Frank Cho woman! She was a good model and sat for the one hour with very little movement.

(Artist Frank Cho & model Ivy as Ms. Marvel)

Adding to the challenge was the angle, sitting slightly up as her chair was placed on top of a table. Having been pushed to draw quicker, I probably should have slowed down and got my contour drawing down better but spend most of that hour rendering and shading. I was lucky enough to get a crit by Frank and, for the most part, he liked the drawing, but we both agreed that the contour lines got lost in the shading.

(My drawing of Ivy)

In all, I enjoyed this type of panel and I hope they do more in the future and perhaps utilize the strengths of this con by having many of the great artists teach and do some demos.  Perhaps this con could grow into more of a seminar with artists such as Mark Schultz and Dan Brereton giving drawing and painting demos for other artists eager to learn?

(Frank Cho hard at work)

With my creative juices still flowing, I busted out the sketchbook after dinner and did some drawing of the Gordon Biersch crowd while a band was playing in the courtyard.

(Sketching at the Gordon Biersch restaurant)

A good day of music, food, shopping, comics, and art. What better way to spend a rapture???

(Frank Cho's drawing of Ivy)