The Ink Stained Wretch #126: 3/20/24
A Psycho Killer Sketch, St. Patricks Day Shenanigans, and Forgetting How to Learn!
It's yet another ridiculous Wednesday edition of the rancid, repulsive and reprehensible ramblings that are these newsletters! This week you may ask yourself, "How did I end up a 'Sketch o'the Week'?", or take a look at some idiotic St. Paddy's Day illustrations, or examine how people are forgetting how to really learn things ...on with the 'Wretch!
Sketch o'the Week: David Byrne!
Click here if you are interested in this original sketch
We are Burning Down the House with this week's sketch of "Talking Heads" frontman David Byrne!
The "Talking Heads" was one of those bands that was impossible to categorize. They came into being during the punk rock/New wave era of the late 1970's, but they weren't really part of either movement, although "New Wave" is what they get shoehorned into when being discussed. They were the definition of "their own thing", and a big part of that was Byrne's oddball but charismatic presence. You couldn't quite tell if he and the band were for real or playing it campy and tongue-in-cheek. No matter what they were fun to listen to. Their music videos were like acid trips on the TV screen, but despite the weirdness their tunes were catchy.
Erin Go Bleech!
St. Patrick's Day was this past Sunday, and I'll share two things I know about the holiday.
First, and most important, never refer to it as "St. Patty's Day" around an actual Irishman. Most don't take that well. The holiday commemorates the Christian saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, who brought Christianity to Ireland and is said to have died on March 17th, 461. However "Patrick" is the anglicized version of the name. The Irish Gaelic name is Pádraig, and the correct shortened nickname is "Paddy". So be sure to refer to it as "St. Paddy's Day" unless you prefer to have your Guinness dumped on your head instead of in your stomach.
Second, MAD and DC really dropped the ball when they stopped selling their "Alfred E. Leprechaun" T-shirts! Illustration from that above.
I did a number of pieces of art for the "WB Consumer Products" department back in the day, but none of them get as many "WHERE CAN I GET THAT SHIRT??" responses when I post the image as the one I did of Alfred as a leprechaun. Sadly this was a short lived product and it's pretty rare to find one on eBay or elsewhere. Here's a look at some of the concept drawings I did before the final:
You Kids Get Off My Lawn Dept.
The internet changed the world in a lot of positive ways. Cheap and instantaneous communication and the sharing of ideas and information between all corners of the planet is a powerful thing to have in your pocket at all times. But, like most things, there's plenty of bad repercussions as well. One of them is the dumbing down of a generation of people who think learning a skill or ability is the result of watching a few YouTube "tutorials" as opposed to learning the concepts and foundations of that skill or ability. Here's a great example from a "review" of my book "The Mad Art of Caricature" on Amazon:
This is a person who thinks learning to do something as complex as drawing caricatures should be as easy as "step 1, step 2, step three, RESULT!" If that's what you are looking for, then don't buy my book because that's not what it is.
Learning to create art is not a step by step process. It's a journey. Sure there are technical aspects to it, like learning how to apply paint to a canvas, or to use a dip pen and ink, or the fundamentals of human anatomy, but none of that is really creating art. It's part of the craft, but not the creative part.
When I teach people about doing caricatures, I emphasize the difference between learning to draw and learning to see. Anyone can learn the technical aspects of drawing or painting or sculpting. Being able to visualize something unique in your head and using those technical skills to bring it to life is where the art happens. You develop your abilities as an artist. In learning the craft part of doing art you are developing your "sight" and the creative muscles at the same time. It's a hand in hand journey that never really ends. As long as you put effort into it, you will continue to improve as an artist.
This is especially true for caricaturists, because you are not just realistically copying your subject like a portraitist might, but you are looking for ways to interpret the subject to exaggerate what makes that person THEM. There's no formula for that. You have to make those choices. That's learning to see, not just learning to draw. It's a process, and it doesn't stop unless you stop it.
A.I. "artists" are a natural evolution of the tutorial learning generation. By using an A.I. generator people believe they can bypass the part about learning the craft and go straight to the "making art" part. What they are doing is forgoing the journey, and all the growth and creative development that goes with it. That process is what makes a person an artist.
:D Thanks, Timothy!
:D Thanks, Peggy!!