Sorta Horses

...This is an illustration for an article on handicapping horses. Just what are people looking at when they give a horse the once-over to decide whether they should put their money on him/her?


.The art director gave me a heads-up and a brief description to let me know that it was coming. Based on that description – and taking a purely illustrative approach (as opposed to informative) – I quickly slashed out the portion of the drawing that is in black. I then set it aside.

The editor then came to talk to me about the assignment and I showed him what I had. Great. Go with that. Cool.

When I first slapped down the horse shape, in my mind I had the vision of a pen & ink drawing by Picasso of Don Quixote (a quick search for "picasso quixote" will bring it up.) Of course, now that I see it, it looks nothing like my attempt. The impression of that piece – however wrong my perception of it may have been – what I was aiming for.

Maybe that's how you do new things. From memory, try to imitate something that you think is really cool, and yet have no clear remembrance of.

epilogue:
...This past weekend I spent a fun few hours at Wondercon in SF. I picked up a few Kirby and Ditko books out of the cheap boxes (mid-70's stuff-- some of my favorites!) and chatted with fellow members of the National Cartoonist Association (Northern California Chapter.) A good time was had by all.

Quite a few Contra Costa Times readers came by the table and chatted during my Saturday morning sit-in. I was slouched in my chair behind a few smelly newspaper tear-sheets and portfolio book or two, and though I had a fever and weepy bloodshot eyes, friendly people came over, talked and sifted through my work. I really appreciated the feedback and had a terrific time meeting those folks.


I should do stuff like that more often and I think I will. Comics would be a fun way to make money to pay for cold pills, wouldn't it? Hmm.


A quick photoshop sketch of a horse done just to see if I could. All my horses look like dogs.


Eh. It's alright. Photo reference (so that it wouldn't look like a doberman.)