The Cute, the Bad, and the Fugly

This weeks suggestion is from Justin of Left-Handed Toons: “A sloth piloting a fighter jet alongside a slow loris also piloting a fighter jet.” I’m having such a great time with these suggestions. Each one seems to be more inventive than the last. So I present to you:

Sloth, You’re Doing it Wrong

Do You Have a License for That?

He doesn’t. That’s what that facial expression says. I love Slow Loris‘, they’re one of those animals that few people know anything about. Along with other animals like wombats and tapirs, slow loris’ give me a secret pride for knowing about them. Click on the links if you’d like to learn more about these enduring fuzzies.

Those first two sketches are cheats. I enjoy them, but they weren’t a challenge. The fail below was the challenge.

I’m not sure what idea I had in mind when I started this picture. Halfway through it I decided that its challenge was that I would not use blacks. For an artist that isn’t even sure of how to color well it was a good challenge. I got this far and I realized that what should have been the focus of the piece – the slow loris and the sloth- were lost in all of the detail. Not only that but it was hard to tell what I was going for. I heard “flying over blocks” more than I heard “flying over a city”. Regrettably I then had to deem the time spent at this as an overall fail. I learned, so I don’t regret the time spent, I just wish that every time I set out with a goal in mind I can reach it to its fullest. Art takes such a long time and by the time that I’m done working on something it never looks like what I thought it would. Sometimes that’s really rewarding and sometimes (like this time) it is really frustrating.

After spending so much time with Slow Loris’ and Sloths I felt bad that I wrapped up “Hulk with a Vespa” so promptly. So as a throwback to last week and a shout out to left-handed toons: A left-handed Hulk. I always think drawing with the opposite hand is a fun challenge. I don’t do it often and it always surprises me how well you can draw with your other hand. Since drawing is about finding shapes in figures (for me at least) sketching with my opposite hand isn’t that bad. Of course, if I was sketching with my right this sketch would be better, but the same rough discovery is part of the process no matter the hand.

Thanks for looking!