Sketches for a sketch

Trying to find a look

So I’ve been sketching two pictures of Sasha (my dog) for a very small comic sketch (of the non-drawing type) I want to do.

It hasn’t been easy finding the look I want or capturing Sasha’s expression. She is extremely expressive and I struggle to capture her disapproving stares on paper. I could (and should) write a whole book on Sasha and her expressions and behaviour, it’s on my To Do list.

I recently wrote about how my inner critic is so strong that it won’t let me do anything and how a little belief in yourself goes a long way:

The Power of Belief

These sketches of Sasha were drawn before I had this mini-epiphany above, there are a bunch of things I don’t like about them but also things I really do like so I’m including them here for you fine paying subscribers because I promised I would let you peek behind the curtain of the creative process and serenade you with the diabolical struggles of a pained would-be artist who doesn’t believe in himself.

Don’t worry! I promise to keep the self-flagellation to a minimum and the finger-pointing to an acceptable amount ;)

Be warned though, this is quite unfiltered and might even contain spelling mistakes (gasp!) as that’s the whole point of these things: to be brutally honest about the creative process hoping that others can maybe relate to them in some way and ease some of the burden most of us seem to feel when it comes to creating.

This is the first one I made…

I was trying to get the car and Sasha in proper proportions but didn’t quite manage it. So I hated myself for it of course and let my inner critic (the SS Vampire) convince me that I had to forget the whole thing and go back to doing jobs that were killing me but at least made some money.

After a day of sulking and, you guessed it, self-flagellation, I went back to it and found that there were things I really liked. I sent it to my dear, beloved friend Rosana Faría who is not only an amazing illustrator but an even more amazing human being and she told me to stop worrying so much about proportions and to embrace my own disproportion, that that would be where the magic happened.

Of course, I didn’t believe her. Despite the fact that I greatly admire Rosana and she’s been right about everything she’s told me when it comes to illustration and despite the fact that she’s an award-winning illustrator with decades of experience, my inner critic, the SS Vampire, that razor-sharp mutherfucker, is stronger than anyone or anything else and has been with me for so long that I defer to its idiotic “opinion” above all else. But after calming that beast down for a bit I listened to Rosana and went back to the sketch. Just touched it up a bit.

Very small changes really, the big difference here was my attitude. I decided I would use this as a sketch instead of throwing it away and outlined it in black, waterproof ink so I could add watercolour to it.