Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Early 6-Panels Part II

One of the things I love about revisiting stuff I drew in the past is seeing what I was thinking at the time I drew it. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was growing along with the characters. My artwork got better with practice (and, of course, college education) the jokes got better, and "Bill and Buster" became more personal. I knew I was doing something right when people started asking me for copies of some of these.

Before I knew it, these guys were starting to channel my thoughts. With most of these I just drew them straight-ahead, sometimes I'd have a punchline in mind, a setup, or just something I was thinking about and wanted to draw out somehow. Subconsciously, Buster started acting out my more outgoing, impulsive side, and Bill became the voice of reason who gave advice to Buster. Id and Ego, angel and devil on the shoulder, whatever. This one is a prime example:



Even in a surreal or abstract idea, I found I could make the characters believable.


All of the great artists, whether visual, musical, literary or performing, talk about drawing from life experiences. I drew this one with the guys in my fraternity in mind, as sort of a wink-wink-nudge type of thing. It was supposed to be funny, but it had quite a different effect on people. I had a copy on my dorm door along with some others, and I never saw any of the guys laugh at it...instead they would tell me it was moving, and one Brother even asked for a signed copy when he graduated. I don't know if he still has it, but I gave him the original ink drawing, all I have left is a digital copy.



The very same fraternity brother is a talented musician, and played drums in a band for a few years (see "The Pomonas" in the links column). I'm sure this one was inspired by the many college road-trips I went on to hear them play, often on multi-band gigs with a lot of weird up-and-coming groups who fit Bill's description more than anything else!



I'll leave this post off with this one, the reason most sane people in the world, even if they're musically inclined, don't join bands!



More on the way soon!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm lovin' these! Keep it up!