The FLY Papers: [1]
IT IS almost a year since I started the FLY concept: the very first rough sketches of this material were struck in early December, 2014.
At that time, I was miles away from home on holiday: I used to get up early for breakfast and do a new spontaneous sketch every morning, before I went out sight-seeing. Back then I only had a low-tech camera on a tablet device, so I photographed the sketches and started beaming them into a site we shall call
THE MOST AWFUL CARTOONIST FORUM IN BRITAIN
-----someone on that forum--I forget who, but they seemed to be one of the more decent Members--------------------suggested I try out something 'completely new' which I was happy to take up: it had been a good while since I even attempted something 'brand new'..........after a few abortive sketches of random subjects like Cavemen and Robots, I tried something completely unknown and un-tried from my perspective: gags about FLIES.
The very first effort on this can be seen below: here it is cleaned up slightly, with some scale adjustments obviously, and it has nominal color added. I remembered this drawing as being poorer than the actuality seen when revisited again, months later: I do not think it is an especially good drawing or idea, but without this primitive rough, I would not have the polished version of the FLY as it looks today.
Some critics at the time on that dodgy-in-execution site slammed and scoffed at this work: but take a look at the more recent FLY cartoons today: it is really quite glossy and refined-looking, with strong-looking characters.
The cynics who dismissed my early rough sketches clearly approach cartooning from a different outlook from the way I do it: perhaps being essentially gag cartoonists, they try and get everything 'perfect' with the first drawing, as if everything is ready to sell to a satire-mag: me, I look at early sketches as STEPPING STONES working towards a polished goal: decent material, in my way of thinking, is built up gradually, over a fair few drawings: around 20 different sketches in the case of the FLY, not all that much really: it actually seems a lot more than just 20 drawings....
I roughly estimate that the entire FLY canon, including all the early experimental roughs, only amount to a mere 20 or so drawings, which is not really a great deal.
This is just how I like to work: it takes all sorts to make a cartoon, thankfully.
Anyway, some of these yawnsome, unimaginitive cynics slagged off my early FLY efforts, but I would ask them:
Where are YOUR original new concepts over the past year, and how good do they look next to THE FLY?
------some of the biggest mouths in this business are amongst the poorest artists.........
----Some of these dudes who wrote off my quick roughs were not even especially good artists, they drew in a charming, 'primitive way' that I do not personally mind and in fact I enjoy seeing their work as a refreshing change---it is better to have a wide variety of styles in cartooning.
If that is what they want to draw like--let them get on with it, sadly I seldom get to see their stuff these days.
Anyway I will be adding in these 'vintage' 2014 FLY sketches interspersed with all-new material in-a-tween.
Below:
Before and After: how a good digital manipulation program like GIMP can turn a basic rough into a workable cartoon...the flies look more effective when shrunken down.... a better sense of space, and relatively decent results for such a quick sketch. If I drew all this 'actual size as seen in the color version, the lack of space to draw in would reflect unfavorably in the finished results.
At that time, I was miles away from home on holiday: I used to get up early for breakfast and do a new spontaneous sketch every morning, before I went out sight-seeing. Back then I only had a low-tech camera on a tablet device, so I photographed the sketches and started beaming them into a site we shall call
THE MOST AWFUL CARTOONIST FORUM IN BRITAIN
-----someone on that forum--I forget who, but they seemed to be one of the more decent Members--------------------suggested I try out something 'completely new' which I was happy to take up: it had been a good while since I even attempted something 'brand new'..........after a few abortive sketches of random subjects like Cavemen and Robots, I tried something completely unknown and un-tried from my perspective: gags about FLIES.
The very first effort on this can be seen below: here it is cleaned up slightly, with some scale adjustments obviously, and it has nominal color added. I remembered this drawing as being poorer than the actuality seen when revisited again, months later: I do not think it is an especially good drawing or idea, but without this primitive rough, I would not have the polished version of the FLY as it looks today.
Some critics at the time on that dodgy-in-execution site slammed and scoffed at this work: but take a look at the more recent FLY cartoons today: it is really quite glossy and refined-looking, with strong-looking characters.
The cynics who dismissed my early rough sketches clearly approach cartooning from a different outlook from the way I do it: perhaps being essentially gag cartoonists, they try and get everything 'perfect' with the first drawing, as if everything is ready to sell to a satire-mag: me, I look at early sketches as STEPPING STONES working towards a polished goal: decent material, in my way of thinking, is built up gradually, over a fair few drawings: around 20 different sketches in the case of the FLY, not all that much really: it actually seems a lot more than just 20 drawings....
I roughly estimate that the entire FLY canon, including all the early experimental roughs, only amount to a mere 20 or so drawings, which is not really a great deal.
This is just how I like to work: it takes all sorts to make a cartoon, thankfully.
Anyway, some of these yawnsome, unimaginitive cynics slagged off my early FLY efforts, but I would ask them:
Where are YOUR original new concepts over the past year, and how good do they look next to THE FLY?
------some of the biggest mouths in this business are amongst the poorest artists.........
----Some of these dudes who wrote off my quick roughs were not even especially good artists, they drew in a charming, 'primitive way' that I do not personally mind and in fact I enjoy seeing their work as a refreshing change---it is better to have a wide variety of styles in cartooning.
If that is what they want to draw like--let them get on with it, sadly I seldom get to see their stuff these days.
Anyway I will be adding in these 'vintage' 2014 FLY sketches interspersed with all-new material in-a-tween.
Below:
Before and After: how a good digital manipulation program like GIMP can turn a basic rough into a workable cartoon...the flies look more effective when shrunken down.... a better sense of space, and relatively decent results for such a quick sketch. If I drew all this 'actual size as seen in the color version, the lack of space to draw in would reflect unfavorably in the finished results.
Comments
Post a Comment