Tuesday, March 11, 2008

DO YOU HAVE ANY FORMAL ART TRAINING

Not in a very conventional sense. I am mostly self taught, as I've always been motivated to draw. Since Kindergarten, and throughout grade school I won a slew of awards, and by the time I was eight years old, I was awarded a scholarship to study art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn on Saturdays. I remember being the kid in the class with all these adults! that lasted about a year or so. My mom, enrolled me in some art classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, and that was about it. In both these situations, there was no formal, "this is how you draw the human figure" type of instruction, it really seemed as just a venue for kids to do what they wanted as the teacher thought up an activity for the day.

I got really excited when I learned, after a lot of practice how to draw UNDERDOG , CHARLIE BROWN, and Fred Flintstone. After I "mastered" drawing these cartoons, I felt like I could draw anything!

As I got older I began to read a variety of books on figure drawing, cartooning, anatomy, and painting. One book that made a big impression was Drawing on the right side of the brain. I still feel to this day that it is THE book to go to if you really want to learn how to draw.
I read a lot of Muscle and Fitness Bodybuilding Magazines as well, number one because I had gotten into bodybuilding as a hobby, and two, I figured that it made sense to see waht muscles looked like on a HUMAN BODY rather than copying another artists interpretation. I think learning anatomy THIS way was one of the best things I did for my own education.
I sat in on a few figure drawing sessions at The art Students League and Hunter College where I was majoring in one of the most boring art programs imaginable. More on that later....
Marvel Comics was also a great inspiration. My favorite artist was Gil Kane, and I became a Gil Kane Clone until I discovered R Crumb and Zap Comics.