(Untitled)

[hughferriss]

i don't know if any of you other artists go through this, but whenever i resume drawing after a long delay, i worry that i may have forgotten how to draw. when i put pencil to paper, there's always a fear that the well will have run dry and the bucket will come up empty

Comments

[blchandler]

The most William Stout can do anything story I know of is the one where he had to re-paint some image of Elliot Gould or someone one a movie poster because the original artist didn't nail it. Stout, of course, was spot on. But then, he's William Stout. At least we update our blogs more often than he does.

I used to think I could do any style, and I probably could with some limitations. Because I like to use certain tools over others, I think it would be hard. But let's face it, all of us-even the omnipotent William Stout-have a style that's ours. And that's our true voice.

Regarding the sexies: I went through a Frazetta period during my high school days. (Anyone else? Show of hands?) And my word if those women weren't the sexiest of the sexy. (I think by today's standards, they might not be anymore, aside from the fact that they're usually buxom and naked.) But after a while, I just burned out and thought, I'd rather do beautiful than sexy. Or rather interesting than sexy. Or anything aside from sexy. It seemed like it was better art if the sexiness of the drawing came out of the other aspects of the image/character. Ah, well. Good thing I just draw fake animals these days.

And as for ownership: It's funny, because I feel like any creative endeavor I do-visual art, prose or poetry-that it's mine until I let other people see it. Then it's theirs. The work now has all of the ideas and feelsings they projected on it and it no longer has the sole meaning I gave it in the first place. It's sometimes hard to let others see the work because I know it will suddenly be something else, seen with different eyes and read with different brains.