Hello friends, I hope you are doing well. How is your year going? I hope things are going great. I just wanted to talk about getting over my drawing block in the past year and a half. I have periods of time where I don’t draw anything. I want to draw but I am hyper critical of myself. I mentioned it previously on the blog. If the drawing doesn’t’t come out exactly as I imagine it in my head then I get frustrated. This is not an excuse to switch to AI, because I do not support slop in any shape, or form. The best trick that I could do to get past my mental block was pick up my sketchbook and draw a skateboarding skeleton.
It never fails no matter how long it’s been between drawings (sometimes years!) that as soon as I start drawing a skating skeleton I can always come up with something. The reason for this comes
from my love of the art of Vernon Courtlandt Johnson. He created almost every iconic deck for Powell Peralta back in the ‘80s, and even came out of retirement to create new decks in 2010, and 2020.
If I want to draw a subject then I try to emulate the style of my heroes. So for a few days in a row I went with that. One drawing a day. My poses, and lifework were very stiff at first. As the days went on the drawings got better. My poses became more dynamic from day to day. I finally started coming around, and feeling more confident with my work.
A took a few weeks off the sketchbook to work on art on the computer. I'll be posting those soon. When I went back to the sketchbook I knew exactly where I could pick up. This time I wanted to do a skeleton from a specific era. I did baggy clothes, and a skateboard with super tiny wheels. This was very much in style in the '90s.
Believe it or not they still make tiny wheels.
One of my old friends who used to work at Neversoft gave me a couple of ideas. So I drew them up, and he asked if I had ever thought of putting together a sketchbook of my skate skeleton drawings. I said I never thought of it, but he said he would help me raise the funds if I ever decided to pursue a book. I’m not sure anyone would be interested. Would you buy a sketchbook if I sold it? Tell me about it in the comments section. If you enjoy this blog there are several ways you can support me. You can
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