Friday, May 13, 2005

Superdoodles

Superdoodles

[jimlee]

Like nearly everyone, I doodle. Here are some I did during breaks between meetings. Cropped out are all the important notes and such. These go so fast I wonder how I could ever be late on a real assignment. Sad truth is that nearly every artist I know draws pretty fast when it comes to sketchy type material but when it comes to real work, everyone slows down--sometimes to a crawl.

Call it choking, call it nerves but there is something about knowing your work is for print that makes you pull back and the best work always comes when you break through this mental block. When it's going good, I can do 2 pages a day. When it's going cold, it can take 3-4 days for a page and you could never tell the difference between what pages took a short amount of time and which seemed to take an eternity to finish.

Here is a closer shot.

10 comments:

Jonathan Rector said...

you speak the truth :)

mic? said...

Perfectly articulated.

And great doodles!

Peace...

Ryan said...

To even know what it feels like to be in such an artistic predicament...

I guess you can also draw a parallel with any creative medium, not just drawing. I know when I would write either informative, argumentative, or creative writing compositions for university, sometimes I could knock out an essay without blinking an eye...other times, I would be stuck writing the same paragraph or sentence for days.

Ryan
Jim Lee please come to the PCTC! Please!

Ryan said...

Forgot to add...that Superman pose looks dramatically like your "Comic Book Greats" figure. Lower body isn't the same pose, but the upper body is a dead ringer...

Ryan

antonio said...

Thanks Jim for sharing the DOODLE and info!!
Damn is so terrible to have those loops of Inspiration:
have a great day all of you!!..JESUS ANTONIO

ps:Beautiful Doodle!!!

Elayne said...

I was actually pretty surprised to learn how slowly most comic book artists drew, because my husband draws so relatively fast. I guess there aren't that many with enough confidence to do "fast and good."

mic? said...

^ Just like Jim wrote, it's more about the thought of the latter part and pushin' "good" or "good enough" to the level o' "best" or "excellent." Awesome artists are their own worst critics and I appreciate the careful thought they place in their work. I find inspiration to serve as the perfect motivation to break through mental blocks.

Peace...

antonio said...

Elayne the reason is Obvious...Your husband is incredibly talented...!!! I really hope He jumps into the pencilers pool someday...Good day to you and him!!!...JESUS ANTONIO

Unknown said...

nice to see sketches again from you jim! it reminds me of some of the designs sketches for all star superman.

Chaz said...

It's sometimes in the spontaneity of drawing quickly that magic can happen. It reminds me of when people toil over term papers and in the end they come up with a completely antiquated thought. If it's straight off the cuff it makes it much breezier. That effortlessness conveys itself in the final product.