Back in the Saddle
I realize I’ve been doing a lot of writing, designing, plotting, and even a little art-directing lately. But the one thing I haven’t done a lot of is some serious drawing. As I warm up to begin the interior art for the last Spiderwick book, The Wyrm King, I blow the dust off of some old sketches in an attempt to track what I’ve learned in the last decade.
This is nothing new. French artist Claire Wendling did it masterfully in a fascinating revisit to one of her earlier published sketchbooks, Iguana Bay. In the same spirit I took my first self-published sketchbook, aptly titled DiTerlizzi Sketchbook (it was limited to 100 copies and sold at the 1994 GenCon game fair), and looked at it with older, possibly more astute, eyes.
I started with the goblin on the cover. Certainly he was a classic Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual-inspired character. Though there is some fun gesture with the penwork (especially in the hand), I really had no control over the ink. I was trying to learn how to put it down on paper without making too much of a mess. The overall gesture doesn’t say much about his character either – he is simply a grotesque head popped on a scribbled torso.
The first thing I did, before I sketched anything, was take a quick snapshot of me acting as this goblin. I figured he was a grumpy sort of character (perhaps due to dental problems). So, with my computer, I struck a pose:
Young artists out there: this took less than 90 seconds to pose and print. One and a half minutes. If I had Ang take the shot with our digital camera, then perhaps 5 whopping minutes to shot, download, and print. There is no excuse why you cannot have reference to help make your imagery more convincing. You are never too old, or experienced, to do this. Okay, rant over, blog resuming…
Great, so the grumpy goblin pose helped. I was able to sketch the pull from his crossed arms on his tattered shirt convincingly, and play with some nice facial lighting. In fact, I twisted and pushed his facial features to give him a battered appearance. (Personally, I think most D&D characters would be a little worse for the wear from all of the adventuring anyhow).
Next, I found a fairly decent ink doodle of a chameleon lizard man shaman. Surprisingly, my linework here was pretty solid, if a bit overworked. The aspect I did not capitalize on, though, was the awesome anatomy of the lizard itself – he has humanish arms and legs plopped on his reptilian form.
My quick redo retains his lizardy features with a couple of hints at intelligence: jewelery, belts and pouches, and a staff. By the way, I used the same book I used as reference for this original drawing: Chameleons, by James Martin.
…more tomorrow…
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I think it’s so awesome that you go back and redraw old sketches.
I like your works, all those! very very much!
Your style is unique and awesome! I hope can see the your new sketchbook.
congratulations!!
these are great T! Its super cool when you share your thought process this way!
gina teases me because i photo reference my own hands all the time so she says all my characters have my hands!
These are wonderful! Thanks for sharing.
You know, if you were to publish a book on drawing, I’d be the first in line to buy a copy.
…. I simply LOVE the chameleon!!!!
Ah! Lovin the Rackham-ness of your first chamelishaman’s feet. Your work has really progressed over time. There’s so much more movement and life in your newer drawings. Great stuff.
Question here, is the pic of the scetch book up top a blank book you bought and doodled on the cover, or the finished book you sold? Cuz if it’s something you bought first where could I get a sketch book with the chipboard type cover that I could draw on like you did?
Emily
Hey Emily,
It was a printed sketchbook that I sold years ago. I was able to buy the cardboard at a print shop…and many of those will tape bind any paper you want into a book…
Thank you!
Emily
Sorry, I have one more question. Have you ever considered doing a drawing book? You know, one that instructs people on how to draw certain things? It would be cool if you made a drawing book that taught you how to draw faery things! I am using the field guide to draw from. But I think it would be soooooo cool if you made an actual drawing book. Have you ever thought of doing that?
Oh, btw, my younger sister and I have been enjoying the cd versions of your stories read aloud by Mark Hamill. And I just bought the spiderwick chronicles, completely fantastical edition and beyond the spiderwick chronicles. Yay! =D
Your Devoted Fan,
Emily
Hi Emily, you ARE quite a devoted fan – that’s awesome! Thank you. I hope you are enjoying the audio cds. Mark did a great job as did Andrew McCarthy (who played Mr. Grace in the film) when he read the Beyond books.
I think I would like to do a step-by-step here on the site one day. But I can tell you that I totally learned from copying artists I liked. Eventually the practice began to pay off.
Awesome! Thank you! The books haven’t come in the mail yet but I’m eagerly awaiting their arrival! =D Thanks again!
Hi- I wasn’t able to find your contact info to send your inbox a direct message but I am extremely curious as to where you found the image of the ink drawing of the chameleon shaman. I am doing heavy research on cross-cultural connections & it could be useful to know if the background of the image came from any “cultural chameleon” references..
if you could get back to me that would be wonderful.
Thanks for your time!
Beatriz,
The ink drawing came from yours truly and was done around 1993-94. I re-sketched him for this post to see how I would render him now, 10+ years later.