Inspiration!

It's rare that I get inspired.

A huge change in who I've become, from who I once was.

An artist. As a kid, that's all I did, and I didn't need any inspiration. As a young teenager, I had comics and anime to mimic. I never had any problems finding the want to draw, often tuning out lectures in class, to scribble something down on paper. Then I got a really lousy art teacher... I wanted to develop my own style, and branch out into things I hadn't tried yet... She wanted to make everyone learn to do things her way... She called it, "pushing you out of your comfort zone" and to me that's not teaching art. An artist should inspire others, and a teacher should help those looking for inspiration find it. By this time I had started slipping into a need for inspiration to do anything, sketch, paint, sculpt... And nothing I put my mind to turned out right... I started doing some Tagging, a way to vent the frustrations that came with not being Inspired... But when it came to real art... I was losing something very slowly... It's been many years since then, and I still don't know what it was or where it's gone...

But once in a while it will resurface...

Sometimes something just "clicks" and I have to do something artistic.

Sometimes it just comes on for no appearant reason...

Sometimes... I get inspired.

  

18" x 24" standard drawing paper, 9H graphite pencil.
I started laying in the basic shapes for the image I wanted, making adjustments as neccessarry.



When I had a rough enough set, I switched up to a 6H and started setting some hardlines.

Then I moved down to a 2H and started adding some detail.

2B (or not 2b) Starting to add more detail and lift some things off the page, dropping in a little shadow, and setting the spots on Mika's Halter. (Who's Mika? We'll get to that later...)

Still working with the 2B adding details to Mia, laying in the earings, developing highlights/shadows for the hair... trying to get the smile just right, eyes looking in the right place.

2B, still... Eyeball details, Mia's hand and arm, and David Mack...

(Developing stubble... Dang Dave, you need to shave man!)

8B, a major jump.. but I couldn't find my 4 or my 6... ah well... Started laying in the Black... I used almost half of the pencil.

Blended out all the shading and added some highlights and fine pencil detail, to finish.

Mika Tan, about to lick a Cow's eyeball, while Mia Matsumiya helps, and David Mack watches.

David Mack

Mia Matsumiya

Cow Eyeball

Cleverly hidden signiture in the spots on Mika's Halter.

I do apologize for the poor photography. The Drawing looks much better in real life. I switched lighting to see if I could get any better shots...

No such luck.

Okay, so now you maybe wondering... "Who are these people?"

Well, to be honest.. I don't really "know" any of them. I have met David Mack, and subscribe to his FB page. He is constantly posting his artwork for all to see, and I am very happy that he does. He is simply too awesome for words. I envy the ability he has. But I am always getting to see his work, for free... and I have been wanting to give something back for a while... but I just haven't had the right push to get the pencil moving. Then the other day, he puts up some pictures from a party he was at... Seriously, this guy is constanly going somewhere or doing something fun and exciting...  At this party were several other people, and they all appeared to be having a great time. Someone recieved a gift of frozen cow eyeballs. (I believe it was Mia) I'm thinking there may have been some liqour involved for what happened next. Mika is playing around pretending to Lick one of the Eyeballs while someone takes a picture, and either, Mia thought it would be funny, or perhaps people weren't as steady on thier feet as they should have been, but somehow one of the eyeballs did in fact manage to touch Mika's tongue. 

A normal person would probably get grossed out by this...

But me... I found my inspiration...

So I wanted to give back to David Mack for all the wonderful works of art he's given to me, and everyone else over the years. I appreciate the hard work and genuine love he has for his art. It shows in everything he does, and it makes me want to be a better artist, to strive to find whatever it was that I lost. For now, I can settle with the occasional bursts as they come, and I will set out to do whatever my heart tells me when the time comes. For this one, I went with graphite for my medium, because I wanted to pay tribute to all the sketches David posts every week,  and I just wanted to say "Thank You" in my own little way.

Thank You, David Mack.

 (Source material borrowed from David's FB page for my sketch, I wanted to put the humping dog somewhere in the picture, but I just couldn't find a fit for it.)