Truth be told, I can not draw on the spot. In San Diego it's rough because many con goers walk around collecting sketches from the artists. It's pretty cool to flip through these books and see all the great art and I always feel honored and awkward when I'm asked to contribute. My impromptu skills are less than stellar and I'm embarrassed such a horrible sketch represents me in someone else's book.
I envy those who can visualize an image in their mind and project it on paper - but I draw the only way I know how and it's the process I love most. I love to approach every drawing differently so I don't have a defined process. I don't even seem to have a "go to bag of tricks" - re-discovering how to draw with several horrible warm up doodles is the only way I can work. Sometimes a drawing comes out just fine the first time - just a sketch that captures what I was thinking - and it feels good, but when the pressure is on, I choke - big time. I can think back to high school and college when I drew a lot more and a picture of Batman was no problem. I think I just think more and thinking can be bad...
Well I had a painful situation where a girl named Carly asked for a Space Girl in her sketchbook at the con. I pooped out something so bad I asked her to e-mail and I'd draw up something to replace it that wouldn't scald human eyes. Here's the result:
I felt better, she liked it - mission accomplished.
