the first page sort of gave birth to the idea, just one of thos ethrowaway drawings, but i liked the way it looked and felt.
they're a little stylised and not overly finnicky, but i'm happy with all three drawings stylistically and expressively speaking, particularly pages 2 and 3 which make kind of an autobiographical 'before and after' kind of visual couplet, the first a representation of my first meeting proper with emma ross, when her hair was drastically longer and mine was considerably shorter and without a trace of grey.
details like her woven leather bracelet, chunky thumb rings and long retired nose-stud are included to exemplify my ability to remember seemingly minor details seven years later in spite of not knowing what DAY it is half of the time. . .
the third page is my favorite of the three, not for the obvious reasons of what it shows, but more i think compositioonally and such it just came out really nice, and the lines are nice and crisp instead of wavery and all over the place. . . for a change.
so there you go. watch this space, there's much more to come. . .
note: i'm photographing these rather than scanning them. don't ask me why but i feel like scanning pencil drawings kind of. . . loses something, scanned pencil pieces never look quite right for some reason. . .
-iain
God that's right! I had a nose stud! I don't know *how* you remember all the things you do!
ReplyDeleteI like your longer hair better. I do miss my hair being that long sometimes. :(
These are so good and you know I love them.
It blows me away having someone who does these things. I love it, it makes me feel so special and lucky.
I'm permanently tickled pink, toots. :)
<3
Yes. Love it! I agree, the composition in #3 is really nice. I also love your facial expressions and the way you're both standing in #2. If you're anything like me, you're drawing something that actually happened that you can still picture in your mind for some reason - the clothes you wore, the way you looked at each other. (Ask me what I was wearing and who I was sitting next to that day in 7th grade. Go on, ask me!) Point being, your connection to the subject matter shows.
ReplyDeleteAnd greetings to Emma up above me. I recognize those rolled-up pant legs in #1. I'm about 5ft 2in / 157cm. :-)
bron: why thank you! it's definitely the case of drawing things from specific memories. . .
ReplyDeletethe actual first time i met emma i had gone into the coffee shop after being at the comic book store the whole afternoon a friday. luke, whom i'd known for about a month had always been on when i went in but this specific day he wasn't, and i pretty much walked in and stood there looking puzzled. it's one of those things where you take a familiar element out of a place, it suddenly feels very different. . .
anyway, someone off to my left said 'can i help you?' in a fairly broad west coast accent and i turned and there was this diminutive, quite mousy blonde girl clearing cups from a table and onto a tray
and since nobody does shy and awkward like i do (especially with girls, and especially back then), i pretty much tucked my hands deeply into my pockets, looked at my feet and mumbled 'is luke working?' which she didn't hear a word of.
anyway, she scooped up this tray in one hand and gathered empty sugar sachets from teh table in her other hand and dropped them onto the tray.
'did you say luke?' she asked. i nodded, she smiled and told me luke was home sick with food poisoning
'ouch' i said, which i remember very clearly - then ordered my usual and sat in a corner reading comics for half an hour and giving emma the occasional nervous smile. . .
and that's pretty much how i first met her. every picture tells a story as they say. . . :)
so, 7th grade you say. . . :P
Iain, your memory is astounding! How do you remember all this? :O
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're not as shy as you used to be. Even though it was very cute. :)
And greetings to Bronwen! Rolled-up pant legs are one of the many curses of being short. You either cuff the legs or you start shopping for pants in the kids department. :/
i remember details, usually abstract details - seemingly never the big stuff, just details, it really is like a stack of mental polaroids that i can browse through and trigger memories. . .
ReplyDeleteThese are so sweet, Iain! The third one's beautiful. If I didn't already know you two were close I think you can see it in the way you draw and paint her :)
ReplyDeleteit shows a bit, doesn't it? :)
ReplyDelete