Monday, October 26, 2009

"Don't Quit Your Day Job"


Someone asked me over the weekend what kind of work I did before my fine art career and I tried to explain that I was and still am an illustrator and they asked what kind and I said it would be better for me to show you than to try to explain a style that when I do explain it, most people have a very confused look trying to somehow tie it to what I do now. You can't. It is a totally different frame of mind. It has very little in common with what I have been doing with my fine art but I will say I developed an ability to draw that I think transfers well. When I started I may have been a bit ahead because of all the drawing I had done over the years but like I said,"everyone starts at zero in plein air painting."
Anyway, here are a few sketches I have done for a couple of my clients over the past week. If I remember to scan them I'll post finishes when I am done. I still try to squeeze a few in here and there.

5 comments:

Gary Brookins said...

Kevin- Nice drawings! I hope you post more.

I know what you mean about the looks people give you. After I was laid off from my 30-year job as editorial cartoonist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, people continue to ask me if I'm still drawing editorial cartoons, and if so, where can they see them. When I tell them, "No, I'm pursuing a new career as a painter," they give me this blank look like, "What? Are you nuts? You can't make a living as a painter!" . . . Of course, I used to get the same looks from people when I told them I was trying to become a cartoonist.

Kevin Menck said...

Gary - Thanks, I still need to do a few from time to time.
When I tell people I was an illustrator they think that is the reason I am able to paint. I then try to explain how far removed from plein air painting my illustration work is and that I started where everybody else did. I have the tons of bad paintings here to prove it.

Leslie Hawes said...

These are great! And so are your paintings.

Lisa said...

I love these! Even if I didn't know you drew these, I would know that someone with strong traditional skills did them.

Although there is definite overlap between the two, I can vouch for you that painterly skills and cartooning skills are strikingly independent of each other. For example, a cartoon doesn't have to have abstract shadow shapes, subtle temperature shifts, or a balance of lost and sharp edges. A painting doesn't have to have readily identifiable objects or the pronounced, unambiguous expressiveness of a cartoon.

スタービーチ said...

一時代を築いたスタービーチは閉鎖になってしまいましたが、もう一度楽しい思いをしたい、もう一度であいたいと思う有志により再度復活しました。本家以上に簡単に会えて楽しい思いを約束します