Out of the 100 or so drawings I've done in the last three years, these are a few of my best. "Tainted Love/Harley Quinn" I last saw hanging in The Mix Gallery in Richmond, Virginia's arts district on Broad. I left Richmond about six weeks ago, and with help from a friend, made it back out to Southern California. I sold this drawing cheap, to get a motel room, after spending a week in the hospital from a severe medicine allergic reaction. I was homeless and just needed another night to recover, I didn't really want to sell it. This my personal favorite drawing, it's one I did to hang on my own wall, someday. I drew it while living in a tent, for a day when I eventually worked my way out of homelessness, and actually had a wall.
"Biggie Smalls" is another one that turned out really well, and sold immediately, for $120, I think. Yes, these drawings are all done with Sharpie markers. I blow up a photo I like on a copy machine, and tape the big pieces together to get a large version of the image. Usually I put on the music or a documentary about who I am drawing, to get their vibe and story, and I shade the entire back of the large copy with pencil. Then I position it over my actual drawing paper, tape it down with masking tape, and go over the basic outline with a pencil. It's called a graphite transfer, when I go over the front of the photo copy, the pencil dust on the back leaves faint lines. That's a technique I leanred in grade school, I think. I transfer the basic outline, and where the main shadows are. So yes,
I cheat. People who aren't artists, when I would tell them this, usually say, "Oh, you
just trace it." Actual working artists, then they see my faint penciling of the image would say, "That's not cheating, lots of artists trasnfer images in some way." Mostly they'd say that, because they couldn't even figure out who it was a picture of. I outline the shadows as much as the actual outline of the image in the photo, so it looks weird, and even I have trouble figuring out what line is what sometimes.
Then I take a normal size, fine point, black Sharpie, and outline whatever I can. Some outlines I end up doing with ultra fine points, or just with shading, if it's too subtle for a heavy black line. Then I start the shading process. In my drawings, every single color is actually 3 to 8 colors of Sharpie, ultra fine point scribbles, layered over each other. I started playing with markers in 2002, came up with my "scribble style" shading in 2005, and kept working on and refining it for another ten years, before I started doing these drawings.
Almost every area of the drawing starts with either lime green scribbles, yellow, or pastel orange. I start with a color close to opposite of what the final color will be. I may do half the drawing in lime green scribbles, to start. But some will be tight scribbles, some will be medium density scribbles, and some will be wide, spread out scribbles, depending on what's needed to wind up at the final color necessary. I do one pass of each color, at the density needed. So my drawing will look mostly lime green for a while. Then green-yellow, then orange. I usually color in several large areas, that will end up being completely different colors, at the same time. So during the drawing, they all look pretty much the same, until the last one or two colors are scribbled on top .
Once I have the large areas at close to their final color, I start working on the smaller and more detailed areas. After the original pencil sketch, it's all in ink, and I simply try to mess up as little as possible. I almost always to the face last, so if I fuck that up, then I spent 30 or 40 or more hours drawing for nothing. I like the bit of added pressure that gives. Once I have the detailed areas colored. Then I go back and blend the transition areas of the drawing. My drawings can look like they're done, and I'll sit down and put 4 or 5 more hours in, getting the details the best I can. Since it's ink, if I don't stop at the right time, I'll over-do it, which does happen.
Unlike paint, I can't go over a whole color, or start again. I get one shot at each layer of color, in each part of the drawing. I do use one or two small dabs of white-out on every second or third drawing, usually no bigger than a pencil eraser. That happens when I draw a black line where it should be, usually. Then I'll draw 5 or 6 layers over the dab of white-out, to fix it. I screw up something, actually several little things, in every drawing. The trick is to make them blend in, so no one else notices the fuck-ups. When I look at my drawings, that's what I see, the mistakes that I should do better next time.
These drawings, on average, take 35-45 hours each, for an 18" X 24" picture. The Beatles drawing (on my personal blog
here), took about 55 hours, that's the record so far. I've done around 100 drawings since I got serious and started doing these for money in late November of 2015. I've sold at least 81 drawings in the three years since, most for $120 to $160. A handful have sold in galleries for $250. Several of the early drawings I sold for $40 or $50. I sold them "cheap" because I was homeless most of the time I was drawing these, and I'd work a week, make $120, and live off that while I drew the next one. I was living in a tent in the woods, drawing at libraries or McDonald's, when I drew most of these. To see more of my work, search #sharpiescribblestyle anywhere, my stuff's all over the internet and social media.
