Drawing Muppets at NYCC

Dave Hulteen February 23, 2024

There are two fundamental things that I have loved my entire life: The Muppets and comics. So when my dear friend and ToughPigs Editor–in–Chief, Joe Hennes asked if I wanted to draw Muppets at a panel for New York Comic Con back in October of last year, it was a complete no–brainer. Remember that for later!

From left to right (*starting at the podium*): Joe Hennes, Jay Fosgitt, Richard Gomez, Dave Hulteen (*Hi!*), and Christopher “*Smig*” Smigliano

Let’s talk real quick about Comic Con and Comic Con panels. In short, they’re great! Moving on! Oh okay, fine. A comic book convention is the ultimate fan experience. Whether it’s in the basement of a VFW or a sprawling convention center in a major metropolitan city, comic cons are safe, fun spaces where people are encouraged to nerd it up and be fanatical. Panels are the glue to that experience. In my personal opinion, there are two types of panels: functional and absurd. Both are so much fun but represent different experiences.

Functional panels are like live interactive updates. They usually feature creators connected to a fandom talking about upcoming story arcs, characters, and news. These panels can become news worthy like when the Avengers cast members first come together before you see them assembled on the big screen in full costume. It’s a great opportunity for fans to come face to face with their heroes and ask them burning questions that only matter to them.

Functional panels can also be informative or educational. Ever wonder how your favorite voice actor comes up with how they want a character from a video game to sound? They can tell you! Want to write and publish a book? There’s a writer’s panel that has tips! Maybe you just want to hear music from your favorite YouTube creator. There’s a concert in Ballroom 7!

Absurd panels are everything else and they are my favorite. Want to see the most offensive cartoons from the 60s? There’s a panel for that! Have you ever contemplated the religious nature of the Smurfs? No, neither have I, but if you wanted to see a bunch of Tough Pigs guys draw obscure Muppets for an hour, Room 408 at the Javit’s Center is the place for you!

Now ToughPigs themselves have written about this entire event in much better detail that you can read about here. If you don’t want to read about it though, you can just watch the whole panel for yourself!

Panel art I created for promotional materials

So enough has already been covered about the event, but I want to expand on the experience from a more personal standpoint. The main takeaway being that I was by far the low man on the totem pole. I’m not disparaging myself so much as building everyone else up, but drawing well and drawing quickly are two very different and distinct traits, and I only have the former. The other guys though? They’re powerhouses! And they’re really fast.

Just to give an overview; Joe would turn to the panel audience for suggestions, but the overall concept was to give us artists a prompt, and then we’d get to work and crank out something in around a minute.

Richard Gomez might have been the youngest on the panel, but he’s clearly the heart. Richard has grown in prominence a lot over the last couple years and it’s so easy to see why. Aside from being exceptionally talented, he brings a whimsical element that elevates everyone else. A talented puppet builder as well, Richard sees the world around him in a unique and colorful way. Whether it’s turning a paper towel roll into a singing sensation or converting the ELMO brand projector into Elmo; Richard is brilliantly imaginative. He’s also really fast!

An old comic strip I drew of myself, Smig, & Joe (*2016*)

Chris “Smig” Smigliano is ToughPigs resident artist and is easily the funniest artist on the dais. Smig was the cartoonist for the Salem News where he developed a keen ability to visually tell a gag with limited space. Also an avid fan of MAD Magazine, Smig harnessed his inner Don Martin to create very funny comics that easily leaned right up against the line of being inappropriate without actually crossing it. Smig is so fast that the amount of art he produces is just as staggering as how fast he created it. I have always admired Smig, but he stepped up his entire game for this panel and truly showed he has exceptional comedic chops.

With Jay Fosgitt at San Diego Comic Con, 2014

The biggest name on the panel though was Jay Fosgitt. If ever there was an artist that this panel was made for, it’s Jay. As a professional comic artist and writer, Jay consistently drew really funny and crisp illustrations. Truth be told, if he was the only artist on the panel, the event would have been just as great as it already was. Jay’s take on classic characters is distinct, well refined, and just perfect. Jay has the added bonus of being able to draw really obscure characters from memory. Like the others, Jay is also really fast, but Jay is fast because that’s his job. I know that Jay has self doubts and concerns that every artist has, but to watch him draw is a treat that would convince you he could do it in is sleep. Watching the entire time he was up there was magical. He would take a beat to compose his idea before laying it down effortlessly. If this were a game, Jay would have been the MVP every single round.

From left to right: Shane Keating, Joe Hennes, Bruce Connelly, Chris Smigliano, Will Carroll (*Will was the alternate for our panel*), Matthew Soberman, Richard Gomez, and Dave Hulteen (*me!*) after our panel, October 2023.

As an added bonus, in the audience was Bruce Connelly, Muppet performer of Sesame Street’s Barkley the dog since 1993! So it was very apropos when Joe suggested we each draw the lovable pooch in honor of having Bruce at our panel. Afterwards, ToughPigs staff handed out all the illustrations we did to people who attended the panel. Bruce wanted the drawing I had created of Barkley holding a banner that said, “We love you, Bruce!” but it had been picked by someone else already. My brother–in–law and I had met Bruce 9 years earlier at NYCC when we were promoting our own YouTube production of The Bang and Bump Show which Bruce was very supportive of. So I promised him I would draw a better version of my Barkley tribute—this time at my own speed and not in front of a live audience (I know my weaknesses). Six months later and I finally sent it to him too!

I had the best time with my friends at Comic Con even if that particular setting wasn’t the best match for me (alternate Will Carroll can cover for me in 2024!). I don’t know if we’ll do another panel this year, but I do plan to be at NYCC again. In the mean time, I’ve got some more posts planned for this blog, so stay tuned and follow me on Instagram too!

My art proper created for Bruce Connelly

Starry Eyed & Tongue Tied

Dave Hulteen August 12, 2022

Last Friday I ended a 25 week streak posting my blog and while the world did not end because I didn’t post, I was bummed out. The problem is I am over my head with freelance and full–time work and some of what I’m working on is super cool and very loosely and indirectly related to this post and I cannot wait to share it with you!

Anyhoo, starting in the early aughts, I began attending comic cons regularly. Before I go any further, if you have never been to a comic con, you absolutely need to go. It doesn’t matter if you’re 8 or 88 and it also doesn’t matter if it’s a humongous convention like SDCC or a tiny one in the basement of a VFW hall. Of course, comic cons back in the first part of the 21st century were slightly different than they are now. For starters, they really were all about comics. Today they tend to be more of a “pop culture convention,“ but they are still a blast.

Over 20 years ago, they were also primarily populated with mostly male attendees. When my girlfriend (now wife) would accompany me and our friends, there would be somewhat of an awed hush for a moment when she would first walk on the convention floor. This was more of an initial reaction to her sex over her radiant beauty, but times slowly changed and soon conventions became a much more homogeneous experience. Now that we are married, she will often mention she no longer does comic conventions because she “served her time.“

Anyway, in 2006, I dragged her along yet again to Wizard World Philly with my primary goal of meeting comic artist Skottie Young. He is a well renowned artist today, and while he was certainly hot back then, he was arguably still an up-and-coming creator. This can be proved by the fact that he had his own table with no line of swarming fans or even an assistant! It was just Skottie hanging out and drawing alone all day and excited to talk to anyone.

At the time, he was working on a run of Venom, continuing Marvel’s unconventional trend at the time of showcasing more cartoonish and exaggerated styles on Spider–Man titles along with other artists like Humberto Ramos. I was a super fan, constantly visiting his site to see all his sketches and drawings of any and everything. He wasn’t just an incredible artist, but a super cool guy as well who seemed to have similar pop-culture interests as myself. Not a surprise considering he’s barely 2 months younger than me!

Checking our convention guide, I located where Skottie’s table was and we made a B line so I could ask him to sign my Venom comic and maybe even take a picture with him. As I mentioned, he was alone and just drawing away. When we approached, he lit up like a Christmas tree with excitement. What a fantastic guy! I was so pumped and excited to gush over how great he was. I opened my mouth to greet him and introduce myself only to discover I had completely forgotten the English language.

Skottie’s table was our very first stop at the con and the one and only thing I truly wanted to do and now that we were finally here I was so star struck that I literally couldn’t speak. I was like Ralphie Parker meeting Santa Claus at Higbee’s in A Christmas Story. I stood with a dumb, open–mouthed smile for a ludicrously long time that made Skottie and my wife shift awkwardly as they waited for me to do absolutely anything. Finally my wife stepped in to save me with a prompting and encouraging, “Hello.” Yes! Hello! What a novel way to start a conversation! I will try saying that, and so I blurted out much too loudly and abruptly, “HELLO!” “Hey! How’s it going!” Skottie replied with renewed energy and a warm friendly smile. I resumed my blank admiring mannequin face as if I was a Make–A–Wish patient who no doubt suffered severe injuries from his love of drinking gasoline straight from the pump. My wife—now staring at me incredulously—saved my bacon again with another encouraging prompt. “He really likes your art.” she said sweetly as I stepped over her last word obnoxiously, “I REALLY LIKE YOUR ART!”

For the next few minutes, this was pretty much how we communicated. My wife patiently told Skottie what I admired about him and his work and then I would loudly repeat her words in the first person. It was like a bizarre avant–garde ventriloquist act where I was the dummy, my wife the puppeteer, and Skottie as the beleaguered volunteer pulled randomly from the audience. What a complete and total $#!t show. Somehow I managed to get my comic signed and a picture as well. Skottie was polite, patient, enthusiastic, and so kind. He was exactly the type of person I anticipated him to be and I blew it.

Me still in complete disbelief that is indeed Skottie Young. June 2, 2006

As soon as we were out of earshot from Skottie, my wife turned to me shocked and somewhat exasperated. “What in the world was that?!” she asked. I had returned to earth at that moment as well and was equally stunned. “I have no idea!” I admitted. It was at that exact moment that I had a very serious problem on my hands and I needed to rectify it immediately. My main concern at the time was the realization of just how much this could hinder my own illustrative career. Thanks to sites like ToughPigs and the exposure I was getting from such a niche fandom, I was sure it was only a matter of time before I would have the opportunity to meet actual Muppet performers and maybe even work for them. At my core I knew it was vital they saw me as a peer and not just a fan. Of course if I couldn’t chat up a fellow artist just because he was successful, how would I speak to someone who was partly responsible for molding my childhood, affecting my overall trajectory as a creative person?

It turned out it was even worse than I imagined as not long after that, I bumped into a family friend—yes, a family friend—whom I greatly admired. Now I had never met him prior, but I had seen pictures and heard recordings of him (he was a very talented musician) so imagine my horror when I got tongue–tied chatting with him as well!

I took the “Face Your Fears” approach by attending every book signing I could find, hung outside every service entrance after a concert, waited in autograph lines at conventions, and attended any speaking engagements featuring celebrities that interested me; all in the hopes I could act like a normal human being around anyone with a modicum of fame so that one day I wouldn’t completely lose my mind if I met someone really famous.

Weird Al Yankovic (2/2/2011), Jesse Ventura (4/7/2011), and Gary “Baba Booey” Dell'Abate (11/9/2010)

I very quickly realized “fame” wasn’t the crux to my star struck nature, it was admiration. If I somehow found myself face to face with someone like Hugh Jackman—something that actually happened —I was excited but maintained my composure easily. However, if I met the likes of Trace Beaulieu, Lorraine Cink, Doc Hammer, Louise Gold, or Stanley Lau, I’d start to choke up. Interacting with them at events did become easier and was also very safe. I was able to see them as actual people and before you knew it, I could at least fake acting casual. When I finally met those lofty Muppet people, at the very least I wasn’t a hot mess.

MST3k’s Trace Beaulieu (11/27/2010), Marvel’s Lorraine Cink (7/24/2016), and Doc Hammer (4/19/2008) co–creator of *The Venture Bros.*

I still get very excited when I meet someone I admire—famous or not—and on the inside I’m fan freaking out. If I ever meet Lois Van Baarle or Frank Oz or Jamie Hewlett I think my heart would still explode. At the very least, my wife knows I can control my basic bodily functions without her by my side the entire time.

Skottie Young, if you’re reading this, thank you so much for being so pleasant and patient and inspiring. Not just to draw better but to get my act together and focus. It changed my career. You really are the GOAT!

I’m not posting much now on Instagram and Twitter but follow me anyway so when I clear my slate you’ll see what I’ve been up to! And come back here every Friday for more creative thinking!

The Redraw Challenge: Part II

Dave Hulteen July 22, 2022

Last week I talked a lot about growing as an artist, leveling up, getting more familiar with that growth, and recognizing when you’ve just exceeded your own expectations. None of that was possible without this week’s post which was truly an insightful exercise and the whole purpose of this two part series! When I tell you both last week’s and this week’s post almost didn’t happen, it’s not for dramatic effect. I thought I really had hit my apex and I experienced a level of frustration I couldn’t even comprehend! But we’ll get to all that. First, we need to travel back in time again. Not just to last week, but to 2009.

The iconic Alan Moore & Dave Gibbon’s comic, actress Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre II, and the 2009 Zack Snyder film

Watchmen is consistently one of the highest regarded comics of all times, and in 2009, Zack Snyder finally produced a film adaptation that has been recognized as being (in some cases too) faithful to the original source material. I’m not going to waste a lot of time on discussing whether or not it’s a good film as it’s a polarizing movie amongst fans. When I heard the announcement that it was being made however, I set out to read the comic for the first time. I therefore went into the theater with a very fresh understanding of the story and I was very thrilled with the flick. The casting in my opinion was perfect, especially with Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian, but the redesigned look of Silk Spectre II’s costume starring Malin Akerman was inspired. I had Watchmen fever and over the next couple of years, it served as a great inspiration when it came to drawing.

Of course I drew the Muppets as characters from the *Watchmen*! Originally featured on ToughPigs, December 2009 and Silk Spectre II, vector illustration 2014

Okay, so just to drive the point home again from last week; I found Silk Spectre II—a strong female comic hero—to be a muse and was also in the process of really honing my abilities with Adobe Illustrator, so in 2010 I had a leveling up moment by “inking” my sketches in Illustrator and then coloring them in Photoshop. This eliminated all digital debris that would be a causal problem from scanning. And hence I created what was at that time, a moment I recognized as a true level up point. I am beyond shocked now just how proud of this new drawing of Laurie Jupiter I was. Ladies and gentlemen, I am embarrassed to present to you the whole basis for this and last week’s post. Behold!

Thank you, BarbbarossaFrigyes for having the courage to say what everyone else was thinking

Looking back, I’m really struggling to understand exactly why I thought this was so great, but I totally did. I was still a few years away from taking those aforementioned figure drawing classes and I distinctly remember thinking how pleased I was that I didn’t use a model; backwards thinking at the time to compensate for a complete lack of understanding. I don’t need to break down how exceptionally off model she actually is here and the brush I used for the hair doesn’t even attempt to conform to the style I was going for. Still, I flaunted this piece everywhere and even used it in my portfolio! I wasn’t a young kid drawing this either! This is coming after I was thirty so I had no good reason to be so proud other than the line work. I have thought a lot about this piece ever since with an evolving curiosity in regards to everything I just mentioned and I have absolutely no good answer.

I wanted to justify my pride but eventually I couldn’t deny the best way to do that would be to redraw it. I even took a quick stab at it in 2016. This was a lot better but even my adoration of the movie was starting to wear thin. Then I started this blog and the concept immediately went into my ideas folder. “I’m a competent illustrator who’s miles beyond those days. This will be easy!” I thought. God I was so wrong. I ended up redrawing it THREE times and was completely unsatisfied thinking I hadn’t grown and maybe that doe–eyed Silk Spectre really was the best I could do.

Notice anything different between this first attempt and the original? Yeah, me neither! Initially I was trying to literally recreate the original with more realistic arms and newer color techniques but that was it. This wasn’t an exercise to show growth, this was modern day plagiarism from my initial drawing 12 years ago!

I realized I was being too literal with my reinterpretation. I just needed to relax and approach it from a figure drawing perspective. After sleeping on it, I had my wife pose and I quickly roughed out a sketch. I wanted to keep the hair big but not like a large bob as I had done previously. The second result isn’t a bad drawing but it ain’t a good one either. What was I getting so wrong?

This time I took a whole week off from trying and got out of my head. I went full body on the pose and went to town hard on the coloring. I finally had an illustration that I liked but with zero soul. I was devastated. I purposely wanted to prove to myself and anyone else who read this blog that I could redraw this stupid old illustration that nobody asked for but had been living rent free in my head for 12 years. I packed up everything related to this post and moved it to the sad “Abandoned Ideas” folder on my hard drive and walked away.

Often when you work on any project—especially one you take a close personal interest in and for an extended amount of time—you get tunnel vision. You can’t see your own mistakes and you lock yourself up in a windowless room of self doubt. The reality was I was trying to not just redraw an old idea, but specifically an old idea that I felt very differently about back in 2010. The Watchmen may have remained relevant with new comics and the HBO series, but Silk Spectre II—specifically as played by Malin Akerman—was a fanboy muse from a time before everything in my current life: the pandemic, political polarization, where I lived, who I worked for, what I watched, who I associated with, what interested me, how I draw, and my daughter! Of course, I’ve talked about my daughter a lot in the past, and she proved to be an even better muse than Laurie Jupiter ever was.

A Luisa doll, a doodle I left in my daughter’s lunchbox one day, and the cool kid herself

As I’ve mentioned repeatedly before, I can draw Luisa from Disney’s Encanto from memory. Why? Because that’s all my five–year–old ever asks me to do. She’s a huge fangirl and I love how excited she gets with anything Luisa related. Plus I really like Encanto and Luisa too, but when you draw a character so often, you really want to branch out and try something different every once in a while. So when my daughter got an actual Luisa figure, I could now use it for reference. One of my favorite artists is Charles Dana Gibson, and prints of his famous Gibson Girls adorn my home and work offices, and I (as seen in the previous attempts at Silk Spectre II) love drawing people in profile. And that is when it finally hit me. I wasn’t just missing the challenge of redrawing my old illustration, I was missing the whole point.

Now it may seem like I’m asking you (and myself) to make a huge leap here to quantify drawing a Disney character in place of a Zack Snyder re–imagined Dave Gibbons character from a very adult comic. The focal point of the subject though is fundamentally the same: a strong female super hero, specifically one with great design, well thought out character traits, and a wonderful arc that helps define and evolve their world view. Then take into consideration that part of my pride in the original drawing was also surrounded by honing a new technique. In the case of Silk Spectre, it was comfortably merging Adobe creative suite products to achieve a look I had only dreamed of up until that point. With my new inspiration focused on Luisa, it’s marrying the fundamentals I learned from figure drawing and fully embracing Procreate & the Apple Pencil. To cap off the epiphany, I was determined to take the fun and cartoonish design of an animated character and change the style to pay homage to the style of Charles Dana Gibson. In short, I was going to take all that I learned and loved and play with it in a new playground with the intentions of achieving something I had never tried before.

Luisa Madrigal (*voiced by Jessica Darrow*), some of Gibson’s famous *Gibson Girls* in profile, and my sketch of my newly inspired redraw challenge subject. If you are wondering, I sketched her nude to properly achieve weight displacement and to make sure her muscle structure and limbs were accurate in length and size.

As soon as I finished my sketch (which oddly enough I did in Photoshop), I knew I was finally on the right track. I was excited, I was pleased, and I was in it for the long haul. I wasn’t going to bust this out in a day or two, I was going to immerse myself in it and take all the time in the world to achieve my goal. I’ve been amazed with Procreate and the Apple Pencil’s intuitiveness, but I also wanted to limit myself with brushes so I stayed almost exclusively with it’s ink technical pen (a halftone brush on her skirt was the only exception). Each strand of hair would be drawn as opposed to using a hair brush (not a hair brush in the traditional sense but a digital brush used to simulate human hair). I shaded using the same technical pen brush as well, painstakingly keeping all my line art clean and crisp. I also wanted to avoid my own personal bad habit of spending lots of time on the subjects face and then rushing through the rest. This meant shading and properly recognizing folds in the clothing as well. I wanted to honor Gibson’s style and that meant a lot of time staying zoomed in tight and making sure it all worked up close as well as from a distance.

In the spirit of Charles Dana Gibson (and because of all the intricate line work), I originally intended to keep it black and white, but my daughter insisted it needed color. I digitally painted it with the understanding I would pull the colors way back and the final piece made me feel even more accomplished than Silk Spectre II did so long ago. My faith in myself and this entire blog entry was thus restored. The final illustration took just over 9 hours to complete (not including all the other nonsense I wasted trying to draw Ms. Jupiter).

Man, what a fun experience! I have a huge collection of my old art I’d love to tackle and redraw, but I think I’ll put it on the shelf for now. Please follow me on Instagram and Twitter and come back here every Friday for more creative thinking experiments, interviews, and stories.

The Redraw Challenge: Part I

Dave Hulteen July 15, 2022

I am super excited about today and next week’s post because it is all about progress and rediscovery! If you’re truly passionate about anything, you’ll notice growth in your endeavors. Experience and patience develops all skills, hence the old axiom, “Practice makes perfect” or more to the point in today’s post, “Practice makes progress.” I can very clearly remember many specific moments all throughout my life where I would draw something that made me feel like I just leveled up. I don’t just mean I drew something a certain way and was proud; I remember where I was, what I was drawing, and very clearly understanding I had just crossed a new threshold. It’s always exciting but more than anything, it’s rewarding.

Now every time I’ve experienced leveling up (can you tell I’m also a gamer?!)—particularly when I was younger—I believed I had just hit the apex of my ability. In my mind, I had reached my full potential and I was elated. As time passed, I began to understand I was comprehending things I hadn’t fully previously and in looking back, those breakthrough drawings I felt were the best of the best I had ever done and would ever do, in reality kind of sucked… like a lot. What’s also become a revelation is how those specific illustrations—however good or bad they actually were or still are—only now mark any level progression to me. Those moments are very important because they push you to do better, even when you believe that’s your best. They don’t end an era of creating a certain way, they mark the start of learning new techniques and styles. And the absolute best part? They don’t stop when you’re young! You keep leveling up well into adulthood! There are few things in this world that can bring that kind of joy as you age, but furthering your talents is totally one of them! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, an old dog really can learn new tricks!

Now reevaluating those pinnacle moments is nothing new; redrawing old artworks can be seen all over social media and other artistic platforms, so I’m not doing anything groundbreaking here. However, today I’d like to look at a few instances where I hit some personal milestones only to go back and figure out what made them so special. This is part one of my Redraw Challenge!

Okay… let’s make this super awkward and embarrassing. As a cisgender male, I have been intrigued with drawing the female form since I was a child. One of my earliest leveling up experiences was drawing ladies as inspired by comics artist Mark Badger, specifically his work on Marvel Comics Excalibur. Even more specifically the mutant Meggan Puceanu. I got really into comics starting with Excalibur Volume 1, #37 and would redraw the panels from it. I stuck tight with Excalibur and gravitated towards Alan Davis’ work on it as well. My versions were much cartoon–ier but they helped me understand some basic structure and lead to an aforementioned level up. Side note: I am actively hoping for an Excalibur movie or Disney + series in the MCU. Come on Mr. Feige! Make it happen!

*Excalibur* #37: the first comic book I ever bought, Meggan (*and other art*) by Alan Davis. Meggan & Kurt Wagner (*AKA Nightcrawler from the X–Men*) had a very flirtatious relationship and I wanted them together more than her main squeeze Brian Braddock (*AKA Captain Britain*)

One of my biggest moments came when I started taking figure drawing (or life drawing) classes. Even at my first class, I began to understand what I needed to do, and a few months later it all clicked. I had one of the best sessions ever and I noted it was a level up experience and I was thrilled, even though I popped a tire on the drive home from the studio, I was still on cloud nine.

A flat tire right after one of the best classes I ever had. February 19, 2014

Before all that though, in 2006, I was hired to illustrate my first book. Man, what a thrill to be able to say you’re a published illustrator! I had just settled in on a technique to marry my traditional line art drawings with digital coloring and effects that eliminated most residual imperfections/digital debris after scanning. I was ready and I was excited. I worked very close with the author and editors and even the printer to make sure everything I did was exactly how we all envisioned it. I was very proud when it came out, but it didn’t take long at all before I leveled up further, and soon my pride of being associated with an ISBN number felt embarrassing.

Just a couple years later and my techniques had changed again. The figure drawing classes pushed my abilities further along, so my book now felt dated and subpar at best. Eight years and even more classes later, I decided to at least take a second shot at the cover. The cover was something I wasn’t happy with originally anyway, so it felt like a good exercise. Applying what I had learned as well as using new tools like Daz 3D to create a virtual model for reference, I upgraded my original art. Although only a brief yet serendipitous moment, at that time the author had been contemplating a second printing of the book, and my art director excitedly showed him my new and unsolicited art which he liked. The new cover never got the full green light and the book stayed out of print. I would imagine the idea to re–do all the interior illustrations came up as well and possibly added to the decision not to do a separate printing. Regardless, here we are another 8 years later and I’m still not only proud of my redrawn cover, but content with it as well.

A 3D poser model was my reference for the new pose

The original 2006 cover and my 2014 redesign

Not all redrawing is a calculated exercise. Many artists will sketch a rough draft with the intentions of completely redrawing it some other time. The sketch merely acts as a note or reminder to draw it properly later. Anyway, I had seen a picture of an Instagram model posing and taking a mirror selfie and really liked the pose. I did a quick sketch and saved the photo for reference so I could do a better render some other day which I totally did and—as I already mentioned the process—the second illustration came out much better. What I didn’t do however was finalize the drawing immediately after I did the second sketch. I left it alone for awhile and then picked it up again several weeks later. The problem was I used the original sketch! Even as I was inking and coloring, I was wondering why I thought this illustration was worth completing. It wasn’t until I finished it that I found my second attempt. I basically redrew this twice and for no good reason.

The original photo that inspired plus the first quick sketch, and the better second sketch, 2020

Finals up close. Even the phone is done better!

None of these particular creative forays were the inspiration for this post though. The real deal and nightmare that made me want to write and try this exercise will post next week and man was it a journey! Follow me on Instagram and Twitter and please, please, please tune in next week for a real redraw challenge in part 2!

The Bridge Between Writing and Drawing Comics Featuring Jay Fosgitt

Dave Hulteen April 8, 2022

People often assume that because I can draw, then I must have a complete knowledge of adjacent professions like animation, comics, or even fine art. I would imagine a lot of creative people get these cross platform presumptions. It makes sense and there’s certainly merit to such beliefs, but most of these neighboring pursuits require an entirely different education and skill set. An easier example is to look at someone who can draw and favors one medium like pen & ink with copic markers and assume they’re probably really adept in oil or acrylic paints. There’s a good chance they’ve dabbled or have a more in–depth understanding than someone without any creative inclinations, but it’s often a stretch.

Lazy Comics 21 and an insight to my love of drawing hotdogs.

Such presumptions aren’t just limited to outsiders. We’re all inclined to believe it of ourselves as well. Case–in–point, I believed with my whole heart that with the right attitude and set parameters, I could write and draw my own comic strip. At the time (the early aughts), I was heavily into more underground comic strips with Red Meat by Max Cannon being my absolute favorite. I loved the irreverent and dark humor, bizarre premises, and vintage style illustrations. My idea was to create an eccentric cast of characters that required little to no manipulation from week to week (to save on time and production) and let them grow out of control. And so I created the aptly named Lazy Comics.

Lazy Comics #40 and my biting satirical debut into politics.

The exercise did in fact strengthen my writing chops and even understanding of joke crafting, but to maintain a weekly strip—even with the burden of things like character development and story arcs mostly removed due to the strips nature—I eventually found the whole thing overwhelming. How do the pros do it!?

I’m not too terribly ashamed to admit I’m most proud of this one.

That was a question I left unanswered until recently. I’ve known Jay Fosgitt for awhile now and even had the opportunity to do a fun and thorough interview with him for ToughPigs back in 2015. Recently however, along with all his other amazing work, Jay Started regularly posting a new comic strip called Junk Drawer Comics which I absolutely adore (I even ended last weeks post with a tease from JDC!). I’m getting ahead of myself though, so first let me please introduce Jay.

Jay Fosgitt is an incredibly talented and accomplished artist and writer with a fun and fantastic style and sense of humor. He’s worked with tons of fan favorite properties like Sesame Street, My Little Pony, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Popeye, and Rugrats to name a very select few and for dozens of publishers and studios like Marvel, Dreamworks, Archie, and IDW—again, just to name a very select few. Jay has also written lots of successful comics as well like Bodie Troll, Dead Duck and Zombie Chick, Necronomicomics, and Little Green Men. These are not your typical characters! So how does writing storylines, dialogue, gags & jokes, and plot devices compare to illustrating? Jay says;

I think most artists would tell you they find writing to be more difficult. Writing always came as naturally to me as drawing, but I don't feel like I was a very good storyteller until after college, when I started creating my first comic books. All the character development, plot development, staging of scenes--it's not entirely different from creating through drawing. It's just exercising a different creating muscle. Whatever caused my breakthrough as a storyteller, it was a welcomed change in my creative approach.
My writing really started blossoming on my first graphic novel, Dead Duck. That's where I really got my "pun chops", and learned to tell a purely gag-based story effectively. Then on Bodie Troll, I learned to tell a story based off relationships and character development, and how to develop an ongoing narrative rather than just stand alone stories like I had in Dead Duck.

Your latest endeavors with Junk Drawer Comics comes across like a very liberating experience for you and I have a lot of questions about it, but first can you tell me how they came about?

Bodie Troll had been in various states of production and hiatus, before and through Covid. For the past three years, the bulk of my work had been for Disney publishing, and I was eager to get back to drawing something of my own again, and something outside of Bodie. I've had several ideas for different comics accumulate over the years, but felt I never had the time to put into developing them. That, and I had a lot of emotional issues, and really needed a new method for dealing with them. So, I decided I wanted to try and do a sort of Sunday comics format--a full comic page to tell a self contained story. And each entry would be a stand alone concept. Some would be gag based, others would be more character driven. I didn't have a title at first--I almost called it Hodge Podge Comics, and I think I had some irreverent poop joke title as a placeholder for awhile. But while driving around on errands, Junk Drawer Comics just came to mind. We all have a junk drawer in our homes, filled with random bric-a-brac (I think Bric-A-Brac was also considered for a title...?), which seemed fitting for this comic. The first installment turned out to be really therapeutic for me, dealing with a recent heartbreak in a very sketchy, symbolic way. All these installments have been therapeutic for me in some way, even if the strip isn't apparently biographical. The other opportunity the strip gave me was being able to play with these disparate comic concepts I'd been collecting. Most of them weren't grand enough to require a series or even a full graphic novel or comic issues. So having just one page to tell the stories made things much sharper and even more creative for me, I think. I've gotten to play in sci–fi, horror, 1950's counter culture, and just be as whimsical and adult and nonsensical as I wanted, without any constraints. The initial idea was to do one a day for a year, and I had a solid start, almost getting through January without stopping. But other work soon took precedence, and the strip had to be more sporadic. But it's still a priority for me, and I enjoy creating them whenever I can.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but these comics feel like the evolution and combination of all your previous years of experience. Is that accurate or would you say they’re simply just the next step in your career?

Whatever your most current creative work is would inevitably be a culmination of previous experience. It certainly pertains to my work in Junk Drawer. But I wouldn’t say it’s a conscious choice to combine all that I’ve learned in my art. I wouldn’t even look at it as a next step, necessarily. People need to learn to appreciate the moment, especially creatives. Too many are creating something, then thinking “I need to monetize this! I need to make a collection of this! I need to find a publisher! I need to build a fan base!” Junk Drawer was specifically made to be of the moment I create it in. A lot of it is improvised, or at least created with the loosest, shortest of preconceived outlines in mind. And it’s meant to satisfy my creative itch that other things I’d been working on in recent days just hadn’t been scratching. It doesn’t have to be my next big thing, or even the thing that defines me and my career. It’s a very fluid and personal creative endeavor, and whatever it is now, I’m happy with. The future doesn’t figure into that enjoyment.

I told you Junk Drawer Comics reminds me of underground comics like Max Canon’s Red Meat, Matt Groening’s Life In Hell, or even Zippy the Pinhead. When it comes to humor in writing comics, who are your influences?

I've got a few different influences on my writing for Junk Drawer Comics. Matt Groening's Life in Hell comics is indeed influential. The randomness of his characters mixed with relatable scenarios and often bleak hilarity is something I try to instill in the strip. Berke Breathed's Bloom County, and probably even more so, his follow up strip, Outland, were definitely models for the direction of the comic. Outland had the same social commentary as Bloom County, but with the weird whimsy of George Herriman's Krazy Kat (another creative influence on this and all my creations). Gary Larson's Far Side, in its dark humor and off beat approach to combining characters and situations was a biggie, too. I found myself deeply influenced by the humor of the 90's comedy troupe, Kids in the Hall, who were brilliant absurdist performers. Their sketches defied punchlines, predictable direction, and often ignored relatability, with still finding common threads in their comedic weirdness. Sci–fi from the 80's through modern day has proven a huge influence on the strip. Ridley Scott's Bladerunner, Sonny Liew's Malinky Robot, and David Fincher and Tim Miller's animated anthology Love, Death and Robots have inspired a lot of the futuristic tropes I've employed.

Side note: I love Love Death & Robots! It’s like modern day Liquid Television from MTV. I don’t understand how more people don’t know about it! Check it out on Netflix.

You mentioned earlier the original intent for JDC was to do one a day and that’s for a personal comic strip with your own implemented deadlines. When I tried making Lazy Comics, I felt I needed to write at least two dozen strips and have them all ready to go before I even started creating them, but even then those ideas dried up quicker than I expected and I wasn’t able to stay consistent. Is that a problem for you? And if so, how do you handle that?

Given the anthology nature of the strip, where there aren't any consistent themes, characters or story lines (with the odd exception for a few of the strips), I found it pretty easy to write a comic a day at first. I have so many random ideas at any given moment--ideas that wouldn't necessarily work in a large format comic, but would make a nice, quirky one shot--that inspiration was always within reach. One day I was telling my friend, "I could do a strip about anything. I could even...have a robot fighting a sandwich!" And that is literally how I came up with that particular strip (which has already birthed a follow up strip, and probably more to follow). Another time I was daydreaming about a fictitious argument, and I uttered "Oh yeah? Well you drink your own pee." From that, I wrote an entire strip of two guys arguing, with the pee line becoming the crux of the whole story. In those moments, almost any sort of characters or situation could be hung on that gag. So I decided to do a loose Wizard of Id type setting, with two dungeon guards yelling back and forth, which itself inspired the punchline of the unseen prisoner asking if he could have some pee. That's basically improv, a performing method that I've always enjoyed and employed, and how I come up with most of these strips. So far, writer's block has been avoided by just talking nonsense to myself, or taking note of my own idiosyncrasies.

So are most of your strips spontaneous like that? Or do you ever keep a list of ideas?

I've had some concepts collecting in my sketchbooks for a few years, but nothing too fleshed out or scripted. My Fuzzy Memories strip, for example. It's about a burned out puppeteer who hallucinates that his puppets are alive. I came up with that idea back in 2011, just before I started developing Bodie Troll. But Bodie quickly took precedence, and Fuzzy Memories got shelved, until I came up with Junk Drawer Comics eleven years later. There's other strips in the comic that have had long wait times as well. Once I started drawing JDC, I did keep a list on my phone of ideas that I could use as jumping off points for comics, but again, nothing too developed or scripted at the time.

In your opinion, what’s the biggest mistake a writer can make when creating comics?

I don't know about mistakes, but the one thing a comic writer should know is how to think like an artist. Comics is a visual medium first off, so no matter how brilliant you think your prose is, it is there to serve the art, not the other way around. So when you're writing a comic, it would be smart to have a sketch pad handy, and to rough out the page payout while seeing how your text will fit on the page. Does it obscure the art? Does it tell something that could be better shown through the art? Think about these things, and cobble together dummy pages this way for the most concise and economical writing style that will work fluidly within your art.

I think it’s safe to say Jay is in a league all his own, but everything he’s said is just great advice. I want to cram so much more of his Junk Drawer Comics in here, but your best bet is to absolutely follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok and see them for yourself! Check out his website as well: jayfosgitt.com

Huge thanks to Jay for his time and insight. I think maybe I need to re–evaluate my own approach to writing! As always, check out this blog every Friday and follow me on Instagram & Twitter!

The Inside Scoop On Figure Drawing and Why You Should Do It

Dave Hulteen April 1, 2022

There are two moments in my adult life that changed how I draw and made me a better artist. The first was listening to an interview with comic book legend Jim Lee on Kevin Smith’s podcast Fatman on Batman. Mr. Lee talked about finishing school then drawing every single day like he had a job in comics (before he actually did) with tight deadlines. The purpose was to develop muscle memory so that even if he was having an “off day,” it wouldn’t impede his work. I had never thought of drawing in that context before and set out to do the same.

The next thing was a progressive journey that ultimately lead to figure drawing. Long story short, I wanted to enroll in the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. At the time, my dad felt a smarter decision was to apply my talents to graphic design—a decision that ultimately proved to be the right one—but one that I continued to question for years after I graduated. Eventually, I stopped internally blaming my parents for not letting me attend a comic book school and just decided to go on my own. The punchline to this quick aside is that the school I went to catastrophically crashed and burned and shut down while the newly renamed Kubert School still stands proudly.

It was here that I met the accomplished Mike Barreiro, an extraordinary artist and my instructor for Life Drawing 101. Mike is a student from both the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and the aforementioned Kubert School where he would eventually end up teaching for five years. Mike has worked for DC, DC Vertigo, Marvel, Dark Horse, Defiant, and TecknoComix as well as an extensive freelance career in the Pittsburgh area. However, before I get to him in more detail, I want to sing my own personal praises about the lessons he taught me.

Some of Mike’s tremendous work including Sophia Loren, Tom Horn & Geronimo, and Endelyn Moongrave.

At multiple points in an artists life, they will create something that marks a step up in their personal journey into the craft. They may even feel that point hits their apex of ability (and years later they will often marvel at their ignorance towards that moment). Figure drawing (or Life Drawing as it’s also sometimes called) brought my own artistic abilities to a level I didn’t think was possible. It forces a creative person to be practical and a pragmatist to be open to a literal different perspective. To some, the idea of drawing a nude model for hours sounds taboo. I love teasing my mother all the time about this too.

But as I’ve done in the past, I wanted to be a lot more diplomatic about this and get some other artists perspectives on this as well. The main voice of course being an actual instructor, and my former teacher, Mike. I asked Mike what most modern day people might wonder, “Why take a figure drawing class when I can just Google ‘models posing’?” Mike responded;

Photos have a tendency to flatten an image. When you're drawing people it's important to emphasize the curvature of a figure. The second thing is you’re at the mercy of the photographer. If it's lighted poorly or out of focus you have to compensate for that in the drawing. Having a live model that you can pose and light the way you want to makes a huge difference in the quality of the finished drawing.

Thirsty Thursday, Cat Woman, and A Day at the Beach by Mike Barreiro

My own personal taste for a model over a photo is also the ability to move my easel and draw from a completely different angle. Few artists like having to do foreshortening, but it’s a great skill to learn. With figure drawing, you also want to draw different models and different poses. Sure, a beach–bodied super model seems ideal, but beauty doesn’t make a perfect model. So what does? Mike explains;

A good professional model will be able to hold a difficult pose for a short amount of time, can be very helpful by suggesting poses, and will let you know when they need to take a break. Dynamic posing is a very difficult job. Being in good condition is important.

Anca, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and Attitude by Mike Barreiro

Holding still is a super power in my opinion when it comes to having a good model. Again though, a “good” model doesn’t necessarily mean a chiselled god or goddess. As I continued to take classes, I began to crave variety. Not every model is going to appear in a high–end advertisement, but is there a benefit to drawing those different body types? Mike goes on to say;

Sure, it really depends on what you're using the drawing for. I'm usually looking for the unusual, something that's difficult to do out of your head, but all drawing is beneficial. Many illustrations have attractive people in them. If you're doing a slice of life illo (illustration) then different body shapes are important.

Pink Floyd, Marie Devereaux, and Yaphet Kotto by Mike Barreiro

Now here’s where art verses artist can really get combative. In a very condensed nutshell, my first artistic influence was Garfield by Jim Davis, and so all of my portraits resembled the bastard offspring of Jon Arbuckle and then in 2013, I was confronted with drawing actual human beings as they appeared directly in front of me. Drawing what you see as opposed to how your personal style interprets the subject. I initially found that daunting. That got me thinking about artists with very unique styles and their approach to figure drawing. That’s when I turned to C.W. Roederer—an exceptionally talented illustrator and designer—who also found figure drawing to bring a whole new level of ability to his craft. I asked him if it’s a struggle to move beyond his stylistic ways to draw more realistically? He replies,

I still struggle a lot with “this just looks like Muppets” or “this is just what every illustrator does” (specifically the whole “normally-drawn human but they have Peanuts eyes” thing). One of the best pieces of advice I got from my figure drawing instructor was NOT to just copy exactly what I see, but rather, take what I learned in that class, and mesh it with the more caricature/cartoon background I come from. I’d say good illustrative style comes from just looking at life and reshaping it with your own mental geometry.

Mike and C.W. both provide great insights into their respective approaches, but what about someone who’s never taken a traditional figure drawing class? That’s when I turned to my friend Maria Chamra. Maria is an incredible self–trained artist who teaches “Paint & Sip” classes, has had her work featured in several galleries including the Pollak Theater at Monmouth University, and has done tons of unique freelance around Jersey. I had done an alternative drawing event with Maria in the form of Dr. Sketchy’s in Asbury Park back in 2019. It was an unconventional approach to gesture drawing, but it was a total blast. I had been bugging Maria to take a figure drawing class with me ever since and finally convinced her just last week to come along to the duCret School of Art. She talks about her experience;

I loved how different it was from my previous figure drawing classes. Professional and almost relaxing. Everyone was in their own little world. It was wonderful to put some time aside to refine my skills, focus on shapes, and becoming quicker and sharper at laying down the subject. I struggle with getting caught up in details. I made a point to use the quick one minute poses as an exercise to throw all the shapes down first and then go back in and refine the details. I felt more comfortable as the session went on.

So there you have it, high praise and an all around consensus that figure drawing is a game changer when it comes to “upping your game.” Nothing more needs to be said about… oh, right; the elephant in the room.

Some of my own charcoal drawings from various figure drawing classes over the years.

Okay, so let’s talk about being in a room with other artists all keenly studying a naked person. I admit, while the first time had a brief moment of surprise, that all goes out the window practically instantly. You take on the perspective of how I assume doctors examine their patients. You become aware of structure, lighting, weight displacement, and—from a religious standpoint—the beauty of the human body. I don’t mean in a fit or attractive way, but just the extraordinary appearance of all humans, how we’re put together and how those bodies interact with the space around them. Of course, if you’ve never taken a figure drawing course, it’s the most asked question you get. Maria puts it this way;

I have done Dr. Sketchy and figure drawing in the past but never with a nude model. I felt I was going to be a bit shy and apprehensive when it came to it, but it was more of a focus on how muscles work and the anatomy of the human body. I found it challenging in a positive way!

Maria and I at Dr. Sketchy’s in Asbury Park, 2019

C.W. speaks to the warm–up exercises of quick poses that forces an artist to push past any unfamiliarity.

The first model I ever drew was a girl, and that was the first time I ever saw a topless girl in the same space as me, so I definitely felt a little flush at the start of it. But figure drawing, if you’re serious about it, really doesn’t leave a lot of room for that outside of first impressions like that. With the mix of artistic math zooming through your head and the adrenaline of just two minutes for a presentable drawing, you don’t really pay attention to the person anymore.

Mike, who’s done and seen it all when it comes to nude models, puts it succinctly;

To each their own. It's not for everyone. Artists throughout time appreciate the human form. It's a stroke of creative genius. What better way to appreciate the divine on Earth?

If you are an artist/illustrator of any kind; regardless of ability, style, or experience and you haven’t taken a figure drawing class, do it! When I was a kid, someone in my family who was eager to encourage my artistic inclinations bought me a copy of Jack Hamm’s Drawing The Head & Figure of which I still have today. This book was very helpful when it came to learning how to draw anatomy even if it was in the crude form of a Garfield comic strip. Looking through it though, I never believed even for a second that I could draw like Mr. Hamm (and most might argue I still can’t). It took an actual figure drawing class to break that stigma and push me in ways I never even thought possible! In the words of Mike Barreiro himself,

Get up and move around. A new perspective can be helpful.

A huge thank you to my former teacher Mike Barreiro for taking the time to answer all my questions. This post not only gave me a chance to talk about something I love, but gave me an excuse to chat him up again outside of constantly fawning over his work in the comments. Speaking of which, you should totally do the same and follow him on Instagram and Facebook and check out his website: mikebarreiroart.com

“*To the best student, Dave*.” my signed copy of Kamandi Mike inked that he signed for me!

Special thanks to C.W. Roederer for his time and thoughts, you have not heard from him for the last time on this blog, I can assure you! Follow him on Instagram and check out more of his work on his website: cwroederer.com

Thank you SO much to Maria Chamra for not only contributing to this post but for letting me drag her all the way up to Plainfield, New Jersey to be my accountable art buddy yet again. Absolutely go follow her on Instagram and Facebook and check out her work at her website: mariachamra.com

And as always, I’d appreciate it if you follow me on Instagram and Twitter and follow this blog which posts every Friday all about art, illustration, graphic design, creative thinking, and occasionally even the Muppets!