Apparently Stan Lee did a video series in '91-'92 where he interviewed comic book artists and had them draw and talk about their method. I randomly stumbled upon the episode w/ a baby-faced Jim Lee. This is over 20 years old now! Friggin' insane!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
It's about an hour long. For experienced artists, a lot of this is probably redundant, but it's still fun to see. There's so much cheesy early '90s stuff going on, it's hilarious. At one point, Jim says he tells aspiring artists to pay attention to their surroundings all the time, wherever they are, and try to remember little details, because at some point in their careers they'll inevitably be asked to draw that kind of locale, and they'll need to rely on memory because it's so hard to find reference imagery.Probably still good advice, but obviously doesn't carry the same weight anymore. It's also amazing how fast Jim is. Unreal.
My favorite quote, talking about the rationale for doing quick warm-up sketches.
Jim: "... So that you know you haven't forgotten how to draw, because that IS a fear among artists ... when you wake up one day and you go, 'I've forgotten how to do it'"
Stan: "You wake up one morning, 'My god, I can't draw anymore?'"
Jim: "Something like that, yeah. I mean, cause, really, you don't know WHY you can draw better than the next guy, you know?"
It's a subject I've been thinking about lately: the whole talent vs. practice thing. It's amazing that even now, the psychology of drawing is still mostly a mystery. As much as science knows about the brain, there's so much it still doesn't. It's a huge frontier. Anyway, good watching. Jim's a genius.
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