Sunday Mailbag

Q: I was wondering if you ever try out new things? Perhaps a different medium or art form entirely, not just for commercial work but for personal interest?

A: Yes, I do lots of things that are different from my typical style or approach. I think the artist side demands some experimentation or things get boring. I used to regularly attend a figure drawing co-op in north Minneapolis, where I did realistic figure drawing with charcoal, graphite or pastels. That proved to be too far away to keep up, but I enjoyed it. I also have taken some painting workshop classes here in Burnsville at an art school called the River Hills Art Center. One was a weekly watercolor workshop and one was an “any medium” workshop where I did some acrylic painting. I worked on some landscapes and a portrait.

I am going to take another workshop this year with oils. I have a village scene from France I want to paint for The Lovely Anna and that is probably the only way I will realistically be able to gt it done. Otherwise I would love to get back into realistic figure drawing if I can find a closer co-op.

Thanks to Piotr Walczuk for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!