Over the Shoulder Joe & John

Back in the daze when Kliban Cats were all the rage said Kliban did a one pager called How to Draw a Cat.

First you draw a meatloaf and drawing one is a cross-hatched rectangle.

Then you put the ears on the cat and the second drawing shows two little points added to the meatloaf.

Then you turn the drawing around and the last drawing shows a completed Kliban cat that looks nothing like the steps leading up to it.

That was what it was like to learn drawing from Joe Kubert. Joe got his first professional job at the Harry Chesler studio as a boy of 12. He has no idea how he does what he does. He can`t articulate the thought process because it is non-verbal.

It use to drive us students mad watching him scribble a contour line and then go right into inks all the time mouthing words that had nothing to do with what was happening on the page.

No one will question his greatness as an artist but a teacher for beginning students? No!

If you are almost a master and you look over his shoulder then you might be able to get something from him but if you are still trying to learn the figure you just don`t have the knowledge to see what he is doing because so many of the steps take place in his head before he touches the pen to paper.

Here is Joe Kubert & John Romita, Sr sketching for The Hero Initiative (Comic Artist Fund) at Baltimore Comic Con.