Sunday Mailbag

Q: Do you ever get a hankering to stretch your artistic legs by doing some “serious” art like portraits or landscapes, or to try your hand at more traditional media like oils and watercolors?

A: Not as much as I used to, but I still like to break out of the box when I can. I am still challenged artistically daily with my regular work, but I have always found it relaxing and fun to switch gears entirely and work realistically or with different mediums. Life drawing I especially enjoyed, and just can’t find the time or the venue for it these days. Here’s an example of a life drawing pose I did at a co-op a number of years ago:

Some time back I also took a watercolor landscape class at a local art studio… my first realistic attempt at the medium. The results were not so impressive, but I learned a lot and found it very therapeutic:

Thanks to Timothy Houston 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!