When I look back at the art I did as a kid, I’ll sometimes draw (ho ho) inspiration from it, thinking, “That was pretty good.” As I developed my mad sketching skills, I did a copious amount of copying, which is a pretty good way to learn how to draw.
Speaking of copying (such a clever segue), here’s a sketch I did based on the Newsweek cover story from June 18, 1979, “Hollywood’s scary summer”:
The story cataloged the horror movies of summer 1979, with Alien featuring prominently, and an included shot of the alien (which was a spoiler at the time, I suppose) formed the basis of my sketch, done on a 5×7″ sketchpad using a 2B pencil:
I pulled this sketch into Affinity Photo and played around with the exposure, brightness and a few other settings. The end result is an interesting example of how you can change the feel of a drawing without actually altering the drawing itself (ie. no erasing, drawing over existing lines or adding new elements).
The modified version pops more, and I like the more dramatic look to the glowing mist. I think the 14-year-old version of me would have approved. The not-14 year old version of me is still not crazy about how the ribs look.
