Sunday, June 23, 2024

ONE LOVELY DRAWING, part 74

 I can't tell if this drawing by Tom Fluharty makes me laugh because it's so funny, or because I'm so happy that human beings are still capable of drawing like this.

Ace Frehley, guitarist from the group Kiss

Look at the marvelous assortment of talents that combine to create this image of a saggy, jowly, dissolute rocker.  Fluharty even makes those sunglasses sag:


Fluharty devised his own patented technique for scratching sharp highlights in his blue pencil series of drawings.  He used that technique effectively here to draw scraggly hairs on the top of the head.  It contributes to the character, but note that Fluharty resists the temptation to overdo it with too many individual hairs; he selectively isolates one long greasy hair scratched across the middle of that dark lens (high contrast) to give those wilted sunglasses additional prominence.  

Also, without Fluharty's understanding of anatomy, those exaggerated rolls of flab melting down Frehley's face wouldn't look nearly so believable.

Pudgy fingers like turkey drumsticks, wearing oversized jewelry,
reinforce our impression of aged debauchery. 



A thrusting pelvis comes across more comical than dangerous when paired with a pot belly... that moth eaten costume that was once cool...  Fluharty doesn't miss a trick.  He is a great storyteller with a pencil.



7 comments:

MORAN said...

Fluharty is awesome. Thanks for posting.

Anonymous said...

I love the way he draws hands.

JSL

xopxe said...

Wow. He decided the eyes would not be visible very early on.

kev ferrara said...

Love Fluharty's work. Only somebody who knows structural anatomy and light-n-shadow backwards and forwards can draw this expressively from reference. He's able to use the reference like clay. And he can make even a finger funny, which puts him in Mort Drucker/Jack Davis territory. Very few in his league currently with a combination of structural/anatomic integrity and expressiveness. His sense of expressive balance is also amazing; you couldn't teach it.


chris bennett said...

I really admire the way Fluharty can zoom in and out of adjacent forms without their change in scale causing the overall scheme to lose unity.

David Apatoff said...

I agree with all of the above (which is practically unheard of in the history of this blog). Fluharty draws all the time-- his output is phenomenal-- but more important than that, he seems to keep his eyes open and learn from each new drawing. So many artists today, especially in the comic book / strip / graphic novel business settled on templates for faces, hands, etc. and from that time on, went back to that template on automatic pilot. Fluharty embodies the virtues of honest work.

Anonymous said...

"Fluharty devised his own patented technique for scratching sharp highlights in his blue pencil series of drawings."
Incredible statement. This is not a new technique. Care to explain?