Where it all began...

I don't draw much anymore, which is a shame because it's one of the few things I like to do which I find fullfilling at all. I'm at a point where I'm conflicted about what style I'd like to have, I've always wanted to have a cartoony style like the image of the little girl I posted earlier but the consistency of that type of style has always eluded me, although it's more fun than the comic book style I've developed over the years. Speaking of which, I was wondering (to myself) what it was that prompted me to want to draw in the first place and I've narrowed it down to this:

The cover to X-Men #1 drawn by Jim Lee (ca 1991-92). This was only one part of the full cover:

I was never really into comics until I saw that cover, it just captured my attention, I was enthralled by the art style. Everything was dynamic, the men were stoic and the women were sexy and strong. I studied every panel of that book just looking at the stylized anatomy, character blocking, architecture, backgrounds, layout and pacing of the story. Simply amazing! It was the reason I bought my first sketchbook and drew every day from the beginning of my sophomore year in high school until graduation trying to mimic Lee's style and in doing so develop my own. I followed other artists since then, specifically Travis Charest, but Lee's work will always be my favorite... and he is still producing kick ass stuff like this:

I think I just need to start sketching again. More as a way to de-stress than anything and as much as I'd like to find a job where I can be creative all day, it seems as though I'll never be able to afford to leave my current job... no matter how much I want to. I'm still working toward getting my website functional, but with having to move in the next two weeks and wondering about my job status I haven't been able to work on that or the Drifter model (insert frown here).