Gary Bouton's Xara Stuff

[Gare]

Hi albacore—

There were very few art courses in my high school—Commercial Art was one of perhaps 2 that were offered, but that wasn't my "unlearning" phase. It came later, after I was flunking out of Pre-Med and changed my major to commercial design in college. When I say "unlearning", it was at a root level and had to trickle upwards to change my style. Things such as:

• Work from the general to the specific. I used to dive into a drawing without a preliminary architecture and everything looked handsomely detailed, but off-kilter.

• If it looks right, it probably is right. This ended my incessant refinement of a drawing until it looked like garbage.

• Draw what you see, not what you think you see.

If I were a primary or secondary art teacher today, we wouldn't get around to actually drawing for weeks. Theory and attitude and approach should be taught first. I failed almost completely, in retrospect, copying Superman from the comics, because I learned to draw, but not why.

You shouldn't be sad to you at all that you still have your early drawings, pal!! I do not; I couldn't afford archival paper and pigments so almost all of my 1960s/1970s artwork has crumbled to crap. Barbara and I scanned as much as we could, but I don't have the time these days for restoration work.

I'm happy that from 1991 to present, my digital stuff—and scans of my physical stuff—are preserved. I really miss some of the cartoons I did 40+ years ago.

My Best,

Gary