This is another piece I found under the bed in Maine.I wanted to feature this piece on the blog ever since my friend, Rob Kelly, wrote a quick remembrance of it on one of his blogs. The problem was that Rob writes so many blogs that it was hard to remember where I had read it. So, this morning, after going through back logs of three of his blogs I finally found it. It wasn't on his personal blog or his art blog. No, it was on his Aquaman Shrine blog.
Who would have guessed it would have been there.
But, I'll let Rob tell you about this piece. The story behind it still makes me smile :)
It's from THIS blog entry in his daily Aquaman Blog:
"On an unrelated note, this piece reminds me of an assignment we had back in our third year at the Joe Kubert School ( I believe it was actually our second year of school, since that's the only year Rob, Dan and I were in the same class together...but, you know...details, details.) Our instructor for this one class was the legendary Irwin Hasen, and he told us to draw a house, in three separate seasons--any three of the four we chose.
It was an exercise to help us learn to consistency in what we were drawing, so all of us groaned at the thought of having to draw a boring ol' house three times, when all most of us wanted to do was draw Batman.
Anyway, the next week rolls around, and we all whip out our drawings. I sat next to my pal Dan Eaker, and was embarrassed at my effort compared to his--he drew three houses so meticulously, mathmatically perfect you could've used them as blueprints. My stuff just looked weak.
But we were both shocked at what another friend, Sean Tiffany, produced--he just drew one picture, of the same house, sliced into three panels, each showing that portion of the house during a different season. He cheated!
We were goofing on Sean and how he tried to cheat his way out of the assignment, and were sure Irwin would call him on it, especially compared to the masterful work Dan had produced.
We sat down and did a group review, and when Irwin got to Sean's, Dan and I got ready for the beat down. But Irwin took one look at it and said something to the effect of "Sean, I love what you did here, with the three panels! Brilliant!"
So not only did Sean cheat and do less work than he was instructed to do, but he complimented by the co-creator of Dondi for doing it! Sean shot us the biggest grin he could muster, and I died a little inside that day."
I also seem to remember that, not only did Irwin like what I had done, he actually called Dan's boring and sterile. It just made Rob and Dan a bit more angry at me over the whole thing. I think this is just one of those stories that shows that, if someone doesn't tell me I specifically CAN'T do something, I'll look for a way around the assumed rules. It's why I love shows like Survivor where, if the rules don't specifically say it, you can do whatever you want and argue your case later.
So, sorry I killed a little piece of my friend Rob that day but it is a funny story. I hope Rob forgives me :)
5 comments:
Ha! I think you're right, it must have been 2nd year. And now that you mention it, I kinda remember Irwin rubbing salt in the wound.
Sorry you had to go through all my blogs to find that story, Sean. You should've just asked me!
No worries, Robbo. I kind of wanted it to be a surprise. In the end, after going through your art blog and personal blog, I just googled mine and Dan's name together. And, boom, on the third link, there it was.
Plus, it gave me a chance to show off some of the various blogs you do. And that's never a bad thing.
Plus, reading back on your post...it's ART! How can you cheat at art? Ha ha!
I hope you're doing great.
Congratulations, Sean, it was a very good piece and a funny story ! I don't think it was cheating, this is the kind of thing we often see in comic strip art, so the teacher's approval was logic ! But I surely haven't dared to do the same, or I would have ask the teacher if it was allowed before.... ^^
How lucky you guys were to be Joe Kubert Art School students ! :D
I think it was more me running out of time to do the assignment and less me trying to buck the system. It's just funny that it worked out the way it did and that it bugged Rob and Dan so much.
The Kubert School was great and I still miss it. You don't realize how great it is to be surrounded by twenty or so creative people all doing the same thing you are until you're sitting in a room alone trying to do it by yourself.
I think I can imagine it a little, by thinking of the contrary : when I am surrounded by a client team composed of several old ladies who don't understand at all what I'm doing or tell me they don't like or read comic strips at all...... :) ) ) )
So you could ask me why do they want me to draw a comic for their group if they don't like comics.... well, let's take it funny and say it must be the french paradox ^^ :) ) ) )
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