Self-Portrait: At Last

[dewline]

This one's about 90 kb, and it's a bit of vanity besides...just so you know.

Comments

kewwwwt

[themoo37.livejournal.com]

That's very cute

[jcoville.livejournal.com]

It does look like you, but is that mustash new-ish? I don't think I've seen you in a bit over a year so I'm forgetting.

Not really new...

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I've had it about three years in varying forms by this point. Heck, it's even in my LJ "avatar".

Interesting self-portrait

[(Anonymous)]

Always interesting to see recent work from you. Your style remains distinctive, though I'd have to pull out older material to pin down what thread's remained constant in your work over the past 15 years. The varied line work and shading on the hair (aside from the eyebrows) is the most strikingly recent (and, again, I may be using that term very loosely) development for you. The glasses, eyebrows and eyes, along with the line of the mouth could just as well have been done by you in 1991, and are what immediately mark it as a Dwight Williams piece. The line weight of the eyes both outlining them and of/in the iris remains too uniform in thickness for my tastes, and IMHO is the area that's holding you back. I say that strictly with the intent of offering what I hope will be helpful advice, and so in the most positive sense of criticism.

There's what seems to be an Hispanic tilt to the self-portrait, which surprised me a little. What you emphasize in the shot also imparts a more bohemian artist, and even something of a retro, beatnik look -- which are charmingly amusing when juxtaposed with your detail-driven turn of mind and emphasis on civility and inoffensiveness.

I don't recall if I ever signed up with LiveJournal or otherwise registered with them. If I did I didn't set the system up to remember the settings, so I'm coming into this as "anonymous."

Mike Norton
http://miraclo.blogspot.com/

Linework and Such

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Mike:

Thanks for taking the time to check in and comment! It's not often enough that we get to chat as it is, these days, and it's good to have the chance to remedy that.

As to specific points...

I have to admit to becoming increasingly comfortable with those dip nib pens of late, as well as the brush-pens. I started getting serious with those in the last year or so, as a direct response to the line weight concerns which had been bugging me for ages. Why I didn't add that to the repertoire ages back, given all the influence I keep claiming the likes of Schulz to have had on my development...well, let's just say the logic that made sense to me then? It doesn't make sense now.

It was time, Mike.

As for any Hispanic influences...if they're there(and I won't gainsay you if you see them), they're inadvertant or third-hand at best. I can't say I've read all that much of European or South American comics art that didn't get funnelled through a USA publisher. At least not until recently. I've started getting into the habit of borrowing the odd OGN from the French-language fiction section at the local public library for studying various artists' inking approaches in order to remedy this.

Interesting that you should see "Bohemian" or "beatnik" sensibilities as clashing with my detail-oriented thinking, and/or my manners. I'll grant that I don't know much about the background behind those two terms, so there may be things I'm not yet seeing in this as well.

[(Anonymous)]

Dwight, you look like a grouchy bad ass. rrrrrrr. Nice work, but it should be smaller. Optimized to 50k or below. If you want to optimize artwork, and don't know how, give me a holler.

Mike Leuszler
Art Optimizer
http://www.websitedesignermike.com
http://openmike.blog-city.com

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I'll be working on that, Mike. ;-)

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Fixed now. 54 kb. Any lower, and I don't trust my PhotoPaint skills.

(I know, Photoshop is the industry standard! Can I help it if I'm living in Corel (http://corel.ca/)'s backyard, though? :-)