Ol’ George #70
Notes on #70:
1. When I came up with the central joke, I had to do my due diligence and surely enough, it was not original. In fact, it has been used for four beers: an Imperial Stout by a brewpub in San Juan Capistrano (checked in by one person on Untappd), a Black IPA in the Czech Republic, a Hazy IPA in Jersey City, and a Cold IPA by Sun King of Indiana, which has the best label design of them all.
2. Irma is an emu, and I always, absurdly, worry about drawing her “correctly.” She has purple feathers instead of brown, for starters, but that was a choice. Her neck is never long enough. Her wingspan is much larger than a real emu, but how else could she do her job? I sometimes forget the nostrils on her beak, which are quite large on a real one. I’ve never drawn her entire body, and maybe never will. Although, Never say never.
But why worry, it’s a cartoon! There’s a lot of wholly inaccurate cartoon animals out there, I’m sure no one cares. Do Snoopy and Woodstock look anything like a real dog or bird?
3. I decided to experiment with this one and inked the George and Irma figures with India ink and brush, everyone/thing else with the usual felt tip pen. I was then going to color those figures with watercolor, and that’s when it hit me. The felt tip pens are not waterproof.! You can see where this went wrong if you look. This whole endeavor is a work in progress and I have never promised perfection. I will try inking with brush again, but it’s hard, and requires concentration.
4. Media: pencil, India ink, felt tip pen, watercolor, colored pencil.
You know what phrase I have always hated? Pen and ink. Often, the drawing in question was done with brush, but no one ever says “brush and ink.” And no painting is described as “brush and oil”. Did anyone ever call Jackson Pollock’s action paintings “gravity and acrylic”?
See, I think about this stuff, maybe too much.
