The above photo is from the early seventies. I'm the tall guy in the center and I look kind of sleepy in this picture, though I absolutely wasn't when it was taken. I was actually quite excited to spend an evening with gent in front of me, the legendary Carl Barks, the creator of Uncle Scrooge and the artist-writer of many wonderful comics featuring Donald, Scrooge and other ducky folks. Also thrilled were my friends who accompanied me to the Barks home in Goleta, California — at left, Dwight Decker; at right, Dan Gheno. As you can tell, I've known both Dwight and Dan for a long, long time.
Dan is the fellow who's been sending me those great photos of the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. He also just send me a copy of his great new book on Figure Drawing. Dan, you see, was inspired to become an artist by all those comic books he read while he was younger…but not a comic book artist. He got into life drawing and painting and went on to become an important artist and art teacher, currently tutoring at the Art Students League and at the National Academy School. He has exhibited all over the world in private and public collections including the Museum of the City of New York, The New Britain Museum of American Art and the Butler Institute of American Art, and his art and writings have appeared in many magazines and books, including American Artist, Drawing Magazine and The Artist's Magazine.
This is his newest book — Figure Drawing Master Class: Lessons in Life Drawing. It has been years since I did much drawing and as I paged through this volume, I had two reactions. One was that I wished I hadn't given it up because I'm sure Dan's lessons, breaking down the process into easily understandable chunks, would have made me better at it. This thought though was negated by the second reaction which is that even if I'd practiced 'til I wore all my pencils and fingers down to stubs, I wouldn't have been half as good as he is.
I'm still glad to have it though because it's a beautiful book and I'm sure it would be of value to any artist more serious about his work than I am. If you'd like to order a copy, here's just the link you need.