s**t happening

Weirdly, one of the hardest things I have tried to learn is to draw things happening in my pictures.  For years, I would fill sketchbooks with scores of people and creatures just standing around in non-specific locations not really doing anything.  It is a terrible habit to get into because as soon as you want to tell a story with them all that practice counts for next to nowt...

In an effort to get over this problem I have taken to outsourcing my roughs to my left hand.  That way, if nothing is going on in the picture it becomes very obvious.  There is a big difference between a well-rendered drawing of someone standing around doing nothing and a wibbly lined scrawl of same.  There is just no hiding the lack of action!

Here are some of the preliminary drawings for Jim's Lion done this way.  I really like them!  Stuff is most definitely going on!