A sense of action

Today when flipping through my Google Reader feeds, I was struck by a post from Stephen Silver. He's a remarkable fellow, producing some top notch work, and is now running a class. From the thumbnails in the post, the change in style he'd managed to engender in his students looked quite remarkable... and on closer inspection I was equally impressed, in most of the cases.

Then I had a look at the cost of the class...

$998

Why this should feel so extravagant in a world where I often see "consultants" with day rates of £500, even £1000 a day, I don't know, but it was quite telling.

Looking through the images, I was also struck by the sense of dynamism in the characters, something that's sorely lacking in Wychwolf at the minute. Strangely I can remember having the same issue with my work about 15 years ago, when my editor at Harper Collins returned a rough, saying I'd lost my sense of action, "where was the artist she'd hired?"

So, the next few Wychwolf strips I draw need a bit of motion, dynamism... they shouldn't just look the way they do because it's the easiest way to draw them.