Instant gratification isn't always a sin!

I draw live mainly to entertain friends and clients, and like most cartoonists, I draw fast. A lot the lines are accidents, which might not be perfect, but it's a trade for a look of spontaneity. (I got used to inking straight off probably because I've been working live caricature since puberty.) This isn't a good way to learn, it's better to draw in pencil and draw the shapes first. However, the look of THIS style is always free, fluid and fun and most importantly: instant.

Artist's personalities come out in their drawings. One example is: I can usually tell how uptight an artist's personality is by how angular or stiff their art is. I don't know if a scared, miserable or very god-fearing person could draw how i do. ha ha!


And for some reason, I draw funniest with a crowd watching me. Trained to entertain, I suppose.



People are always asking me why i draw myself all the time. The real question is: "Marlo, why haven't you drawn myself more?!! I want to see you in every light and in unconventional situations! do what I say!"


Here's a present I made for katie while we were gabby

the end?

COMMENT DIRECTIONS: please include any self-diagnosed personality disorders you have

52 comments:

Marlo said...

* inferiority complex

david said...

AWESOME COLORSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSERSSSS












*uncontrollable boners.

david said...

good foot on the first on too.

Chloe Cumming said...

I dig the polychromatic shinyness on Katie's... I was going to say 'fringe' but that's British talk... possibly Americans say 'bangs' but that don't sound right. The bit of hair at the front of a person's head on top of their face.

Also the miraculous radiant boobies please me.

Gosh I'd love to be able to draw fast and loose for a crowd. I'm so blooming uptight about it. Perhaps this is a symptom of some kind of constipated personality disorder.

Anonymous said...

*moderate neurosis

Marlo, your art showcases your admirably unrepressed state.

Gabriel said...

I don't finish anything I start, is that a disorder? I've taken up learning to play keyboards, guitar, mandolin, flute and I can't play any of those. Actually I took guitar classes for YEARS, and I couldn't play a whole song to save my life if I needed to. I've tried to paint, clay sculpture, soap sculpture, yet I can't keep doing anything for long enough to get good at it. Drawing is the only thing I never stopped, but I suspect it's because it's the only thing I could do in school without getting caught by the teachers (well, most of the time).

Gabriel said...

Oh, and you asked if I'm anal. No, not reallly, I'm just extreme. When I do something I either want it to be perfect or I don't care at all about the result, not much middle ground. I'm trying to change...

Anonymous said...

You're obviously jealous of Katie Rice's breasts!

Anonymous said...

wow! check out that katie pic!!

hmm. gee. is "failing to initiate sex several times" a personality disorder?

Kristen McCabe said...

Hello Marlo! I Love these! how big are these drawings?

I'm trying to teach myself to draw Bigger and I was just curious.

Shawn Dickinson said...

Funny how you mentioned that you can tell how uptight someone is by how stiff their art is. I always think my art looks stiff, but I'm really tying to loosen up. John K talks about 2 kinds of cartoonists (one is conservative and the other wild and crazy). It pisses me off that my drawings make me look like a conservative cartoonist, while I am truly inspired by the loose and crazy cartoonists. And I think my personality is like that too. People who meet me think, "DAMN, that crazy Shawn guy is one crazy wacky fellow." But if you get to know me well, I'm actually pretty anal about a lot of things. I think that comes across in my art, and I hate that. Maybe people who draw comics tent to be more conservative than animators or caricature artists because we always need to stay restricted to panels and page layouts. But I think looking at all the great artists through these blogs has definately helped me loosen up more. The stuff I've been doing within the last few days is REALLY loose and crazy, and now I'm actually starting to like my own stuff. Thanks for the inspiration, Marlo!!! (Not to call you "loose" or anything.)

That picture of Katie is amazing! Do you ever have problems with character structure if you just do everything in ink first?

Oh, yeah...My self diagnosed personality disorder: Brain seems to live in a state of borderline autism.

Huh?? what what??

rickgo said...

a)great recent posts.
b)great drawings
c)i'm boring and feel older and more doomed to sucking at what i do everyday.
thats not really a disorder,but the truth none the less.

Anonymous said...

*can talk at length only about himself


funny drawings. and small boobies can be fun too.

Marc Crisafulli said...

That one of Katie is not only nifty, but UNPRECEDENTED... I think you got all of her lip theories into one drawing!

*For many years now,
I've had great difficulty trusting people.

Anonymous said...

Yay! Draw yourself more! That's what I do! ME ME ME! But drawing Katie looks fun too! I think I might as well! But I don't actually know you guys- oh well! I feel so left out! Dammit all!

Unknown said...

hooray! more drawings. you made my night!

Anonymous said...

- oh ya disorder.....


shy bladder syndrome!!!! It's for real yo!

David Germain said...

Hey, you said this post would have drawings of guys in it. (Unless Katie's a guy. In which case it makes more sense why HE likes drawing girls so much).

Anyway, I like you pic of you dancing in your underwear. The lines flow wonderfully all over the place. That was one of the qualities Rod Scribner had in his animation drawings which is what made him so great. Yep, I've really got to incorporate some of that looseness into my work.










*neurosis: I fear that I give everyone penis envy. ;) (I wish)

Marlo said...

Thanks for the nice and mostly clever compliments! sorry rick! (haha just kiddin pal!)

**I will formally admit my jealousy of katie's sexy bosom.** it's more of of admiration and awe though. she's a very pretty girl.


Shawn- we have much to discuss.

Mr. Germain-

don't worry, boys will be posted. that's a bikini not underwear! ehhh! same thing.

Marlo said...

hahaha uncontrollable boners. i pictured a brain with a boner. isn;t that where one's personality lives?

Alexei Martins said...

Hello...do you like sea creatures...?
please enter in my blog to see some creatures of the sea...enjoy...your a fantastic Marlo!!!!!

Marc Deckter said...

Hey, that first drawing would look really cool animated! It could be an underwater scene and you could be dancing/fighting with an octopus or something. Of course there would need to be Scott Joplin ragtime piano music playing in the background.

* Giving-amazing-cartoonists-suggestions-when-suggestions-were-not-asked-for-in-the-first-place-disorder.

Shawn Dickinson said...

>>Shawn- we have much to discuss.


Oh, shit! I'm in trouble. Was it the "loose" comment?

I kid...let's discuss away!

Marlo said...

HEY EVERYONE THAT LIKES MY BLOG!

i promise to color more drawings! because they excite you! dont they? yes.

Anonymous said...

Je vous félicite madame. Assurément c'est de la belle ouvrage

Alexiev said...

fantastic colours!!
Great wowrk as always!

Jenny Lerew said...

Ohhh, weird! I was drawing Katie last night, after reading her "farewell" post...now, I've never met her, and thus my drawings are based on something like 2 photos, your drawings and her drawings, which ain't exactly kosher...so I dumped my attempts as a)not good enuf and b)maybe too certain to freak poor Katie "SWF" Rice full-on out, don't you know.
Anyway, enough about me! I LOVE THESE!!!! FUCKING GENIUS!

(And thankee for the swell remarks on my thing, there. : ) Y'all too too good to me.)

Anonymous said...

Hmmn...Am I miserable?
Judging by the lack of angles in my lastest drawing I'd say no...however, judging by the fact that it's a picture of a crippled, limbless, toothless child crying it's heart out...

I'd say definatly no.

Jeff said...

A comment and a confession? Uh-oh.

First, I love your art. It's all very fun and very funny. I agree that you can find a lot of the artist in the art and after a quick skim of your blog I think there's a whole heckuva lot of you in your work. –> Good thing.

*complexity complex-- I worry that simple things are actually very complex things that I just don't understand, and I worry about them in ways that I'm worried aren't deep enough to do them justice. I hope that makes sense. (See? See how I am? Now I'm worried that I might have stolen that from somewhere after having labored over it for 10 minutes.)

Jay D Smith said...

wow!!! :)

Urban Barbarian said...

too true... My work is all over the place... different styles, takes... I guess I'm a mess. Thanks...!


*hyper-active laziness disorder*

z0mbi said...

Awesome, awesome work. I love it! Your lines are sexy!

Personality disorder: I filter out excessive emotions.

Brian Brantley said...

LOL. What's with the boob contrast? Anyway, these are great. Katie's charicature looks so awesome. You guys look funny together too in charicatures. A buddy buddy girl tv show/picture woul work so well with you 2. Honestly, there's such a cool designs of you in your previous posts together, and that type of show is so unexplored. Btw, your ruthless with a pencil. :)

* I can't talk normal to my friends, especially girls, in front of my parents.

Katie said...

I LOVE THESE PICTURES!! I know I already told you over AIM, but I';; say it here so everyone can know my love. Look at my hair and boobies! It's so nice. Your feet and noodle arms are the best ever.

I drew you a picture!! Try and find it!

Gary Clair said...

FETUSES!!!!!

jason white said...

great post! makes me think of how alotta times i'll se preliminary sketches people do for thier paintings that are better than the finished painting. somewhere during the process the "zing" is lost. the finished painting will look over polished and stiff, where the sketch was electric and exciting. because you know the sketch is capturing the birth of the true idea and that everything done after it is a knock-off, re-hashing the original. this isn't true in all cases though, many times people can take the original idea further by revisiting it).

* judas complex

Doctor Jones said...

That's sweet.
Her boobs look like they're talking.

Ryan Kramer said...

always good stuff! spontaneity is such a great element to make a drawing fun. I'm not sure it can be taught, it's just a process of embracing it...you do it well.

Athaualpa said...

MArlo??

Eric Bauza said...

MAAAAAAARLO!!!

you STILL rock!!!

comic-con this year!?
Bauza

Anonymous said...

Awesome, awesome stuff as always Marlo. me jealous! i have dependent personality disorder. is that okay, or should i switch?

Marlo said...

wow! Krazy Kazillzion Kompliment Komments!

Thanks everybody! it was very entertaining to see all the personality disorders from mostly artists! Disorder doesnt always mean bad, it just means not everyone acts that way.

well there wern't any questions to answer! come on ask me some questions. i'll answer them all! i promise


I'm real sad too that katie is on vacation from blogger, on to do important secret things. I'm lucky to be her pal and even get to watch her draw in person ! BE VERY JEALOUS!

I'm currently trying to think of a clever new post, i don't just want to post drawings or BW sketches anymore. I want to have insightful or entertaining colorful posts. or comics.

i will deliver. by golly.

* that disorder where you forget you have a body that you are just a being

David Germain said...

come on ask me some questions. i'll answer them all! i promise

I got a question. How did you get that picture of yourself at the top of your blog? I'd like to do something like that on my blog.








* disorder: I pee other people's pants.

william wray said...

I like the thumb placement on your new blog header.

william wray said...

Don't take this the wrong way, I think you're hot and all, but you do emit some male energy.

Anonymous said...

what kinds of markers do you use to color? i am amazed at it's delicious juicyness yet ability to be transparent when it must. You must tell me now!

Marlo said...

David, just paste the picture url in the title slot. real easy.

bill, i've been told that i "have balls" countless times.

Anonymous- chartpaks, prismacolors, fabercastels, crayolas, crappy no brand. chartpaks provide the least streaks, and there's more of a fun variety of tip in cheap-ass markers.

katie said...

Sorry anonymous was me logged out. I am katie, I heard of you when you worked at great adventure, I worked there too but never met you and then I quit and now I draw caricatures at fairs, MORE MONEY. Anyway, I saw your name at aboutfacesentertainers.com or something and said, well that's a familiar name, and googling led me to your great drawings. I AM IMPRESSED. I wish I could have worked with you before our times were up. I will look into the markers but I'm pretty sure that I will be too poor for them.

Rich Tomlinson said...

ummmmm hmmmmmm nice work marlo!



Fear of handling undies while doing laundry!

Gabriel Hunt said...

People are always asking me why i draw myself all the time. The real question is: "Marlo, why haven't you drawn myself more?!! I want to see you in every light and in unconventional situations! do what I say!"

My favorite part about you is that you can draw yourself differently each time. Each one is amazing, and funny.

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