CREATE CHARACTERS FROM AN ABSTRACT
Charcoal
Join ERIC MESSINGER as he helps bring out the intuitive side of your creativity with a walkthrough of his spectacular and spontaneous charcoal art
Dust off your charcoal and grab your sense of fun, because we’re about to go on an adventure to reclaim your artistic spontaneity and intuitive creativity!
I’ve been a passionate creator of monsters and otherworldly beings since I was old enough to pick up a crayon. While I’m a mild-mannered graphic designer by day, I explore the worlds of darker creatures by night.
For many years, I thought my art had to look like everyone else’s to be successful. I started by colouring at Image Comics in the 1990s and went almost exclusively into comic-based digital work for many years after.
When I hit a low point in my artistic career, I returned to the traditional mediums I knew best: See page 5 now! pencil and charcoal. In charcoal powder, I discovered the power of starting with an abstract, and it lit my imagination on fire. This built up my ability and confidence to solve problems on the fly. With my artistic intuition now rebooted, the creatures from the other side began to line up and knock on my brain. Each of them starts with a charcoal abstract to form a bridge between their dark universe and our own.