An Old Byloos Drawing Series: Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan

Byloos Drawing Series: Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan 1

I’ve gone through any number of small, closed drawings series since (and during) grad school, back in 1999-2001. Recently, I found these images from a series that I worked on back in 2003 and 04, if I remember correctly. The idea was to take these very loose, minimally gestural backgrounds, and work up drawings of the (mostly domestic) interiors from the pages of Jimmy Corrigan cartoons, as drawn by Chris Ware.

Byloos Drawing Series: Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan 2

The color schemes fused garish, almost fluorescent gestural marks that floated over more organic, hospital and school building colors that were evocative of decades like the 50s and 60s. The surfaces would be sanded smooth, then the interiors would be drawn in colored pencil, with small closed sections filled in with acrylic or collaged Japanese wrapping paper. Everywhere the figure of a person existed in the original drawing, I would work the lines right up to the outline, instead focusing on furniture and objects in the room. Often, this left just a floating crutch or a couch that appeared to have large, bite-size chunks removed. Drawings from the newest series inevitably find their roots here.