A BRAND NEW (to me) drawing of Seth's

Look at this!

Intrepid watcher for Seth Stuff, Jason Gerstein, sent me this image of a picture he found for sale the other day, a convention drawing done somewhere between 2003 & 2005.  (The seller dated it c.2003, but it looks to me more as though it was done during his monster phase, which would have been while he was drawing Big in Japan: 2005.)  A very Sethish monster, with mouths and heads in the wrong places, but turning his cluster of heads around to let you know how much he loves you.  And flowered skin besides...

I thought I had seen everything Seth had done. Finding something new makes me realize there is probably more out there, in people's folders, drawers, and closets. That's nice to know.  

More small pieces

Here is another small sketch done to sell at ComicCon for $20 or less.

small pieces

In his years of going to ComicCon, Seth learned that fans rarely wanted to spend a few hundred dollars for original comic book pages, but that they did want to buy something from him. So he started making small sketches in order to have something to sell for $20 or so to fans who wanted some original art, but were not prepared to shell out big money for it. Here are a couple of the drawings he did for that purpose. Doing them ahead of time meant that he did not have to have someone standing over him waiting while he drew, and that the work would be clean and finished, though simple and small.

Convention sketch?

I suspect this drawing was done at ComicCon 2002, for a fan. Fernando, to whom Seth dedicated it, must have been willing to go away and come back later to get his drawing, because Seth had time to put some finesse into it. Thank you Fernando, for posting it somewhere on the web, because otherwise I would never have seen it.

convention sketch

In the photo at the bottom of this page, Seth is holding this drawing, which he did for Guido de Bue, a fan, at ComicCon 2004. (Guido also took the photograph and graciously allowed me to use both of them here.)
I sat with Seth one year while he did fan sketches at ComicCon (probably 2001). We sat at the DC Comics booth, and fans would line up with their black spiral bound books, and ask for a sketch: sometimes something specific, and sometimes just whatever he wanted to draw.
Seth never felt comfortable drawing hastily with someone standing over him. He could draw pretty fast, but doing something that pleased both the fan and himself was another matter. He never wanted to do the same image over and over again as some artists do. He wanted to draw something unique each time.

He finally decided that he did not have to limit himself to superhero drawings. He could do these small humorous sketches that had nothing to do with his comic book work. They were fun to do, light-hearted, and each one was different. Some fans would not understand; they only wanted something that looked like what they recognized from their favorite comic books. But Seth was not interested so much in being understood; he was interested more in being real. This way he could draw something quickly that was fun to draw, unique every time, and just for that particular person. He also could talk with his fan at the same time, and enjoy his or her company instead of worrying over the elements in his sketch.