Tim: Okay, everyone I'm Tim Gula.
I'm here to teach you how to do quicksketch.
Stan: Tim Gula is one of those guys that floor you when they tell you their history.
He worked with Frank Frazetta and Moebius, major studios like Disney, Marvel, and DC.
He studied with Alex Nino and Fred Fixler who was a direct student of Frank Riley.
When he was a kid, Jack Kirby invited him to a studio to watch him draw.
Tim: Yeah, I would over his shoulder and he wouldn't speak.
He'd be in a trance.
You know how like with me, when I do the figures, there'd be like rough drawings and indications,
the pencil would hit the paper and it wouldn't stop until the page was complete.
And it just like it poured out.
And I remember just looking and being over his shoulder thinking, how is that possible?
how is that possible?
And I remember just like feeling so inadequate.
And here's a page to say, I don't know, Mr. Miracle or Kamandi.
And I would think, how is that possible?
The pencil would just hit the paper and the page would just be done.
There wouldn't be any indications, no rough drawings.
It just started off and then it was done.
Stan: Was it kind of like Kim Jung Gi?
Tim: No, what's that?
Stan: It's an artist.
Tim: Okay, yeah the Korean guy.
Yes, exactly, it is exactly that.
But Kirby would do a whole story, a whole book like that.
I mean, it was all in his head played out.
And then, my luck went further when I was working for a while at doing this stuff for
France.
I got to work with Moebius and there's another guy.
What he would do is he'd practice doing these great drawings.
I'll do one.
Yeah, you want me to?
Like a Moebius type of thing.
Stan: Oh, are you talking about automatic drawing?
Tim: Yeah.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a great exercise if you can do it.
So I keep my mind blank.
I have really no idea what's gonna appear on the paper but I just trust it will and
I just let out kind of like a highly imaginative spontaneous expression, we'll call it for
lack of a better term.
This is how it would start just like real simple kind of almost let's call it almost
like microscopic, the stuff you'd see under a microscope.
But there is no microscope.
It's all in your head and you create like your mind's eye becomes a focus.
You learn how to focus it.
It's all doing very organic shapes.
This I would put as much importance on as the figure because this takes your mind and
your mind's eye to a place that normally is unexplored.
And it can't help but to enhance your whole view of your ability.
I have no idea, it's all just happening on its own.
It's kind of like the Wheel of Fortune.
Stan: And this is what Moebius showed you?
Tim: Yes, because I would come in one time and I'd see Jean, he'd be doing these like
strange doodle like things.
And I'd say, "Well, what are you doing?"
And he says, "Oh, I'm just letting my mind relax."
And it is.
This is how you let your mind relax as an artist and in a beneficial way.
It's funny how many artists like Alex Nino, Moebius, Jack Kirby do the similar thing unawares
of the others experiences in this.
That was the first thing I hit like wow, there's this strange commonality with all these guys,
and they're all super good, they're all highly imaginative, I mean to the point of it being
unbelievable.
And it's these exercises they do where they allow their mind just to be free and expressive.
It really relaxes your mind and you can feel your breathing change and everything especially
after you've been under a lot of stress with a certain assignment.
It's good to do these things that kind of keeps you in check so you don't burn out or
become too, I don't know, burdened.
It's kind of takes you back to a childhood-like sense of things, frees you up.
And then, drawing kind of maintains a freshness.
A lot of these artists that become stale and bitter because they don't, I'd think, allow
themselves to like enjoy it, taken on a more enjoyable level of it all.
So the figure is important and useful and this, what I'm showing you now, is as useful
really on a lot of different levels because it keeps your mind sharp and fresh, so you're
able to deal with challenge.
So you look, I mean, where's all this coming from?
But there it is, it's abracadabra.
And Moebius would do this like in pen and ink and watercolor.
It's like, "Oh my God, how do you do that?"
But I mean, I caught on enough to be able to do this, I mean, to the some degree the
same, but I get to experience the benefit that those exercise provide.
No pressure, it's not like, "oh it's got to be of a certain quality, it's got to be of
a certain standard, it has to look like..." none of that.
You allow yourself just the freedom to be well, I guess yourself, but in an artistic
kind of playful way.
Because when your mind is relaxed and this is a Moebius quote.
"When your mind is relaxed, it's the most creative."
But I don't have to tell you all to know how hard it is to get that mind relaxed and yet
productive.
Sometimes, it seems utterly impossible.
But you do this kind of stuff on a regular basis and suddenly, it's much more available.
Like what in the heck is this, but I don't care.
It's interesting and it feels good, kind of like scratching an itch.
Stan: How did you meet Alex Nino?
Tim: Oh, okay, I was in the army and I got discharged in the army in the Philippines.
And Alex's house, Alex Nino that is, was walking distance from the base.
And while I was there, I didn't have the moxy to approach him but finally, when I got out,
I said, "Oh, I'm one of your biggest fans.
I've been stationed on this Clark field base."
And his first thing is, "Well, Clark Field's right over there.
What do you want?"
I said, "I'm a big fan" and he says, "Big fan, what are you talking about?"
And then I showed him my sketchbook and you know, "oh wow."
He was like really impressed and he says, "yeah.
And I just now got out of the service, and I'm here to be your student."
And it shocked him so much that he agreed.
And I've benefited from that because I'm really good with a Chinese brush, thanks to him.
But I don't have one to show you.
But I'm kind of using the pencil as it were a Chinese brush.
See how like I'm handling all these spaces and creating like these shapes.
But the biggest benefit of this isn't so much what these drawing's looking like, but the
feeling of good I'm getting by doing this on this level.
It's kind of like a real, I don't know, like exhaling.
I have to recommend you all try it.
And it'll be hard to do at first cuz you're not used to letting go.
But once you do, there's a lot to gain from that, a lot and you'll be able to grow more
completely.
Stan: All right guys, go ahead and try it now.
Put down your phone and give yourself a few minutes to relax.
Draw whatever lines your brain wants you to draw.
Just let it spill out.
Let me know how it goes in the comments.
Oh, and smash that "like" button.