Joshua Whitlow keeps pushing with ‘What a Whitshow’

Joshua Whitlow completed all 90 of the black and white ink drawings on display in his debut solo exhibition within the last couple of years, describing this period as one in which he meticulously began to develop new skillsets, determined to push his craft to new heights.

This has involved experimenting with everything from process to the tools of the trade, with Whitlow moving on from the Sharpies he used in earlier cartoon drawings to inking comic-book inspired characters with Tombow markers, which he said allow for far greater line control. More recently, he’s even started toying with dip pens, a comparatively old-fashioned form in which metal-tipped tools of various design are employed to create a wide array of lines. Using one heart-shaped tip, for example, Whitlow can create a single line of varying thickness based on how hard he pushes the pen down on the paper.

“But on the downside, you have to keep dipping it [in an inkwell], where the marker already has the ink in there and you never have to dip,” Whitlow said in early February at Lookout Supply, a West Side art supply shop and gallery where the artist’s debut exhibition, “What a Whitshow,” will take place starting at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8. 

Whitlow’s interest in these comparatively old-timey tools stems in part from his perception of modern comics, which he said have started to look “a little too digital, a little too crisp, a little too clean.”

“I like … leaning on the line work to create that depth, which you don’t see as much anymore, because everyone is just going into photoshop and doing what they want,” continued Whitlow, who cited artists such as Jack Kirby, Chris Claremont and Frank Miller as continual sources of inspiration. “I’ve been getting more of these artist-edition comic books by people like Jim Lee – he’s one of my favorites, especially with his run on X-Men when he was at Marvel – and it’s just been awesome to look at his inkings. That’s the style I like and that’s the style I want to focus on. … And that’s why I wanted to try out [dip pens], because it’s what the older artists used. I’m going more nostalgic, playing around with what was used in the past while simultaneously figuring out what I would like to use in the future.”

Along with auditioning varied drawing tools, Whitlow has also continued to adapt and refine his process, generally starting with a small sketch that he then turns into a larger, more detailed pencil drawing. At this point, some artists will ink directly over the pencil to create the finished piece. But Whitlow prefers to preserve the pencil drawing, so for a time he experimented with tracing paper, taping it over the penciled image and then inking a final version. Generally, though, he found the tracing paper too flimsy, noting how it tended to bunch up no matter how securely he taped it down, making it a challenge to capture the detail needed in the finished image. More recently, he has moved to photographing the pencil drawing, loading it into Illustrator, and then printing a copy on firmer paper stock that he can then ink over. (This process also preserves the original pencil drawing for his portfolio, enabling him to show prospective employers his abilities across a range of comics-related skills.)

This two-year period of experimentation has coincided with a noticeable shift in style and subject matter, with Whitlow moving away from his more cartoonish early work and toward richly detailed, comparatively grotesque images. “I’m always drawing these kinds of scary, intimidating things, and my girlfriend says that’s not really my personality,” said Whitlow, a Columbus native who studied graphic design at Marietta College and Ohio Dominican University. “But I find these kinds of things far more interesting to draw.”

As a result, a majority of the pieces on display in “What a Whitshow” linger on decaying faces, oozing, disembodied eyeballs, and various villainous comic book characters such as Venom, who appears in a handful of pieces, including one striking portrait in which his saliva and pustules form an alien tapestry so elaborately drawn that Whitlow said he could spend as much as 20 to 30 minutes inking a fist-sized square on the page. 

A handful of the features that recur in the drawings – specifically eyeballs and a series of dark, gelatinous pus balls – have their roots in a character Whitlow is developing for some future project, which he described as centered on a giant, winged eyeball. But this repetition has also enabled the artist to gradually develop his own style, with Whitlow relaying how the process of drawing and then redrawing figures has allowed his linework to evolve from something reminiscent of his idols toward a style that has begun to feel like his own.

“At first when you’re working, it feels like it’s how other people are drawing it, so you start to ask, ‘How can I make this mine?’ And then you keep drawing, and you start to find the unique ways you do things,” said Whitlow, who pointed to details such as the pronounced furrowed brows on some of his characters as one place in which he’s started to see his own style take shape. “I think now I need to keep working on shadows and highlights. … I’m trying to keep busy, trying to improve, trying to do a better job. I just love drawing, and I want to keep pushing myself.”