Sketch

[AzureBlaze]

Ringling is one of the top in the country, isn't it?
That and RISD (rhode island school design) I also heard it was hard as heck to get into, I used to be in that area and people would always talk about it like it was going to mars or something. What do they make you do there?

As for the drawing:
How did you get into cross-hatching? Was it always that way? I never did it, therefor I do not like to do it on my own pieces (when I do it, it turns out shabby) and didn't learn that way (to shade) Each method of shading with pencil has its merits, but cross-hatching seems to come from a comic-book inspired line, and produces some really neat effects (as the drawing proves)

I hope you can get to making that comic! I'd really like to see what happens! (like why is he in the ground near the stump? Does someone find him?) Comics are tough to do, but really fun and worth it.

As for the looking like Lionel bit, your guy's wider, isn't he? As I recall Lionel wasn't super big so it'd be 'plausable' to carry him around even though he was just made of cop-out-ground-sparkle.

[Ancient]

Ringling is a good school, its known for being above average for illustration and graphic design. That mainly comes from the awsome teachers they get there, last year we had the lady who does the art for the Harry Potter books teaching, although I didnt get her class...
But what Ringling is REALLY known for these days is its Computer Animation department, its in the top five in the country, and for good reason. I actually tried to get in to that major for 3 years at Ringling before I went with Illustration. So yeah, its very hard to get into the CA program, not as hard to get into the others.
As far as cross hatching goes...I dunno where exactly I picked it up. And its actually not terribly hard to pick up, it just takes some practice, the first few dozen drawings I tryed it on were pretty shabby... I suppose if I had to try and think of some of my influences for it I'd say certain manga's (like Berserk), and old school etchings...