Practice Drawings

Of Mice and Women1

2010-07-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

Mickey excercise

2009-01-10T10:21:00.000-08:00

The scanner I'm using doesn't capture light strokes, so I went over some of the principle construction

This gave me an idea for a gag drawing:

I rushed it and felt was a bit flat, so I went back and applied some of what I learned from the exercise:

There's still some improvement to make, but I gotta go back to Packing and catch a plane!

Update:

Here is a snapshot I took in mid process, with detail that wasn't captured in the scan (the scanner in my parent's house isn't good for scanning drawings)

Scanned with my EPSON.

Update 2: Mickey from memory. Hands down, the most fun character to draw!

Changes were made

2008-07-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

Slab n' Ernie inked

2008-07-26T17:27:00.001-07:00

Oh WHY Mabel ?!

2008-07-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

Old stuff, not published till now

2008-07-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

Georgeflip7
Uploaded by toonamir

Here's Jimmy

2008-07-04T04:19:00.000-07:00

Done in Illustrator

Jimmy and Sody

2008-06-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

Fixed to John's notes:

Sody: Lip, Cheek, Arms,
Jimmy: Pupils

Sody Illustrated

2008-06-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

Swimsuit issue. My 3rd Illustrator ink, from a drawing by John K.

My 2nd Illustrator ink: Jimmy

2008-06-09T06:14:00.001-07:00

From a wonderful rough by Jim Smith

First Illustrator Ink

2008-06-09T04:18:00.001-07:00

John's Sketch

My construction Overlay

My first Illustrator ink

Ink of a rough sketch

2008-06-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

John's original sketch

My constructed version of it

My Photoshop ink

Inked with Photoshop

2008-06-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Curvy Sody

2008-06-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

Inks

2008-05-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

Specific expressions

2008-05-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

I got into "the zone" and felt it, flipped and made the expressions myself while drawing. But I suggest not to keep your mouth open for too long, ya don't wanna get the page wet.

Go and watch Detective Story, it might just be the best decision you'll ever make.

Copies I didn't check

2008-05-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

These drawings were done at a very late hour of the night at John K's house after many beers,
They were drawn on my sketchbook from looking at the comics books, I didn't have any tools for comparing them like photoshop or tracing paper, Just my eyes.
I'm sure they're not spot on, like the ones I do check carefully, but they seem more alive to me.

The many angles of George's head were done from JoJo's George Liquor doll, we practiced drawing him before meeting John for pizza

These are drawings John did for us before we stuffed our faces with yummy melted cheese and Canadian bacon.
On the top drawing, John was talking about hierarchy of forms: the basic shapes (1st level of forms) are bigger than the details (3rd level of forms) John explained that making details too pronounced can interfere with a clear silhouette.

John also encouraged us to look at poses by good artists like Harvey Kurtzman and Walt Kelly, and apply their clear poses.

Everyone's favorite moron

2008-05-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

NOW with MORE construction!

2008-05-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Fortified with essential vitamins that make kids and gremlins grow STRONG!

George with bug in hand

2008-05-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

I construct all my drawings, I try to use simple forms. Sometimes I start light and faint so that the end result is clean.
Right now I'm at my parents' house where they have a non-professional scanner, It doesn't pick up what my Epson easily does.
Here I made the construction darker to be somewhat visible, It's a bit more visible with the contrast bumped up in Photoshop, Especially the hand.

About the process: I think It's important to draw on a slanted surface and not a flat surface, A significant change of angle and plane will change the proportions.

I've been using Photoshop as a study tool to compare my copies to the original, but this time I didn't want to do that. To compare my drawing to the original, I flipped the pages, just like animation paper.

Flip clip
Uploaded by toonamir

I found it natural to do it that way, each step I would measure, draw and compare/flip, then make corrections/adjustments. Obviously the paper gets creased and crumpled, as seen in this snapshot.

After completion I scanned it into Photoshop, to lay the final result on top of the original:

I'm happy with the result.

Pose with more construction

2008-05-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a George pose based on a Walt Kelly "Pogo" panel, made sure the construction wasn't faint as in the last copy.

Pointing pose

2008-05-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

Decent, God fearing American

2008-05-03T03:22:00.001-07:00

Original:

measured/ roughed in:

compare 1:

locking down:

compare 2:

compare 3:

Final:

Trying a new approach

2008-01-30T19:08:00.000-08:00

This time, Before attempting to draw any part of the character, I measured the overall height and width, and divided that space into 4, in Photoshop, and on my page.
The reason is, the manner in which this pose is organized fascinated me, Bugs feels so aggravated and somewhat cramped in his upper part, but still reads so clearly and gracefully overall, I wanted to analyze the layout of the points on interest before being distracted by drawing the character's details.
Judging by the divisions, I measured the points of interest carefully, and drew them while comparing them with the original.

Notice the smart division: The main parts of Bugs' expression: Head and arms/hands, are concentrated in the top left part of the composition (This is a lot for this space, thus a slightly cramped feeling, which works perfectly for the pose, and still reads clearly)
The other major part of his expression: his legs, are concentrated on the bottom right part.
The top right part: Bug's torso/turtle suit (modern design),is a simple shape, it reads clearly, it's purpose is to connect the line of action from head to foot, notice that the direction of Bugs' legs resists the line of action, this contributes to the frustrated expression.
The lower left corner is left blank! this makes perfect sense for the path of action, which is located on the other 3 parts, there is no distraction from it!

Then I proceeded to the first level of forms, checking if I had all the parts in the right place.

As I was moving to the second level of forms I noticed more details:
Bugs' fingers on his screen left hand are all making the same gesture, it's the different angles that gives them pleasing asymmetry, the screen right hand has asymmetry also in the finger's gesture.
The lip wraps around the chin, both the chin and the tongue can be broken down to one ellipse shape, and the lip helps to separate it, Bugs' cap functions as the top of his brow.

Then I proceeded to correct my mistakes

And to add line weight

This division method turned out very well, because it helped me get close to the original composition early, so I only needed to draw this pose once, usually when I start with a gesture, I end up making too many corrections.

peace.

Jinx 3/4 down

2007-12-30T19:30:00.000-08:00

rough-in

clean-up

3/4 down

Jinx part deux

2007-12-19T05:35:00.000-08:00

Hello, My name is Jinx, And it would make my day if you'd be my FRIEND!

Jinx starters

2007-12-18T04:52:00.001-08:00

Expreimenting and having fun

2007-11-28T21:22:00.000-08:00

It's the hight of crunch time at Sheridan college, but what the hay, I gotta have some fun!
John has sparked my curiosity with the Gross/Lozzi idea, so I had to finish up my assignments and obey my urge to experiment.The medium I used- Acryla by Holbien. This Japanese brand is a mix of gouache and acrylic, it's the easiest medium I've ever used, I've got to thank instructor Tim McCormack for introducing us to it. It's got very stable consistency, it's fun to mix and stroke, you can get straight into painting without struggling too much to get used to the material. The Brush I use is by Deserres (no 6) It's sold at the Canadian art supply store Loomis (Also known as Omar Deserres) For it's cheap price it's surprisingly stable, sharp and professional.

First I mixed the color for the wall and rolled it on the entire image, later rolled the color for the floor.
I cut out friskets from cels for all the major shapes, and used them with rolling, sponge and brush.
This is the first try which I don't consider to be very successful, it looks too much like a Garfield background. except for using different colors I took notes to try new sponges, the sponges I used in here are hardly noticeable, slick industrial sponges you use for cleaning are too moist and have too little texture. My roommate Mitch introduced me to sponges he uses (in the picture above) which are more natural looking and have great patterns and textures.
I also discovered that the sponge picks up the paint better if you apply it on using a brush, and not by dabbing the sponge in the paint, You'd have to mix so much more paint for that to work. Another note I took for the rug in this image, is to color the light color first and apply the dark color later, so that the light color would show through.

So I traced the layout again, and this time planning the whole painting process in advance. I tend to get distracted when I paint and let the paint itself lead my brush, but that doesn't work if I want control over my painting.

I also took note of the color mixing. I realized the previous color choices were boring because the mix was too even. ( i.e. 50% blue, 50% white)
The color I mixed for the wall this time consisted mostly of light gray (30-40%) a bit of vardian, carmine , yellow and sky blue (All varying percentage) I used a bit of all the colors in this list for every other color I mixed to try and create a family of colors.

This is the result, the scan isn't completely accurate to the real life colors, I'm not sure how to get it right except for playing with the contrast/hue/saturation. I also added a digital snapshot which shows slightly different colors.

Now to study for the "Art in a cultural and social context" exam and essay,
G'nite!

Slab walk part 3

2007-11-11T16:58:00.000-08:00

Another version in which I set out to correct the mistakes noted by John.

Slab walk part 2

2007-11-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

Drawn with a Wacom tablet in Flash, the word's friendliest animation program!

searching for an expression

2007-10-31T11:58:00.001-07:00

Why are the opposing eye brows the first thing that comes to mind? is it to avoid symmetry or because we're so used to seeing it?

Anyway, I'm trying to capture expressions and walks I see in the school halls

Slab walk part 1

2007-10-30T08:19:00.000-07:00

John has asked me to animate a 10 beat double bounce walk with his character slab. A double bounce is something only cartoon characters can do, since it's impossible to bend down as you are pushing yourself up without interrupting the initial motion.

OH! I forgot to add, before I started drawing my keys I broke them all down clearly on one sheet and numbered them, so that I wouldn't be lost while animating.

I drew Keys for a walk with a constant body

And one with a leaning body

John thought the lean was good, so I carried on from there.

I drew all the inbetweens, and it looked good to me. but John thought the arms were weird, He said the hands are small and his pose should be more cocky, suitable for a little bully. His fists should also move down as he walks.

So now I'm searching for that pose

Hecklin' Hare

2007-10-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

After seeing John's tutorial I immediately started my own copy. I dedicated 3 hours to this drawing.

This was one of my first attempts. I analyzed the picture more before I went any further
I found it a bit hard to explain it just by words, so I drew out parts of bugs as I was pointing out their details. As I kept going, the image built itself, I had no intention of using this one as my copy, It was drawn to note the following things:
Head: from the mid line devision, screen left part of the face (with stretched eye) fills 20% of the head, screen right fills 80%. The squashed eye fills 50% of screen right, about 30% on the right is left for head space, and reaction for the cheek squash, the other 20% is between the squashed eye and the mid line.
The socket for the right ear is following the same plane of the right eye, and squashing down a bit, as a reaction to the brow. The left ear does the opposite as a reaction the the raised brow, it's higher and closer the the mid line. The angle for the ear is straight, the curve of it defines the form. Bugs' shortest hair touches the middle of the left ear.
Bug's lower lip aligns with the bottom of his snout on screen left, and curves up until the cheek is formed on screen right.
The neck connects at the bottom of the head, it is thickest at the connection point, and narrowest above the connection with the torso, it widens again when it connects. The top of Bugs' neck is squashed due to the tilt of his head.
Bug's belly is curved, and his back is a bit more straight and flat compared to it, His arm overlaps his spine, the shoulder is the widest part of the arm.

After I understood these points I re-drew bugs and kept comparing it with the original, to get as close as I could.

Slab sans Ernie

2007-10-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

John's character Slab, One of George Liquor's cousins

I drew the initial blue construction very lightly

I scanned it in and compared with the original

In the process of completion, I kept comparing my drawing with the original, to see where corrections need to be made.

The final lines are very close. The differences: his screen right eyebrow is a bit high, and the back of his head is a bit too wide and rounded, his shoes a bit big.

Another go

2007-10-20T23:23:00.001-07:00

The body posture and head tilt work a bit better in this one, the features also sit better on the head.

Tweety with an expression

2007-10-19T12:47:00.001-07:00

Trying to give him a Gleason expression, I've drawn it over and over, haven't nailed it yet.
His proportions are off too, head and feet too small, body and limbs too long. His head needs to be titled as well. I'm going to re-do this.

Tweety's profile

2007-10-17T18:59:00.001-07:00

Here are a few things I noticed while drawing Tweety's profile

Tweety's head is like a baby's head, its very human in the way it's constructed. Our craniums are designed to protect our brains, Tweety's cranium is curved in a very similar way.
The Cerebellum is the round point at the bottom back point of the brain, the farthest back point is curved to contain it. The highest point is at the top back part, curving down to the forehead, which contains the frontal lobes. The part of the forehead closer the the scalp is called Frontal Eminence, and the part of the forehead closer to the eyebrows is called Gabella, the middle part between those two looks a bit sunk-in on human profiles, it may be decorated with worry lines, depending on how optimistic you are.
In cartoons we curve that to look more appealing, Tweety's farthest (and curved) point would look flat or sunk-in on human profiles. His cheek follows a curve from the back of the head and the eye, it covers the eye a bit.
His feet can be thought of as flattened corn kernels, the flatter part being the heel, and the rounder part being the toes, separated by a center line. his toes reach his heel.

His torso can be seen as a fat bean, The fatter part being the tush. The curve is much like real babies, only exaggerated and cutie-fied.

His wings are like tiny chicken wings, no palms unless the scene calls for it. I find that a lot of curved shape can be sketched with a "figure 8" approach, it creates a pleasing silhouette which you can later "flesh out" by deciding where to overlap your finishing lines.

Ballet Tweety

2007-10-13T13:29:00.001-07:00

Clampett's Tweety.
This wonderful model sheet was posted by Kevin Langley

My first attempt

Surprisingly it was pretty close, I didn't need to change anything major that would call for re-drawing, only a few corrections. such as the the size of the feet, eyes, arms and angle of the hair.

Now I wanted a graceful Ballet pose, the first one I just drew straight out of my head, it lacked clarity.

I turned to photo reference and drew the rough below

I thought it had the clarity and grace I wanted, so I built up the construction upon it.

On the left side are some of my observations on Tweety's head.
Other than that his farthest hair is the longest, but I find that many animators take liberties with that when it helps to accentuate motion and prevent stiffness.

I used to do 5 roughs minimum before I reached the pose I wanted, I only did one this time. The lessons are sinkin' in!

Re-Drawing the pose

2007-10-10T15:02:00.001-07:00

This rough was intended to be a slightly altered rotation of the previous pose, aiming for a clearer silhouette
Several things bothered my eye, The head was ok, but the body wasn't. I made notes and re-drew, but I came to realize it wasn't the little things as much as the expression of the pose. This the body is hunched over, like a pleading pose, While the previous as more like repressed anger exploding. I thought the body was a bit too evenly round, which flattened the drawing.

Well, back to the drawing board. I drew a thumbnail, it read well and had more of the original pose in it.

And I redrew in larger size.

Well, this one is a bit better. I liked the original expression and wanted to stay close to it, while trying to make the details less even, Though the finished body became more animated than the finished head.

New expression

2007-10-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

I thought the previous expression was ambiguous and lacked guts, so I made another one, hope there's no confusion about it.

More to see

2007-10-08T19:20:00.001-07:00

I promised John I'll study and analyze more angles of this cat and see how he looks in different positions, since we do copies to later apply to our own work, I though I'd also take a shot at an original drawing of him, not copied from the cartoon.

First I wanted to figure out how the snout works, and how the neck connects to the head, so I drew the construction for the head without the snout. The head is a a pill shape, but it's not completely even, it's round on the top, and a bit flatter from the ear down. the neck connects to the back of the head, sliding down the back, and curving from the front. The eyes fill half the face.

The snout forms out the bridge of the nose, some of it wraps around the pill shape construction, and some sticks out more. The nose isn't the farther point of the snout, the Philtrum is (area above lip). The snout also curves under the bag of the eye. The brow ridge curves up the forehead.

Now it was time to create a new drawing, I thought it didn't look good at first try. A narrow humanoid mouth on an animal snout, and the proportions weren't there. I recalled John told me I'm confusing the lip with the chin. I watched the Chuck Jones cartoon "Hold the Lion Please" and realized the difference: The lip wraps around the chin, while the chin is solid, it doesn't wrap or bend.
I looked at the notes I made while studying this cat, The original drawing and the Jones cartoon, and tried to come up with a worried expression on him. Focusing on his structure first, I think the brows need work.

Frazetta Girl

2007-10-07T22:10:00.000-07:00

Well...Gulp...Now I've seen everything!

2007-10-06T20:42:00.001-07:00

1st try

8th try

New Head

2007-10-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

Pulling my Hare

2007-10-04T20:20:00.001-07:00

Well, this time it's pretty close. Drawing out guidelines made it easier to measure the proportions.

Falling Hare

2007-10-03T22:26:00.001-07:00

I promised John I'd take another shot at this drawing. I'm not sure how many versions I made, but it was over 10. I haven't quite nailed it yet. I'll keep practicing Bob McKimson's Bugs.