Skeleton Foundation #2

I added more sketches to the sheet I started on the 27th...



I made the choice to work bigger, so the mouse is drawn about twice the size of the example in the book. This helped, though I notice I need to loosen up a bit. I also didn't nail the face to my satisfaction.

I took a stab at drawing the "dodge ball" version of the cat...



This is a pretty wacky pose with lots of overlapping limbs and such. I made the cat's torso too doughy, so the silhouette was compromised. I'll work on it some more. There are other random skeletal poses in the book I'll be working on, also. More on that, later.

Hope everyone had a decent weekend!

Skeleton Foundation #1

Well, here's my first attempt at using a skeleton foundation (i.e. stick figure) to draw a character. A couple things occur to me:

1. I may have to work in a larger scale. 1-1/2" is OK for drawing a cartoon dog's head, but it pretty tough to cram a detailed character drawing to that space.

2. I have to be careful not to put too much meat on the pipe-cleaner construction.

Let's see what comes of it.

Note: I've added a link to fellow-blogger-student "louisa" and her "Exercises in Futility" blog. Welcome to the fold, Louisa!

Bye-Bye, Beachy!

Here's my latest pass at the "Beachy's" bowser. There are still issues, but I think I'm gonna take a low grade and try movin' on to the next page.

Again, I'll point out that I'm working from the more common, revised edition of the book. So instead of kick-ass Tom and Jerry drawings, I'll be working on really blah, generic "cant 'n' mouse" characters. (Of course that doesn't mean they'll be easy to draw!)

Ciao, baby!

Negative Space - Positive Results

I did another tracing to highlight and study the negative spaces created by the position of the legs and feet:




Somehow I managed to create an extra negative space, as indicated! How'd I do that? On the other hand (or paw?) this is the best I've felt about one of my "Beachy" dog drawings. This deserves further study, says I...

There Is No Joy In Dogville

Golly gee, but I haven't tamed this pose yet!



This was a bad weekend for getting the time and energy to work on this properly. Despite what I've read on some other cartoonists' blogs ("I really didn't nail it until about 4:00am!") I find that being exhausted and distracted doesn't really help my drawing technique.

I can't help but notice that I have massive trouble with the "just standing there" poses. I seem to get all self conscious about placing the feet "just so" and then I mess up the legs and then I start to cry... cry like a little baby!

I'll keep trying, though.

Beachy's Tavern

North Tonawanda, NY (specifically Oliver Street) was once well-known for its high density of taverns and bars. One of these establishments was Beachy's Tavern. I remember Beachy's because they had a big wooden sign that had an image of this Preston Blair dog on it!

As a tribute to Beachy, I will be working on this pose during the weekend. I'll post my results Monday morning. Have a good weekend!

Hey, Look! Another Dog!

Not much to say here. I went back and took a pass at a different dog and had largely satisfying results. As always, not perfect, but good enough to stop me from making a miniature bonfire out of my pencils.

I returned to my bete noir and found that I'm still having comprehension problems. Still, it turned out slightly better, with most of my problems centered on the front legs and feet.

That final pose is beckoning... be afraid. Be very afraid.

Another Day, Another Dog

As threatened, I have moved along to a different dog. This first attempt feels less awful than that last one, although the feet are not positioned quite properly. I'll work on that in my next session.

Hey, check out Larry T's blog post for some great Ward Kimball animation drawings from Pinocchio! There's lots of stuff to download, so folks on dial-up will be in for a wait. But it'll be worth it, trust me.

Catch youse later!

Doggin' It

I took some more passes at that "sneaking dog" pose this weekend. I haven't mastered it, but I think I'll move on and come back to it. You'll notice that I actually put some finishing details on one of them, just to see what it would look like. It's fun to draw actual characters once in a while.




Hmmm... Just to remind myself, this is all supposed to be leading up to animating, right? Wheeeeew!

That's A Nasty Dog Leg

To quote my fellow blogger, bardhol, "Oh, the stink of it!"

I wish I could say I drew this stuff with my non-dominant hand whilst riding The Wild Mouse, but sadly, no, that was not the case! Can you guess what I'll be obsessing about this weekend?

Here's a tracing of what I'm trying to accomplish. It doesn't look that nasty, but it is. It is!

SIDE NOTE: Hey, where have all my bloggin' buddies gone? We all must be taking vacations around the same time. I hope everyone's doing OK!

See you all on Monday!

Doggy At Dawn

You know, in just about any office there are those people who delight in saying things like, "It's Hump Day," or, "Working hard or hardly working?" Another thing these folks are apt to say is, "Wow, I just got back from vacation and I need another vacation just to recover! Heh, heh, heh."

Well, there's quite a bit of profound truth to that last one. Never-the-less, I went back to work on the body constructions at breakfast this morning. I didn't exactly set the world on fire, here, but I did better than I thought I would, given my lay-off. I'll work on some more tonight and, with any luck, get back on track. Hope you folks are still flogging and blogging. Cheers!

Dogs: The "Lost" Episode

Well, what do you know? I actually managed to squeeze in one more drawing session before I went on vacation! I was pretty stoked that I was able to get these poses as close as I did.

Now, It's ten days later and it'll take a couple more days to unpack and settle back in. I look forward to getting back to the Preston Blair book, though I expect to be pretty rusty after this extended layoff.

I'll be back...