UPDATE: I don't know if the feet and arms are good now. This same thing happened to me months ago with the bulldog caricature exercise . I think I missed the funny factor here and the nose seems to be bad conected. ---------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE:
Better?
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Verbal Analysis: -BIG head compared with little body. -Little nose compared with the head. -Little arms and legs. - Little ears.
I always have trouble finding new shapes for my drawings. Most of the time I fall in the sphere and pear shapes forms from the 40's so here I tried some Roger Ramjet and Sad Sack because they have another forms in his constructions.
I started with Sad Sack. He actually had a classic construction, an egg for head and a tube for neck. He had great contrasts in his face, like tiny eyes against big ears and nose. The eyes doesn't have the white part, they are lines. Then I think, What would happen if the features were proportional? Not much funny, isn't it? So, contrasts are very important in cartoons.
Then I tried some Roger Ramjet characters, these have another type of shapes in his mayor forms.
These are very funny to draw! I had a great time with it, that's something very important I think. In the bottom part, I tried new angles, I think the front came up pretty well, I tried to preserve the asymmetry, the organic and contrasts. I think I failed at the 3/4 angle.
There's some things that these designs have in common, like the great contrasts they have in his mayor forms, the great amount of space inside and outside, the placement of the feet (not in the center), the limited details.
-Opposing lines of action on each character -Tom has a backwards "s" curve line of action at almost a 45 degree angle -Jerry has a backwards "c" curve for LOA -Tuffy has a regular "c" curve for LOA -Tom has a surprised look (not just in the face, but in his body as well, like raised shoulder's, big surprised eyes, raised eyebrows, raised knee, raised foot) -Jerry has his eyes closed and Tuffy's are wide open looking directly at Tom -Jerry is immensely happy to eat some fried chicken and Tuffy is happy with his cupcake -Tuffy is raised higher than Jerry inside lunch pail -Tuffy's on top a higher stack of sandwiches making him higher than Jerry -Jerry is slightly bigger than Tuffy -Jerry and Tuffy's torsos are each 1 and half heads long -Tom's torso is 2 heads long -Lots of space between ears and eyes in each character -Lots of space inside each characters ears (very big ears)
I wrote down the analysis on my paper, but I thought it would be best to type it up here rather than for you to struggle through my handwriting.
So I first put in the lines of action of each character...
Then I put in the primary forms on top of their LOAs and checked my proportions...
Here I've put in the secondary forms and details on top...
And cleaned it up a bit, but not too much to loose all the underlying structure.
I like very much the characters of Milt Gross, they are very appealing and visualy interesting. It reminds me the drawings from another genius cartoonist, Guillermo Divito.
Verbal Analysis: -All flows through line of action. - BIG Head! - Short legs - Little body - Little eyes -Eyes have slightly diferent directions -There's lots of space inside the head - The smile is higher than the eyes. - Big collar and straight, in contrast to the curved shapes - BIG Tie - Little hat with a complex and very interesting shape - The features that sticks out make and interesting silhouette
- Defined Line of Action - Big Head - Big Chest - Skinny legs
Head: - eyes occupy a small portion within the head - One eye is slightly bigger than the other and they don't follow the direction of the head (this is very subtle) - broad forehead - Big nose - Big chin - The ear doesn't have the tipical cartoony ear shape. - Some features sticks out making an interesting silhouette. - LOTS of negative space inside the head.
I think next I will try some of my characters using the things I've learned here. Sometimes I have "happy accidents" in which I'm close to achieving the appealing of Milt Gross characters and I think doing these studies, I realize that these characters have things in common that make them look like this.
I've been struggling to make a caricature of these two. I started by the girl that I found the easiest to accomplish, but I was wrong, so I started again making an analysis first.
I trace her head and I realize some things: - The right side of the head is smaller than the left. - There's a great space behind the eyes to the back of the head on the left side. - Her left cheek is bigger than her right - the shape from the right side of her head is like an arc, soft. - She have very soft lines. - The right eye is smaller than the left. - She have big eyes and in the picture they are open, but the upper eyelid falls over the pupil. - It forms an interesting shape between the eyes and the brows.
-The nose it's a difficult part. She have large nose and big at the point. fleshy
This is my best attempy so far. She's really difficult! I don't know how to escape from reality, it still look realistic. Should I emphasize more contrast? Her nose it's also hard to make. If I make it too big she looks like a Drag Queen. somebody could give me some help? Where's everybody?
Hello! I've done two copies of some Baby Huey comic book covers.
Here I wanted to feel the drawing out and combine that with my knowledge of the drawing principles so that my copy can look and feel as good or better than the original.
I tried to remember that certain contrasting objects should stand out more so they can accentuate the focal point better.
Below I mapped out some construction.
I should've included the guy's floating hat to show the overall shape.
Baby Huey is huge so I wanted to slightly exaggerate certain features he had to really show his hugeness.
I exaggerated his tummy area making it bigger and rounder, made his head a bit bigger and shortened his legs a bit.
He's not the focal point though. The big tire is what draws our attention the most, so I made it bigger than how it's originally shown.
I also took consideration of the proportions in the original so that my copy won't look too different from the original.
I accentuated the tire more by adding a farther perspective to the front of the car and made the duck guy driving it smaller.
I really wanted to instantly send the message that a big baby has immensely blown into a tire of a car that's smaller than him, which basically is telling you that he's a big strong baby and accidentally blew the tire too big.
This was a really good practice for accentuating the focal point while other objects surrounding it support it. This way I think made my copy look and feel as good or better than the original.
Below is the final drawing next to the original for comparison.
There's some stuff that needs some fixing.
I think I made the part of the tube in between his mouth and hand a bit too thick.
Raise the duck guy's hat a bit up so that the overall shape of the entire thing can be more noticeable.
Probably turn BH's head slightly more inward to his left side so that he's looking more directly at the tire.
I could've made the rear end of the car smaller to accentuate more the tire.
Other than that I think it came okay.
On this second one below I didn't really accentuate too much of anything here, but I did want it to feel and seem as good as the original.
Here's the final
The feel is pretty much there but I did tone down some things.
I made the ball on the ground a bit too small and tones down the focal point, which is the ball itself.
I could've thinned out a bit BH's neck and make it a bit longer
Made the truck seem more slim than the original in the body.
Many doodles and drawings have gone down, some better than others.
I like the top one (reproduced above) better.. it felt more dynamic, then again, maybe the other one has a more focused expression. Then again again, maybe I'm committing the cardinal sin of changing them arbitrarily.
I studied these Tom Oreb rabbits alongside Kaspar because they seemed to have a good balance of angles, relatively straighter lines, and curves, whilst still feeling organic. I find keeping my hand in studying something good helps me be less spazzy when I draw 'my own' things. I naturally tend toward abundant curves and waves, so I was just making an effort to be more balanced.
Hand probably not far apart enough, stretch not tense enough:
The arm probably could have been more solid and manly, and it's gone off the edge of the page too. (My scanner's not quite big enough for this animation paper)
I preferred the way the nose nestled in the central one of these: (By the way I work from right to left, I'm left handed, so often the worst and more primitive ones will be on the far right)
And I did find the arms on this one tricky to interpret
These were a bit poor, the middle one looks like a monkey, too symmetrical and boring. Also, the tug has become a bit slack:
Liberties taken, and failiure in the middle. Left one less even out, prob a step too wrong though:
And with bunnies:
I seem to be spreading him out and making him wider than he is tall. I guess this is me tending to slightly caricature his girth in an effort to avoid toning him down.
What I've done here is basically the same thing I did to the last Pixie and Dixie drawing:
-Make my copy better than the original
-and slightly change certain specific features on the characters so that their actions, along with their emotions, can stand out more.
This one was kinda tricky for me though, because I hardly couldn't find anything that I wanted to change from the original. To me the original is perfect the way it is.
But I figured I'd try doing some changes to it, so It seemed like a good challenge.
There was one thing that stood out for me as far as wanting to slightly change something from the original, and that was Tom's head. Not the head alone, but the placement of the head.
In the original he looks content, relaxed. Sitting next to the fire, catching its warmth, while knowing that there's peace between him and his two micey brethren.
So in order for me to make that emotion stand out more I had to change some of Tom's physical features.
1. I wanted his head slightly moved up at a northwest angle so it can seem less cramped next to the fireplace.
2. Elongate his neck more so that his shoulders seem more relaxed.
These changes, I thought, would add more to Tom's relaxed state.
So here's how I did the entire thing.
First, I put the overall shape where all the characters would fit in and added the fireplace.
I fixed my proportions and perspective (shown below), and added the construction to all the the characters. I also kept in mind of the small changes I wanted to make.
I added more to the fireplace for more solidity and added the overall shape of the logs. The pipe and pillow were also added.
I tighten the drawing more (below) and add more of the secondary features to the characters and objects.
I add perspective lines to where the bricks will be placed.
I continue adding more details to the characters (below), finishing up with Tom.
I put in the overall shape of the fire inside the fireplace and add the overall shapes of the fire and smoke coming out of the two ends of the pipe.
I fixed my proportions, add the final details, and here's the final copy shown below
Some parts look fairly accurate, but I think I made a lot of errors here.
Proportions are slightly wrong in some areas, especially Tom's head. The shape seems a bit more obscured than the original. Almost stretched I think.
I don't think I added more to Tom's relaxed state too. I think I just made his neck longer while everything else still feels the same. Now It just seems like he's trying to catch more of the fire's warmth.
I think I should've just relaxed more his shoulders, making them slightly less rounded at top, with no long neck and head being in the same place like in the original.
The rest of the errors are kinda minuscule:
-I made Tom's eybrows a bit too bushy.
-Made Jerry's head too circular. It's actually slightly egg-shaped.
-Had to make Jerry's belly more round
-Made Tuffy's nose the same size as Jerry's.
-Smoothed out Tom's torso where the bump is, where part of his rib sticks out
-Move the line on the backside of the pipe a little to the left.
I don't know, I might be wrong about this. I'd like to hear what you think.
Better?
Here's my first attempt. What do you think?
