The Tough but Important Thing To Remember

Well there are lots of things to remember, and they are all in my posts, so whenever you start a new exercise, click the link of my name and reread everything before starting the new exercise.

Make a list of the things I always say to you.

Like when you do a layout exercise, you still have to remember all the stuff about construction, line of action, negative spaces, MAINTAINING GUTS and not toning down the storyboards.

That's probably the number one problem I see people struggling with.

If you get that note from me, maybe you should just take some individual poses from my storyboards and practice pushing the poses - while still using construction, style, clarity, negative shapes, line of action, perspective, blah, blah, blah

In order to maintain guts, you have to understand the principles underlying the poses

If the layout poses are weaker or less clear than the storyboard poses, then the layout stage is a wasted step

Maybe I should make a checklist and you could print it out and stick it on your desk in front of you as you draw.

But you could make your own checklist from all my posts and in particular any notes I have given you personally. That would help make the ideas stick.

KEEP NOTES

Always keep your own notes. And make notes when you draw

of things you have trouble with
things you just learned from the exercise
things you notice from drawing a toy or copying a classic character

making notes enlists your mind, which can help your hand and eyes immensely

Our eyes lie to us and we have to help them see better by understanding what we are looking at

A Simpler Exercise

I'm starting to think these full layout exercises are too much too soon. Esp. when a lot of folks haven't yet mastered their "guts" and negative spaces and contrasts.

I notice that everyone who has drawn this pose has:

Shrunk the negative spaces-both the ones in the air and the ones within the body and head

Toned down the line of action and pose

took out the construction: even his broken jaw should have a feeling of overall form, but most of the copies I have seen look like they were just drawn with a wiggly line and no form between the wiggles.

It might be easier for me to critique individual poses like this before we move on to complex layouts and setups with multiple poses and problems to solve.

Rough Setup Test

Step 1) Block out BG and poses- get it approved by John (rough!)

Try to make one background setup work for both these scenes

* you might have to make the BG a bit bigger to give more room for the characters, because there are other poses later that you would have to add, that will take up more room

watch for negative shapes (don't shrink them) and lines of action in characters (don't straighten them out)

Step 2) Once it's approved, then start to tighten up the poses to make them stylish and gutsy

How Best To Use This Blog - To Surmount Plateaus

Plateaus:

How many of you know what "reaching a plateau" means? It means hitting a wall you can't get past in a certain skill. Like weight lifters who advance for awhile and build up say their bench press till they can lift maybe 200 lbs. Then for weeks they can't get past it. That's a plateau. It doesn't mean they are stuck there forever; they just have to change up their routine and need some help from their trainer.

In art, there are so many skills we have to balance in order to become functional and gain control over our pencils, that we often hit frustrating plateaus we can't surmount, or think we can't.

Each artist has different plateaus or problem areas:

That's what this blog is for-to help a few hand-picked individuals who already have natural talent and strengths in certain areas - and to strengthen the things you have trouble with - to get past your plateaus.

People Avoid Fixing Their Problem Skills:

We all hate these plateaus. If we have a certain skill that doesn't come natural to us, we just assume we can't do it, and avoid it, concentrating instead on what is easy. That's why there are so many sketch book doodlers on the internet. But endlessly doodling has the tendency to magnify weaknesses and bad habits, and makes it harder and harder to go back and learn some valuable artistic skill correctly.

Take Advantage Of Criticism.

I am tailoring my critiques to each artist here. If you read everybody's posts and my comments, you'll see that each artist tends to get different comments than other artists. The comments are short and succinct - to the point. On purpose. So you can easily understand them. So if you get the same critique more than 2 or 3 times, you should know to fix that particular problem once and for all. Get rid of it, so you don't have to read the same critique again.


For example, if you hear:

"You are making your details too big and they are eating up the overall big shapes". Then you need to believe it and immediately do the same drawing again and correct that very thing. The solution? Make the details smaller.

or: "You are shrinking the negative spaces within the character. You need more space behind the face." The solution. Draw it again and ADD MORE SPACE BEHIND THE FACE. Then always be thinking about that on every drawing you do-and always check it carefully until it finally sinks in and becomes second nature.

Or: You are drawing too stiff. Don't pile balls on balls. Your curves are too mathematical or mechanical. Solution: Draw more organic shapes.

Or the opposite: You are drawing everything too wobbly. Make your major shapes more solid.

Or: You are arbitrarily changing the drawing you are copying. Solution: Analyze the drawing you are copying with words first, then copy it.

Each person has their own strengths and weaknesses and I am trying to help you banish the stuff that is hardest for you. Take advantage of that and help me do it.

Take The Criticism Literally- Read It Carefully AND DO IT.

I see a lot of people after getting a criticism, just go ahead and redraw a pose, and make the exact same mistake again. The exact one. That tells me you didn't read the critique; or you didn't understand it, or you didn't think about it when you redrew the drawing. This is a self-made plateau.

Some people just read the critique and then don't fix the drawing at all. They just go on to something else, maybe thinking they understand the criticism just from reading it. That won't work. You have to fix the mistake or it won't sink in, and you'll just keep repeating it.

The only way to get past the plateau, is to literally take my words on face value-concentrate on what I said and then purposely DO IT. Don't just draw something the same way you are used to and hope by luck or magic you won't get the same critique back. Because you will.

If you don't understand the words, then ask me to try to rephrase the critique. Especially if English is not your first language.

Things don't change for the better on their own. YOU have to force the changes. You don't want to slow your progress through force of habit.

GO BACK AND REREAD ALL YOUR CRITIQUES:

See if you get the same one from me over and over again. If you do, you know what you have to work on. Write down the critiques in big letters and stick them on the wall in front of you when you draw. Read them and memorize them.

So then forcefully, thoughtfully concentrate on that problem and make it go away. Then you will never have to worry about it again.

MY Rule Of Threes
On a production, here is my rule of threes. If I correct someone's work once, I am calm and very careful and nice about it. I explain how and why to correct it and then expect the artists to do it every time.

MAKE A NOTE OF IT:
The second time I see the same mistake from the same artist (after I had already explained what was wrong) I get a little frustrated because I hate explaining myself again. But I understand that certain concepts don't sink in the first time, so I will re-emphasize the correction and ask that the artists make a big note of it and pin it to their desk, and always read it before handing in another scene.

The Third Time:

If the artist makes the same mistake 3 times in a row, I start to get impatient. If this was a real school, it would mean you failed that assignment. After that I feel like I am being cheated. There are only so many times you can explain the same thing again and again. When it starts to cost me money and patience then I feel like it's an artist being irresponsible and not follwing instructions on purpose.

So again, if you just don't understand the correction or critique - ASK RIGHT AWAY to try to explain it better. Don't hope it will go away on its own. It won't. I'll help you, but you have to make the fixes yourself. I can't do that part for you.

If you read this post, why not comment and say the critique you get most from me, then do an assignment where you really focus on correcting the problem? You'll be happy you did. So will I.

****Oh, and on every post you put up, put your name in the labels, and make a label of what the concept is. So you can find the posts easily later.

Setups 1 - planning for multiple scenes to use the same setup - long shots

when you read through a storyboard, you look for scenes that use the same angle and same camera distance

http://jkcartoonstories.blogspot.com/2009/12/slabs-first-fist.html

when you find them, you try to design a layout that can use the same "setup" for all the scenes



In other words, one master Background that all the action can take place in

That means you have to plan how much space you need around the characters in order to be able to draw all the most extreme poses

Like all these images can use 1 setup:

This is a "long shot" That means the camera is far away enough to show the whole bodies of the characters.


so you have to plan all the drawings to work on the same background, and the sixes of the characters have to make sense from pose to pose

if they are on the bed they are smaller

if they are on the floor in the foreground they are bigger

if there are consecutive poses within a scene, the poses have to "flip" between each other

This lesson is to draw all these poses, so they use the same background, and that the consecutive poses flip.

You also of course have to remember everything from previous lessons - like negative space, style, not toning down the poses etc.

Questions?

What Do You Need?

I noticed that this site is slowing down. I haven't seen anything from Ann, Kali, Geneva, Mitch, Kelly, Becky and others lately.

Do you need new lessons?

One thing I gotta stress is that constant practice and applications of each lesson is what makes you good and functional.

Just doing a lesson once is not enough to make the concepts stick.

My goal is to get you out of sketchbook scribbling and into practical drawing with control.

If you're just stuck on a concept, ask a question.

Correcting Kaspar Leaning back

The idea of layout is not to change the SB drawings

it's to preserve them

and not distract from the main action

in this case

everything should be aimed at the foot that is sliding the drawer closed

Don't Copy Mistakes. Copy the good stuff

I notice that people are having trouble deciding what is a mistake in the rough, and what is worth preserving.Extra floating lines are mistakes. When I sketch out a rough, there are sometimes extra lines that I just put down to get the drawing started, but then as I add more form, I realise I need to make the character bigger or wider, so then draw another line around the border of the character. That's the one that's right.

Any lines that are floating around in the middle of the character that don't describe anything are mistakes. Don't copy those.
Your goal:

To preserve the life and design of the rough.

To fix the mistakes. (to see what is obviously a mistake, and what is on purpose)

To make the drawing solid, but to preserve interesting angles and subtleties of design.

Your NOT goal:

To completely change the drawing. ( I see a couple people doing this and I can't figure out why.)

To add lumps and wrinkles

To turn curves into straight or mechanical lines

To make the negative shapes smaller or thinner

to tone down the life of the original

More Kaspar Translations

This is how I block out poses. Then I stare at them and se what looks toned own.
I see that the expressions have lost a bit -especially in the eyes, so I am gonna go back and push them farther.

But I also was flipping the 2 drawings to make sure they moved right, which further complicates the process of layout while trying to maintain the life of the storyboard.

John Constructs Kaspar

Kaspar sits up quickly, wide awake and excited.
This is the first couple steps I would expect a layout artist to take when translating my storyboard poses to layout. First-to understand what the character is doing and feeling, and second to analyze how to construct that sensibly and fix any mistakes in the rough.
I fixed the nose.

I, like most people did tone down the pose a bit, but that's because I was spending brainpower slowly analyzing everything.

What I normally do, is after I analyze a drawing and make something stiff, I will draw it again looser. Then judge it to see if it is as strong or stronger than the storyboard statement.

This was a tricky one below.

Kaspar is rooting through the sock drawer. He is being sneaky and doesn't want to get caught, so he looks over his shoulder to see if he is waking up the Rangers.

Again, I toned down some of the proportions (face to body) but I also fixed some scribbly parts. I made the feet more solid.

By flattening them at the bottom, and bulging them at the top.

I have puposely left out details, like fur and stuff because it confuses everyone.

I wanna see everybody get this far:

Make the emotional story statement.
Solid construction.
Fix obvious mistakes.
Maintain angular curves (don't make all the curves even or parallel)

Make sense? Ask questions if you are not sure.

Your best friend

Johnny