More Pixie and Dixie

Hey, everyone. I bring you another Eisenberg study.


I wanted to try something a little different here. Instead of actually copying the entire drawing down with 100% accuracy, I wanted to make my copy seem a bit better than the original, which was the key thing for me to remember as I did my version.

Eisenberg is a true genius of cartooning and I don't want to make it seem as if I'm a better drawer than he is, which I'm totally not, but I felt like I could top his drawing a little by fixing a couple of subtle things. They're pretty much just different placements of objects in certain specific positions that would make the entire drawing read more clear.

I jotted those changes I wanted to make down on my paper:

1. I wanted to make the cowboy seem more proud that he's riding Mr. Jinx than how he's originally portrayed. He seems pretty happy that he was able to ride a cat, with him being a mouse and all, so I really wanted to make that stand out.

2. Make Pixie and Dixie's head less cramped together. Eisenberg, I'd imagine, had to do it like that in order for the other cat's word bubble to appear in the panel, but since I was excluding the word bubbles in my copy I figured I'd make both there heads seem less cramped together so that they both read clearer.

3. Adding more of of a curve to Mr. Jinx's line of action so that his pose had a bit more life into it. I also figured that that would add to more to the cowboy mouse's proudness.

Here's how I did the step by step procedure:

First I put down the general forms. All the characters together create one big shape. The chair was made into another.

I also added the lines that shape the wall and the floor and the two cats' line of action were added.

I checked them in PS and fixed the proportions

I then added the general construction of all the characters, but I still kept in mind of all the little subtle changes I wanted to make.

The muzzles, ears, hat, tail, arms, legs, hands, feet and fur of both cats are sub forms for their general construction.



I fixed my proportions and made the drawing a bit more tighter. I also added more details to the chair and mice

I put both saddles and straps on the two cats and added Mr. Jinx's bow tie.

Here I raised Mr. Jinx's bum more up so that his line of action could curve more and moved Pixie's head a slightly bit to the right from Dixie's.

I elongated the cowboy mouse's body to add more to his pride and tilted his head a little upward.

I still kept in mind that the construction and placement of the objects that weren't changed had to be accurate to the original and that the things that I changed had to fit with the construction of the characters in the original, except for the elongation I added to the cowboy mouses torso.


I fixed what I needed fixing and added the final details to the cats like eyes, nose, muzzle, fur, tie, ears, hands and feet. I forgot the other cats tail in this one.

I added arms and legs to all the mice.



fixed proportions


I notice when I finish a drawing that perspective is one of my biggest flaws.

As I kept building each character in my Eisenberg copy I noticed how Eisenberg doesn't keep the perspective on certain objects constrained. Well he does, but not by normal perspective standards. It's cartoon perspective, but with control. He knows how each object and character is rounded according to both real life perspective and cartoon perspective.

That's how I see it at least.



I build more details to all the mice as I continue to fix certain things.

I noticed Dixie's head is a lot more angular and Pixie's is more circular. That helps me realize that they don't look exactly alike. There are subtle differences in there head shapes (and eye shapes) that makes them seem more different from one another so they won't look like exact copies of each other.


And here's the final piece. I was able to arch more Mr. Jinx's line of action, show more pride in the cowboy mouse, and get rid of the cramped space between Pixie and Dixie's head.

I changed eye directions for both Pixie and Dixie so that one is looking directly at the cowboy and the other is looking directly at the saddle on Mr. Jinx.

I feel like everything now seems more clear while it still retains the same feel that the original gives.


There are, of course, some little mistakes in proportion like Pixie's head being little bit squashed on the right side as well as Dixie's, but other than that I think it came out fine.


Tell me what you think! I f you didn't understand something let me know and feel free to critique this.

I think I'm going to do a much more harder drawing for the next one. One with a good sense of perspective.

Cartoon Study and a Hello to Everyone!

Hi, my name is Pedro Vargas and I'm new to this blog!

I'm super psyched that I get to participate in all these cartoon studies along with all the talented people here!

I've been looking back at some the old posts of everyone's work here and I'm really amazed how extremely dedicated everyone is into doing some well made cartoon-type drawings. And everyone's showing some vast improvements! I'm really impressed!

Nobody wants cartoons to die and everyone here is supporting to save it, which is awesome!

Watching everyone's work along with reading all the critiques has motivated me to improve my skills as a cartoonist.

So here's my first study. I chose something basic to start off and here it is:


Here I made the TV, characters, and couch into two separate clear shapes, which are the two overall forms you see below in the drawing. I left out the rope and lettering to focus more on what was going on in the drawing.

The characters and the chair are in one big shape and the TV shape is the other. That way it would be obvious for me to see the composition as a whole.


I made a transparency in Photoshop so you can see how I fit things together and also checked my proportions...

I then fixed both the shapes more here.


I also added some more distinctive features like the overall shape of the two characters, which is the big oval over the chair and started to build up the chair more by adding the arm and back rest.

I checked to see my proportions in PS and then fixed them.


I then added the construction of both characters and added more details on the TV like the screen and buttons.

fixed the proportions in PS...
and then added all the details that were in the drawing
I really liked how it came out except, of course, for a couple of little things. They look a bit squashed on the left and right sides of their heads. I made both their heads way too distorted and threw all the features inside their heads WAY out of proportion.


I tend to sort of warp things like that especially with heads on characters. Too wonky like John says.

I used to not pay attention to it before, but I'm trying to avoid that. I want to make sure everything makes sense in a drawing and for the viewer to see it like that as well.

Pixies top part of his ear is a bit high up and the screen on the TV could be fixed up a bit more. Other than that I think it looks pretty good overall. At least I got the feel of the drawing down I think.

Next time when I do a study I'll be more conscious and try to take things little by little and not warp and distort things too much.


I want to to do more studies like this as I continue to progress.

Feel free to critique this and any comments are highly appreciated!