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!

exercise of analysis

I tried to make an analysis of the original drawing as suggested... I still think that I don' t get to the important points as Mr. John K does in his analysis... but I will keep trying.

After the analysis I made a drawing, that in my opinion is too mechanical...

The frog looks terrible, I lost his mouth, and his size is wrong... but as the analysis I think it will get better with more practice.

I went to the Zoo and made a bunch of drawings of animals... I will post them tomorrow.

It was very fun.

abraço

davi

Someone Try This

1)

What Does The Drawing Say Emotionally?

2)

ANALYZE THE VISUAL CONTRASTS

http://cartooncollege.blogspot.com/2009/10/caricatured-bulldog.html?zx=7dd09a77d61db067

Go Farther Than The Original By Enlisting Your Mind

1) Feel Before You Copy - analyze the emotional statement: What is the drawing telling us? What's the point of it?

2) Think before copying. Analyze what visually is making the emotional statement. What principles are being used?

3) Now Draw.
First Line of Action.
Then check line of action -is it as strong as the original, or have you toned it down already?

4) Construction.
Block in the construction following the line of action. Check it before going to the next step! Did you tone it down? Did you make it lumpy and less direct? If so where? Write it down and then fix it.

5) Proportions and contrasts. Analyze the contrasts. Then draw them. THEN CHECK THEM. Did you tone them down? So far everyone has every time.

6) Negative shapes: Both outside the form, and within the form. Are they disappearing in your copy? Getting smaller? Less distinct?
Fix them.

7) Stop. Don't add final details like fur and stuff. Make a solidly constructed cartoony copy that retains the guts of the original.

We can worry about fur and clean lines later.

8) JUDGE THE APPEAL AND GUTS - Now stare at your copy and at the original. Flick your eye back and forth between the 2 drawings and watch it change. Is the copy as strong and funny? As appealing? Does the statement come across as well? If not, then go back and analyze what is toning the drawing down.

trying to get organic drawings

my anxious attempt in organic drawings
later I will do an analysis

From Stiff to Organic. The learning period compared to the confident period

I suggest (if you don't already) supplementing your cartoon studies with some life drawing. (I know this is a photo, not a live model)

Why should you?

Because when studying Preston Blair type construction - made of spheres and pear shapes, there is a tendency for some cartoonists to think cartoon characters are made up of balls piled on top of each other. Or they draw the balls and pears too mechanical and not organic enough.

Also another point: THE STIFF PERIOD OF LEARNING
Any time you learn a new concept, when you actually first try to draw it you will probably be very stiff, because you haven't practiced the concept enough for it to sink in. This is the tough period of learning anything.

Drawing 1 - STIFF, study drawing. Slow and careful, grinding my teeth

When I first drew this guy, I slowly, carefully blocked in the construction first - having to think about the types of shapes that make up a strong man. I couldn't use balls and pears because real life is made up of more complex parts. They are still solid forms, but bendable solid forms. They are complex organic forms.

Once I finished the first drawing, I knew a lot of things I didn't know before: How the traps are shaped on one side compared to the other in a 3/4 pose. What biceps look like from 2 different angles in relaxed mode. How the biceps fit next to the triceps and the space between.

How muscles weave in and out of each other under the skin. The feeling of flesh, not just the wooden proportions of man.

How the 6 pack works as a whole unit before it's split into parts

How big pecs hang in repose (it's very important to know this, especially for you girls)

etc.

Drawing 2 - Looser yet still solid, more organic and confident, more fun to domy conservative attempt at Chloe's style

Then I redrew the drawing faster and looser - while still trying to keep all the forms solid, but to make them less stiff, more flowing: more ORGANIC

Some artists go too far in the direction of organic lines and get wobbly formless characters. Some are too stiff and get mechanical characters.
Ever see those Gene Deitch Tom and Jerrys made in the 60s in eastern europe? They are a total misunderstanding of the 40s American animation style. The characters are drawn stiff and move stiff. They look like they are made of badly drawn balls stacked on top of each other. Here's a weird combination of wobbly and stiff at the same time. That's an achievement! Whenever anyone draws Tom and Jerry now, they give them these bulbous balls for toes and they never had that in the original cartoons.

The trick to good drawing is to combine solidity with fluidity. And life.

You have to look at both sides of an object (say a bicep) and draw the whole form, not two lines on either side. Look at the form inside the lines.

I made a mistake that I warn everyone else about: the side of the man's head that is closer to us (on the right) is too cramped. I squashed the space between his face and cranium. Lots of us have that problem.

Preston Blair Forms don't work for everything!
I saw one student's attempt at caricatures and he was trying to construct them as if they were Preston Blair forms.

That doesn't work.

When you draw from life- DRAW WHAT YOU SEE

Don't try to impose what you think things are supposed to look like. We aren't made of balls and pears. Only cartoon characters are.

What you learn from drawing from life and using your eyes to observe new things can then be applied to your cartoon drawings in simplified form.

Very Organic and Solid Preston Blair FormsThese drawings are not remotely realistic. They have no real anatomy. They are entirely made up of animated cartoon forms - spheres and pears. Yet they don't look mechanical and they are full of life.

That's because they obey some principles of reality. They are organic and solid at the same time. Asymmetrical in a natural way. They have weight. They are not robotic.

See how the arms wrap around that log? They are flattened at the bottom, but bulge out at the top where they are not being compressed against anything. That makes sense and makes the drawing believable and alive.You can really feel this drawing of Tom smashing into the log. It makes sense. It isn't random distortion.

It's organic and solid at the same time - and obeys some expected sense of physics.

Don't draw stiff (except when learning and you can't help it). Don't draw wobbly. Aim at drawing convincing solid organic life.

another attempt at Kaspar

Analysis:






I think this is better, at least I feel it that way
what do you think John?

loosening up Kaspar

another version of Kaspar more freely


Update: