Monday, October 12, 2009

He's no Jesus, he's no Elvis...

Behold the Incubus.



I designed this lusty lump of lard for a project currently being developed by John J. Perez, doing multiple passes to increase the size of his wings. Watch them magically grow!




At the Zoo

Today we draw from the cartoon animal kingdom!


Except what the heck are these things?




That one is about a month old. Poor dog's got no self-control.



I can't help giggling at this one. He's just so happy, he triggers it.


Outfit on the right courtesy of Annie Hall.


One of these days, I'm going to bring more of these kinds of drawings to a finish, and color them with a little more zestiness than the ol' Photoshop wash. But not now. In the immediate now, it's really late. In the general now, school keeps me busy enough.

Hope these look good, anyway.

Monday, October 5, 2009

A Sprinkling of Girls

Q: How do I juggle a buttload of animation classes, draw for pleasure, and maintain a blog all at once?

A: I don't.

This was a pic I did last week, drawn from the typically nonsensical title of a glam-era Brian Eno song.


Bursts of inspiration like that are rare. More than that, though, the poses for drawings with less inspired subject matter just aren't that good. I've had a billion theories about why I draw better or worse at any given time, but these theories evaporate once I try and fail to push myself in the opposite direction. Yet here comes another!

It occurred to me last night that my desire to embrace simple shapes and flat design earlier in the year had come before I even knew what I was doing with fuller, rounder forms. If this was true (and I'm sure a lot more than that is true), it was gimping the fun in my drawings.


If you think that's fun, compare it to the one below.


I ogled the work of Kyle A. Carrozza (alias TV's Kyle) for at least an hour and a half before his gorgeous brand of exaggeration was effectively embedded in my head. Then I drew that picture and the next several. Even his relatively flat stuff is loaded with form and consistency of form. Obviously, he knows what he's doing and I would do well to learn from him.


Unfortunately, I still don't know how to block in drawings quickly and simply, like Kyle's blog shows he can. Once my "soft" lines are down, they're hard enough that the more tied-down lines have to be etched in ludicrously hard to stand out. From there, I unconsciously barrel into Cleanupville before the whole pose is even laid out. I've had enough training that I can spot really bad drawings and fix them, but it takes so much time it's not worth it. Anyway, I'm sure I'll look at these drawings next year and think they're atrocious.


I've drawn this Anita/Perdita-type character at her typewriter before, but this pic's better. Trust me. Unless you get some momentum through your pencil, your drawings of timid characters will just look like timid drawings.


Just adorable, dammit. This was done while I was still exercising some control over the weight of my hand, so it came out quickly.

More soon!