Cartooning & Animation

Heckling Hare construction drawing

2007-10-23T00:12:00.000-07:00

Much thanks to John K for his instructive videos on the finer points of construction while drawing freeze frames of good cartoons. Here's my attempt.

Even before any critique, i notice a few places i went wrong. For starters, i didn't get the angles of the base shapes for the dog correct. Also on both Bugs and the dog, the tufts of hair gave me a lot of trouble. The wrinkles i feel are so so. They follow the forms to a degree. Perhaps they might have looked better if i had drawn larger. I probably should have drawn Bugs and the Dog on separate pieces of paper to really let the construction lesson sink in. I might do that after i get this damn uni assignment out of the way. I wanted to draw the framing of the two, but that didn't necessarily work out as expected either. Ah well, not a bad attempt for the first real drawing i've done in months. =/

Gonna try and update more often

2007-02-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

Heya to the few people that might actually check this blog!

I haven't posted for a very long time. I've still been drawing lots though. I think i shall try and just start scanning and posting the stuff i'm doing. I've been neglecting the last 2 (now 3) lessons and i need to get back to them sometime soon, but there's lots of other stuff i've been trying.

Here's something i just drew to battle my insomnia. I watched the "Mad Dog Hoek" episode of Ren & Stimpy which inspired it.

I took a photo cause this sketchbook is too big to scan with my dinky scanner.

These are two characters i wrote an animated pilot for last year. I haven't drawn them in a very long time. It shows!

Aw well. I'll try and post some charactures i've been drawing soon.

2006-10-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

This was just me cracking out my colour pencils and having some fun. I haven't done that in a long time. I'm iffy on the colour job, but i love this character.

Lesson 7 - Being Generic while learning to draw

2006-07-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

Man, it's been almost a month since i posted my last lesson. I've been a real slack bastard. For this lesson, i drew everything off a Tom & Jerry model sheet. I did this through the entirety of the last couple weeks so you can see where i've started drawing again after a while. It took me a drawing or two to warm up. Regardless though, my drawings got a lot tighter and more lively as i went on. I still have proportion problems but i'm forcing myself to check leg and arm placement through negative space as well as just looking. I'm steadily improving and i think some of the later Toms are the best on the page.

The lesson can be found here ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 7

Lesson 6 - Katie Rice heads

2006-06-09T23:53:00.000-07:00

Whoooee. This was tricky shit. It was like i was learning head construction all over again. You can see that there's a lot of problems with these.

The most trouble i had was with perspective and proportion. The space between face parts is off for a lot of the drawings, and the faces themselves are squahed and stretched wrongly. Eyes don't look like they're on a 3d head, but tend to float around the face. The noses and lips are ok. I'm somewhat happy with those. The jaws were interesting. I experimented a little with how to draw them when constructing the head. At the start, i made broad ovals and then sketched in the details. Later on, i actually draw the shape of the jaw descending from the skull. This seemed to work the best.

The hair was fun because it looks like the hair is draped on the drawing as an afterthought, but it ends up completing it. Even though these sketches of Katie's ooze style, and it was hard to keep up while learning the lessons hidden within, it was still fun and educational.

The lesson can be found here, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 6

Line of Action, part 2

2006-06-05T03:03:00.000-07:00

Here's the rest of the Tom & Jerry pics. There were a blast to draw! Tom & Jerry has always been one of my favourite cartoons, and being able to draw them was very gratifying.

I'm getting the hang of line of action. There are a couple good examples in the pics. Some of them i didn't push it far enough, and some have the curve off. It just shows you how important a proper line of action is for a drawing to show decent movement. I still had some trouble with body proportion but i managed to get better at it near the end (Tom's really threw me off for most of his drawings).

I'm also starting to understand the use of negative space. When trying to get a drawing to look right, it can be more important than trying to see if your lines are correct.

I might give the Disney and Clampett drawings a go later this week. I want to give those Katie Rice heads a go first.

The lesson can be found here, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 5

Break Time!

2006-06-03T05:02:00.000-07:00

So i got through about a third of the Tom & Jerry line of action drawings when i decided i needed a break.

I started drawing some charactures of wrestlers from the WWE (I am a huge wrestling fan).

I think you can tell who this is if you're into wrestling. This was the 2nd characture i drew. The first one i wasn't happy with when i inked it, so i decided to draw it again from memory and really exaggerate the features. I also didn't ink it but instead used pencil. I like how it came out.

[edit] A friend of mine asked me to draw RVD for him after i showed these off. Here we go!

[last edit, i promise] Here's one more for ya. A certain olympic champion. Oh it's true! It's damn true!

Line of Action, part 1

2006-06-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

This is the first part of the line of action lesson. I just wanted to post something and perhaps get some feedback.

This is really challenging stuff. I spent a couple hours alone erasing and redrawing Tom punching the other cat. In the end i was satisfied it was in the ballpark, but upon comparing it with the original drawing, i still have a ways to go. I think the main problem with the other two is the body proportion. I also need to follow through with my line of action, and make sure i get the curves right.

I'll be paying more attention to the line and proportion when i complete all the other drawings.

The lesson can be found here, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 5

Lesson 4 - Da bodies

2006-05-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it's almost been 2 weeks since this lesson was posted on John K's blog. I really took this one slow. Sure, it had a little to do with the fact i was catching up on lesson 3 last weekend, but these pages here were very challenging. I think i'm starting to get the hang of body construction. One thing i loved about this lesson was that when looking at some of the drawings on the screwball page, i thought to myself, "Man, i'm not gonna be able to draw that!". The thing i came to realise is that after getting the correct construction down, detail is just lines. You can really draw anything. John wasn't kidding when he said you'd be able to draw in any style once you get the fundementals down.

The lesson can be found here, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 4

Lesson 3, Page 3

2006-05-21T00:38:00.000-07:00

The final page of lesson 3. Now i stuffed up here. About halfway through the dog heads, i decided to try to sketch out the construction in blue pencil, and then go over in black. It worked fine but i forgot to scan them in colour so on the last 6 or so heads, it's hard to see the construction (it's also hard to read my notes on mistakes. I dunno the best way to keep them low file size and legible yet).

EDIT - I rescanned the pages. You can now see some blue line on the pages scanned in colour. Also, i constructed the pages like my previous posts. It seems that creating long pages allows the notes to be somewhat legible.

The lesson can be found here, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 3

Lesson 3, Page 2

2006-05-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

This is the same technique i used on page one. Lightbox tracing, drawing the drawings myself and then comparing to find those mistakes. Biggest problem at this point is i'm making the noses too long. Plenty of time tomorrow to amend that as the next page is all the squash and stretch dog heads.

The lesson, can be found here, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 3

Lesson 3, Part 1 - Mistakes

2006-05-18T19:13:00.000-07:00

This is the first page of the Preston Blair book redone so i could notice my mistakes. What i did was trace the drawings out of the book with my lightbox, then draw them myself and compare. Already there is a huge difference between these and the heads further down the page. The other 2 pages of the book are on their way using this method.

The lesson can be found here, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 3

Basics - Eggs & Head Construction

2006-05-13T23:35:00.000-07:00

I wasn't happy with a few of the heads i drew, so i went back and spent a couple hours on head construction. It starts off really bad but begins to tighten up near the end. Like with the squash and stretch, there were ideas that clicked after drawing them for a while. The final bunny head i was really pleased with.

Now there's a few drawings from the further head construction and squash and stretch pages i want to redo. Those later.

The lesson can be found here, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 1

A challenge

2006-05-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

Well upon showing a friend of mine the squash and stretch heads i just posted, he exclaimed "Nice, now let's see you draw Dave like that".

Up for the challenge, here's a drawing i did of the main character of my webcomic (based on myself).

More heads - squash and stretch

2006-05-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

Here we go! Continuation of the squash and stretch dog heads i did in my 2nd post. I think by the end, construction of the head with squash and stretch finally clicked. Judge for yourself.

The lesson can be found here, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 2

It was closing in on midnight. I was typing an essay for uni...

2006-05-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

After a week of drawing from stills, good animation books and model sheets, i already see it rubbing off on my own work. I need some help with hands though. Damn hands.

Captures

2006-05-11T22:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the blogs of John K and Duck Dodgers, i've been really inspired to draw the last couple weeks. I've really been inspired partially due to how awesome it looks when you copy a great still from an old animated cartoon and the feeling of the still is at least noticable in your work. The following is a bunch of drawings of classic animation from screen capture stills and at least one old model sheet.

This is the second page of drawings i did based off a bunch of captures on Duck Dodger's site. As you can see by the drawing on the right, i'm starting to get the feeling of movement down in my work.

I'm starting to get the hang of it a little more here. I'm quite proud of these drawings. The only thing really annoying me is i couldn't get his left foot to look correct as he was running away :/

I've never actually drawn animals much. That's another reason drawing screen caps from old cartoons is so enthralling to me. The characters are all animals. The horse came out well in my opinion. I like goofy characters.

Not too happy with this page. The only thing i think i got halfway right was Jerry's posing while sneaking. Still, you gotta try to find out what you did wrong.

I wanted to draw Bugs. I loved this still but the drawing isn't exactly flattering... or well done. Onto the next one!

Another one i'm happy with. I love that just by the action and expression, you can tell how these two characters interact. The wiseass and the stupid one.

Last but not least, another Bugs. One that is modelled a little better than my last attempt. I like any drawing from the back since i've hardly drawn characters like that.

Well that's the last week and a half of classic cartoons. I got a couple modern cartoon sketches i'll show off soon. I hope my scanner doesn't die. I've been working it hard today.

Heads of Preston Blair

2006-05-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

I've been told that the best way to improve your work is to copy the work of those before you and get the fundementals down. These are some drawings of heads from one of Preston Blair's books.

Lots more drawings to come. It's going slowly as i have an A3 sketchbook and an A4 scanner. Ugh.

The lesson can be found here, ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 1

Intro

2006-05-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

G'day folks.

My name is David Flodine and have created this blog as a place to specifically post a lot of the drawing i've been doing to further my talents in cartooning and animation. Lot's of posts will shortly arrive today.

Stay Tooned! (hoho)