That snout was driving men on the first two drawings when i eventually noticed what i was doing wrong. Direction!

So i took more time to look at what i was drawing and added what was missing and i believe it made for a better drawing.
Unfortunately in trying to do it again i made the snout to fat and the eyes the wrong size. Something for next time.

Circle/Life Drawing

I got scared and didnt draw the hands or feet. Reference is in the previous post.

Circle/Life Drawing

I got scared and didnt draw the hands or feet. Reference is in the previous post.

Circles, Jerry's Head and Life Drawing.

Here are my latest studies. Ive just lost my job so i had take time away to work out my life. But hopefully i can make this blog a bit more regular.

Here are my circle studies.

Hopefully this will help me draw more solid, consistent shapes.

I believe i dived in a little to deep here at the start. I wante to draw a circle on an angle but i couldn't quite get the centre lines to look right. They look flat or deformed in relation to the shape they should be following.

So i took a step back and attempted to draw simple circles with the centre lines running through them.

Many of my problems from what i can see here is that i tend to draw ovals or eggs. Drawing the perfect circle is a difficult challenge.

Many of these drawings seem to veer of to the side in some places.

There are a few notable exceptions. No 3 seems pretty constant even though the line on the right side is a little to thick and messy. The same applies for 6, 10 and 11. But out of the batch they are the tidiest and the most confident.
The circles show minor improvement. The centre lines are a little wobbly and rushed (rushing is still one of my greatest habits) But again, even though the line is a little to thick and messy im at the very least veering away from the deformed or egg type shapes.

I tried my hand at putting this basic concept of a circle on a very basic but incredibly well drawn character.

To take it slow i tried the simpler heads at the bottom. I will worry about expressions later.

I always get a bit annoyed when my first drawing is my best. The eyes and and cheeks follow the flow of the head a lot better than the drawings that follow.

This may indicate that i need to not get to confident and control myself if i get a bit cocky. :)
Life Drawing time.

I have done life drawing a handful of times in my life which explains some of my inabilities. So i thought it was time to address this.

Im glad i managed to get this whole figure onto one page which i somehow managed to fail in my drawing below. This indicates a lack of observation.

Although the drawing above is a little bit more proportionate to the one below i believe the one below shows a drawing that is a lot looser. And although this may indicate less control i believe it shows me trying to understand the form of the shapes and the way in which they look. The drawing above appears to rigid and lifeless.

I also give her a big arse.


What i need to take into account for next time is:

Observation (look at how things flow and work together)

Proportion

Pace (take my time)
Try and understand the basic breakdown of the human body

Back to Learning.

I got back from the Bristol Animation festival a little over a week ago and had a sudden rush come over me. It was a rush of inspiration but also a rush of worry. I sat down to analyse my drawings and took a few minutes to study them. I thought to myself, given my age, they weren't good enough.

I am by no means trying to compete here but i do believe my drawings are lacking a few things.

So i sat myself down and wrote myself a drawing schedule. I dusted off my old copy of the Preston Blair Animation book and set back to work to reteach myself some things i may of forgotten through my own laziness.

Hopefully my schedule will make be a better cartoonist, teach me to be more observant of basic things like proportion, posture etc and hopefully at long last get some basic life drawing skills. I am on the hunt for a good book on life drawing, so until then i will brush up on my cartoon skills.

I will post here as often as i can with each new study that emerges from my sketch book and open it up to the public to critique it.

So here we go.

This is the first image that appears in the Preston Blair Animation book. It looks simple enough but it didn't stop me from making a complete mess of it.

Below is my first attempt to understand this drawing.

As i can see its a complete mess. There is no real observational skills here it is me just trying to copy what i see rather than trying to understand how it is all put together.

From the above drawing i realised that:

• I rush to much
• I am to agressive with my pencil
• I dont measure things out
• I dont take time to work out how everything works

The problems with this drawing are:

• The snout of the bear is far to big and doesnt point in any particular angle. It seems to be upturned for some reason.
• The eyes are flat on the shape and dont wrap around the forms as well as being to big
• The ears are out of place as well being the wrong size
• The line work is messy and uncontrolled
• The nose on the snout is messy
• There is not enough negative space on the back of the head

Taking a few minutes to analyse my work as strictly as i could i set off to improve it and hopefully improving on some of my faults.

Again, not a great attempt but there is improvement.

From this i realised:

• I am still to agressive and lack confidence with my pencil
• I either makes thing to large or to cramped
• Things i dont understand like the ears i will rush out

The problems with this Drawing are:_

• The snout ist curved correctly and looks disconnected from the head
• The snout looks to big and heavy
• The eyes are one constant shape rather than getting smaller towards the snout
• The eye furthest away doesnt follow the shape of the head
• Lack of negative space between the back of the head
• The brow isnt steep enough

The third drawing is where i start to see greater improvement and greater confidence and then start to compare it to the original drawing

The head shape here although not perfect is closer than any of the previous drawings, There is still the issue with negative space and the smile doesnt quite match up as it should given its shape but the snout is pretty much in the right place. The nose however is a little off from where it should be.

The brow still isnt following the form of the head but the eyes however seem to fit nicely, not perfectly but with a lot more accuracy than before. The ears are still messy.

The above image seems to be the most confident out of the lot. Its a lot neater, a lot more confident and has been observed a lot more carefully.

This one is hard to see so i apologise.

The eyes have strayed a little in this one and the snout and nose are upturned, the smile however is almost in the right place.

The shape of the head is almost correct, although a lot messier than it should be it has a lot more form.

So for next time i need to work on the key facial features and slowly build outwards as this seems to be my main area of weakness. Features don't point in the right direction and sometimes aren't the correct size or shape given the shape of the head. The eyes although almost the right size more often that not don't follow the shape of the head.