Lesson 4, Part 2

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 4

This bunny came out pretty good:


I didn't do so well with this 'goony bird'. The biggest problem with not getting the beak big enough. Also I straightened some angles (the arm on the left and tail), taking some fun out of the original.


On my first attempt at the goony bird running, I way exaggerated the lean back:


Second attempt is a lot better


This one is half good, half bad but I didn't want to redo it:


This little skunk with the mallet was really hard for me! Here I stretched him way out horizontally. I really had a hard time believing his pelvic circle was so close to his head.



On another try, I overdid it.



This one is pretty good:

Two tries on this guy:

And just because I'm proud of it, here's a sketch I drew of a man reading a book. We were both waiting for our kids at the ice skating arena. It really looks like the guy. Luckily he was sitting still long enough for me to draw him.

Lesson 4: Two-legged Characters -- Rabbit & Duck

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 4

In this lesson we graduate to full-body two-legged characters. Here are the first two of the three:

These really take a long time to do, but I learn so much from it. As I'm drawing, I keep trying to see it with fresh eyes, and every time I do, I see something wrong. As a result, I spend as much time erasing as drawing.



The practice is paying off, because both of the above drawings (mine are the ones in the middle) are my first try, without any checking other than by eye.

Lesson 3: Check Your Copies

I've been checking my copies all along in Photoshop, but for this lesson I went back and corrected three drawings that were particularly off.

I still tried to even out the mouth (make it symetrical when it isn't):



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I forgot to draw an entire ear!

Lesson 2: Squash and Stretch, Part 2

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 2

Here are the second half of my squash and stretch dogs copied from Preston Blair's book. As before, the Blair originals are red, my roughs are blue and my finals are black.

I don't have a lot of time in my life to work on these, but I look forward to what chances I get. This post only finishes Lesson 2 and I've been started these lessons in May! But I'm doing each drawing as carefully and attentively as I can. And although I still have a long way to go, I've noticed significant improvement and I'm pretty jazzed about that.

I now feel like I'm really seeing and experiencing the three-dimensional shape in the Blair drawing. Before, when I would copy the drawing, I could only see the relationships between the 2D lines. But now I see it in 3D and 2D at the same time. I also just feel more confident, and I think my lines look more expressive and less hesitant/choppy than before. It's a great feeling.

I noticed something about these dogs after getting about half-way through (only a beginner like me would take so long to notice): All of these dogs show squash and stretch not just in the vertical direction, with the jaw, but in all kinds of wonderful sideways stretches. For example, the one immediately below is really very twisted. The cranium is turned at almost a 3/4 view while the muzzle is pointing almost at the viewer. It gives the impression the dog is turning away and his fat sloppy muzzle is dragging behind. Great fun!

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Lesson 2: Squash and Stretch, Part I

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog: Meta: The $100,000 Animation Drawing Course- Lesson 2


In the first one above, I failed to see how asymmetrical the original drawing was, so I stretched the whole right side out too far from center. Did much better on the second one.

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