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Hola Minions!
In today’s show I give you a few helpful tips on making your drawings more expressive!
EYE DIRECTION!
A simple way to make your characters look more expressive is to pay attention to the eye direction. When you are doing a pin up of a cartoon character 9 out of 10 times you should have the character looking at us. It is much more powerful to have the figure make eye contact with the viewer. A lot of artists show their lack of confidence by having the character looking away. Not good! Unless the eye direction is dictated by the story in a panel or action you should have your cartoon making good eye contact with us.
Take a look at this example below. which one looks better? The bottom one of course! Why? Because the character’s eye direction is stronger and he is “interacting” with us!
DRAW THE PUPILS FIRST!
Here’s a tip when drawing eyes that will help you get a stronger eye direction. Draw the pupils first then draw the eye shape around the pupil! Seriously! When roughing out a character, I have found that drawing just dots for the pupils and THEN finishing the eyes around the dots! This gives the expression strength! Always draw the most important aspect of your character first and then connect to it and build around it.
EXAGGERATION!
Exaggeration is a key component in making a good cartoon drawing. Don’t be afraid to push your poses beyond what you think is acceptable! Remember! It is always easier to “pull back” from an overly exaggerated pose than to take a weak pose and try to “push it!”
SILHOUETTE!
In order to make a pose “read” it needs to have a good silhouette. If you were to black out your drawing would it still read? Would people still be able to “get” what’s going on?
So keep these tips in mind when you are drawing cartoon characters and I guarantee your drawings will look better! Better drawings make happy artists!
MAN VS. ART MINION OMAR RODRIGUEZ!
In today’s’ podcast I also dip into the Man vs Art Minion Mailbag for some Minion Opinion. I got a very interesting letter from Omar Rodriguez an up and coming animator from Alabama who oozes Man vs. Art passion for animation! Check out his stuff at the links below. Omar is well on his way on becoming an accomplished animator and we here at Man vs. Art wish him all the best!
http://omarstoryboards.blogspot.com/
Happy Thanksgiving Minions!
Raul and Che
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:25:55 — 78.7MB) | Embed
Attention all Artists and Creators who want to hone their pitching skills!
This podcast is especially for you! Today I talk about how to effectively simplify your pitches and get to the point of your story quickly and effectively.
Don’t waste time developing stuff that isn’t necessary for your pitch. At this point the detail is not important. Nobody cares if your main character has a mullet or a flat top haircut. If your story is flimsy, it doesn’t matter what kind of boots your hero wears.
The essence of your story and how it will illicit emotion in your audience should be your primary concern. Model sheets, turn arounds, storyboards, even animation are not necessary in a pitch. You need a bare no frills solid story with interesting characters. That’s it. People love a good story and as a creator and storyteller it’s your job make your story an emotional experience!
What are you waiting for? Get writing and make that pitch sing!
Project Jose!
Jose Gonzalez is a faithful Minion and developing artist! The guy loves to draw and I have taken him under my wing to help him improve his drawing skills! I assigned him to draw a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat and below is what Jose drew.
Jose's first pass at drawing a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat.
I then took Jose’s drawing and went over it with red to punch it up a little and help him make a better drawing out of it!
I recorded myself doing it and below you can see the video notes I gave Jose!
Below is his final pencil sketch with the adjustments I suggested!
Project Jose #1 Rough sketch with adjustments.
The Great Gordini!
All inked up and ready to go!
This is the fantastic final inked drawing by Jose! The Great Gordini! What a difference eh Minions?! Let’s give it up for Jose folks!
Be on the lookout for Project Jose assignment #2! where I asked Jose to draw some robots playing poker! It’s going to be sweet!
Until next time Minions!
Ciao!
R.
