Sketchy Details - Planning your Cartoon

Intro

My usual method of creating a cartoon tends to follow this process:-

1. Have great idea.
2. Write down dialogue and review.
3. Draw pencil sketch or thumbnails.
4. Draw each frame on the tablet.
5. Import into ComicLife and compose.
6. Finalise and resize to 850px wide.

Step 3 often looks like it's been missed, that's because I rough it out on the tablet, or I create empty planning frames (with dilogue) in ComicLife. More often than not, I just plan it in my head, but there's always some sort of plan, there has to be.

The last X-Fails had quite a detailed sketch, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Sketch Plan

You'll notice there's some quite extreme camera angles in this cartoon. We start off with a high level of perspective viewed from below, using the vanishing point method to scale the policeman's body. But you have to be brave and really draw those boots big if you want him to appear close up. The next three shots are simple close-ups showing the dialogue and that pistol action. They were chosen to focus the readers attention to try and increase the level of misdirection. Finally we have a standard frame to fill the page width with the big reveal. (Five's a difficult number to arrange otherwise)

Here's the link to the finished cartoon, often things get changed along the way, but this time it came out quite close:

http://area5-1.webcomic.ws/comics/74/

Day 3 - real pen and paper

I couldn't be bothered to get out the graphics tablet today, and there's something I still really like about sharpening a proper pencil and making marks on paper.

After yesterday's foray into 3 dimensions I thought I'd try the cubist approach (remembering that Olympic mascot Cobi) and do the 'nose to the side, eyes on the front' thing.

After much scribbling and bringing the tracing paper trick back into play, I couldn't really make it work. I think it's at least partly a matter of courage - being bold enough to stick those eyes in the wrong place. Like playing a discord in music, it sounds wrong if you don't do it with enough courage, but great if you go for it.

Anyway, this is the version I like most, inked in. I've added arms this time, with Disney style anthro hands or paws. I can see this one standing up. I might give this some colour at some point.

Yvonne reboot, day 2

I didn't really want to go down the 3D / three-quarter road, but I'm going to try everything I can think of during this experiment.

There's something I still really love about sharpening a real pencil and taking it to a fresh sheet of paper.

I'm using a few ideas suggested by a Craftsy tutor (and her method of drawing 'picturebook' style animals). One is covering a big sheet with lots of variations on an idea (even if you try and make them the same, you still end up with a wide variation). You can also try various expressions, types of eyes etc. (a sheet of tracing paper over the top helps you to try various mouths, eyebrows etc on the same face.)

This is the one I ended up with. I love the floppy ears (I wouldn't have thought of it but saw them on a reference photo). She looks a bit younger and prettier than I've always envisioned Yvonne but hey.

You're right, I've totally copped out of thinking about the legs and feet today.

Technology

I'm particularly pleased with this one, for a number of reasons

- I've managed 3 Yvonnes and an Observing in one week, without spending excessive time, which is a level I'd like to maintain if possible.

- I'm particularly pleased with the joke. Maybe in a self-satisfied kind of way (no activity on Tapastic so far) but that's ok - I'm only in this to please myself.

- I feel that my drawing is becoming a bit more natural. I didn't spend excessive time, producing this whole thing in an hour or two (ok, it may show - parts could certainly be improved) but I want to be able to get good results without too much mucking about, not spending hours agonising over the details.

- I also feel my drawing is coming a little more easily. This time I traced nothing, just called up some reference pictures on one screen, while sketching on another. I couldn't find Batman at the right angle and used my little wooden mannequin and my own hands for the pose.

Shady Beginnings?

That's a nice drawing Shiela, I can see why you framed it...

You know I've seen a lot of work from my oldest son (who's also pretty good with a pencil) but he does the same thing. What shading there is just doesn't provide the degree of contrast that's required. I suspect part of that is because you used a propelling pencil. They're great for simple sketches and engineering plans, but your walking boots picture is probably about as far as you can take it.

Many years back (not long after I left university) I took a night school art course and I learnt two really important things.

1. Using the right tools for the job.
2. The absolute importance of shading.

Using the right tools just means having an array of pencils HB to 6B (and a pencil sharpener always at hand for those really soft ones). You start off with the hard to get pale planning lines, and then build the shade as you add detail. Too often I think we get wrapped in re-creating the detail (that our brains tell us is there) and not consider it might be partially obscured or too dark to see clearly anyway.

Now let's consider shading. At first look we assume it just gives us contrast, turning an outline into an illusion of 3D shapes. But it does more than that,.. let's look at these two (almost identical) spanners.

Two (almost) identical spanners

OK the difference is quite obvious, one has a shadow, the other doesn't. Yes, OK,.. but you're wrong, or rather you've missing the point,.. one is in the air, the other is sat on the ground. Shading is an important tool to create context for an object.

So while I like your drawing of your boots, and I understand your desire to keep it uncluttered, I have no idea whether you're feet are in the air or dangling off a cliff. The grass doesn't give enough context for the brain to decide. The shading under the heel needs extending back up the legs before we're comfortable.

The second common mistake is just not being bold with the shading. I always feel like I'm over-compensate when I'm adding shading, really getting that darkness onto the page. But consider what it takes to compose a good black and white photo,.. it certainly isn't just turning the saturation down. There are various video tutorials that show how the experts do this, and I think it's highly worth watching one if you want to really understand how to make black and white work.

Finally once you make the leap into deeper contrast you'll find you have one final problem,.. it smudges too easily. You can get proper fixer from an art supplier, or you could just do what my night school teacher suggested and spray it with hair spray..... worked for me, and smells nice too :-)

50 Shades - or none?

After doing the Craftsy sketchbooking course earlier in the year, and starting to take a sketchbook and pencil when I go walking, this is the first of my own sketches ever that I've felt moved to frame and put on the wall.

It was shortly after learning about hatching - you can see that I'm not 100% comfortable with it. (related to this is the fact that I have found that I enjoy using a single pencil - and a mechanical one at that - so all lines are the same weight, rather than working with different thicknesses of line (point / side) and different hardnesses)

There's a very spare style here. The two blades of grass were an afterthought, I like it but wouldn't want to add anything else around the edge. And I can see a connection now that I've started (and love!) to draw cartoons with heavy lines, very few elements in the picture and no shading.

So the question is, is it right to practice hatching and try to get more confident with that, or to run with a style that works for me? (ie take my sketching in a more 'comical' direction, and develop a personal style along those lines?)