Cartooning - Keeping Consistency

Introduction

My recent "Bird Brained" cartoon was based on a conversation with a good friend about a real job interview that turned sour over just this question...

"If you were a bird, what bird would you be, and why?"

He was completely stunned by the question and failed to see that it was a psychological test designed to identify his character and strengths. But in his defence, it was asked by the Finance Director, out of the blue, with no real introduction. Like many people would, he saw it as "BS" and failed to give a good answer.

My cartoon explores the missed opportunities by both parties.

My Idea

I started off with the notion that the robin was in fact a good bird to select, and brain stormed a few ideas to help build the jokes misdirection:-

• Tenacious.
• Often seen on Christmas cards.
• Gardeners friend.
• Batman's sidekick.

So I googled around for image ideas and came up with a Christmas Card and a Robin sat on a spade handle. I'd also drawn a robin wearing boxing gloves but none of the styles matched. As a result the comic didnt gel together.

The first version didn't work so well

Fixing the Inconsistencies

Taking the fighting robin (being the most cartoon-like), I transfered the image across onto the other two frames. This gave me the opportunity to add a scalf to the winter scene.

Altering the Winter Scene Robin

And the gardener's friend received gum-boots, hat, flower and a trowel.

Altering the Gardener's Friend Robin

I tried to alter the look as much as I could to hide the fact it was a copy-and-paste job. I do miss the realistic look of that last robin, but the cartoon one is silly and so works better for the idea.

Link to the resulting cartoon here: http://funstreak.thecomicseries.com/comics/42