Thursday, May 01, 2008

Need Artists Soon. Can You Draw A Republican?



HOW TO CHECK YOUR COPIES:
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/05/animation-school-lesson-3-how-to-check.html


It's been about 28 years since I first drew this guy.

Well I found a sponsor to produce 40 minutes of George Liquor cartoons. No dirty hippie ladies this time. Real men who think George will help promote a decent society of upstanding Americans.

DO YOU NEED A JOB DRAWING DECENT CARTOONS WITH POSITIVE VALUES?

I'm going to need an assortment of talent to help me. I'll do a few posts to tell you which jobs will be available and what skills I'm looking for. Today, it's storyboard and layout artists who can adapt to my style.

I won't have time to train people on the job. But I will help you learn to draw the characters on my blog.

I'll need folks like Hillary, who can sit down on day 1 and start to produce functional and entertaining cartoon scenes. If you've already worked on my cartoons, then you will have a big advantage. Anyone who can show me that they already can draw my main characters will make it much easier for me to make a show that will be successful.

The best way to learn to draw a character is to start with the head in neutral expressions, just to learn how he is built.


GEORGE IN NEUTRAL EXPRESSIONS

3/4 VIEW
Some of my characters are extra hard to draw. George especially, so I would start by just learning to construct his head in simple expressions-smiling, or just neutrality.
I'll do more posts, next George with specific expressions, then one for George's body and body poses.





I wouldn't try to draw wild poses or really specific expressions of George until you can already just draw the construction of his head. That's enough of a task by itself. Don't try to be Rod Scribner the first day.
Things to note: There is a lot of space behind George's facial features. Behind his eyes and mouth, you can see his jaw, his cranium and his neck. Many young cartoonists will cut off the cranium and neck or draw them too close to the face.

Remember that a face is at the front of the head, and there is a lot of space between your face and the back of your skull.

You also need to leave space above his eyes - between the top of the eyes and the bottom of his brush cut. That's where his eyebrows will go, and they will need some flesh space in order to move up and down to make expressions.

FRONT VIEW



PROFILE
On the profile you can see that the front of his skull is higher than the back of it. His head slopes backwards. It's very tricky to draw, but is important to his Republicanism.


If you draw this bugger, then post a link in the comments. Once I see a few folks who can draw his basic construction, I'll do a post of george with more specific expressions. Then Jimmy and Sody.

STORYBOARD STYLE VS. LAYOUT STYLE drawings

Storyboard artists don't need to draw the characters perfectly "on-model" or clean, but they do have to understand the core of the characters' look and personality.

Layout artists need to be tighter and make the continuity of poses "flippable" for the animators, but they don't need to be perfectly clean like the drawings above. Just a good pencil line that an inker can interpret.

Of course, my first choice will be professionals who have done storyboards and layouts, but who knows maybe someone out there is just a natural, who easily draws good poses and construction.

QUESTIONS?

Ask in the comments and I will try to answer.