1) Logical line weight
2) Emotional line weight
LOGICAL LINE WEIGHT
Here is a pencil drawing of a key pose from a scene. It needs to be inked.
The inking has to make sure that the charactr reads easily and quickly.
It needs to look solid.
It needs a hierarchy of line weights.
The lines need to flow around the forms.
1) HEAVIEST LINE WEIGHT
The heaviest line weight is around the overall form of the pose or silhouette ("sillo")I generally like a slightly heavier line at the bottom of major objects:
The jaw
the feet
This gives the whole character a feeling of weight.
This example still has a couple mistakes, but Brian is fixing them an I'll replace it.
Missing the cuff, the right side of the jacket fold
legs should have more consistent weight with the rest of the character
The bottom of the left cuff should be inked in this weight
2) 2ND WEIGHT LEVEL slightly less heavy
Design elements that are subdivisions of the overall character have a line weight that is still thick,but slightly thinner than the outline of the sillo
Like clothes, or the outline of the hair (not the individual hairs, but the overall form of the hair)
Or color separations on animal characters
3 DETAILS
The details, wrinkles folds etc are the thinnest linesThey should not be totally one weight though, they should be slightly thicker in the middle
These lines need to flow around the larger shapes in the same form and perspective
Where these detail lines come to a stop in open space (like the fold on the jacket) -the ends should taper to a point.
EVERY LINE ON A DRAWING SHOULD MEAN SOMETHING
IT SHOULD DESCRIBE SOMETHING
THERE SHOULD NEVER BE FLOATING LINES THAT DON'T MEAN ANYTHING
ALL THIN DETAIL LINES SHOULD HELP DESCRIBE THE LARGER OBJECT THEY ARE PART OF
TOMORROW:
EMOTIONAL LINE WEIGHT
EMOTIONAL LINE WEIGHT
The face is the most important part of every cartoon character. It follows the logical line weight aproach overall, but also has an "emotional line weight" that helps us see the expressions...
