Monday, August 31, 2009

Daniel's Progress

Daniel's latest studies show hierarchy: Lines of action, construction, silhouettes, details and linework are all following the same plan and reinforcing each other.

I've been checking out everyone's links to their practice studies and am quite encouraged, indeed.

Not just by the quality of some of the drawings - but by how fast the artists who apply themselves to them advance.
Just a couple years ago I met with some resistance to learning anything that required skill, but times seem to be changing. More and more folks like Daniel are starting to apply thinking to their drawing toolkit - and it's showing.

This is his stuff from just a short while ago:Less confident, less understanding of hierarchy.
He's a lot more confident now, because he's understanding how lines are not just lines for their own sake, but instead borders that enclose forms, and in the process, his lines have become much smoother, more confident and appealing - and the forms underneath are more solid - while at the same time flowing and organic. That's a tricky balance of seemingly contradictory principles.

He snuck a pointy part into the heel of this character's foot, but I can forgive one transgression.
It's actually quite a thrill for me to see so many people taking to this stuff and getting good at it so fast. Maybe there's hope for some cartoons to be well executed again and fun in the near future. I'm starting to imagine a good layout crew emerging.