Boy, drawing 3 dimensional cartoon toys is enough of a challenge. People ask me all the time whether I think life drawing is useful to cartoonists and animators and my answer is a hesitant - yes. Under certain conditions.
the shapes in real life are so much more intricate than 2 dimensional cartoon characters that the gap between the 2 is immense. It's very hard to bridge the 2 disciplines in practice.
In my 30 years in the business I've only met one cartoonist that has been able to make real applicable connections between cartooning and life drawing and that's Jim Smith. So it's not impossible, just severely rare.
I think if the way life drawing was taught in cartoon schools was modified so that there was a way to apply the very general principles that life and cartoons have in common, then it could be useful. I think you need steps in between cartoons and actual biological organisms. Cartoon toys are a good middle step. Toys wrap simple(r) cartoony shapes around in true 3 dimensional space. They demonstrate form, material and perspective in a way that is more readily applicable (and understandable) to animation.
Chloe is threatening to draw some UFC fighters. I'm sure those will put mine to shame, but I'll show them to you anyway when she does.
