Toy Drawing 1: Top Cat Turnaround Toy Construction Exercise

Ok so here's an attempt as part of a lesson from JohnK's cartoon school blog.

Here's a link to the lesson:

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/09/top-cat-turnaround-toy-construction_19.html

Above is my first attempt to draw this toy. It's pretty wonky and the proportions are all out of whack the whiskers are too pointy and the space between and around the eyes it all wrong, amongst other things.


This one's a little better. The head is a better shape and I made more of an attempt to wrap forms around other forms.

I'm doing this in my lunch hour at work while eating Pad-thai, lunch hour is about over so that will have to do for now. More TC next week, hopefully.

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20/9/10 - Third attempt. This is not much good. It's still really wonky and the negative space around the muzzle is off, maybe I had forgotten some of the things I had learned in the days between doing these...?

One thing I did notice today, that I hadn't previously is the the pupils below the bottom of the eyes. It's strange that I didn't see that the other day...

Preston Blair - Goose

Here's another Preston Blair copy (this is my second attempt... I seem to have misplaced my first one)

Learnings: Just after I make a point that I need to keep facial features around the front of the cranium Preston gives me this goose with an eye wrapped around the side of it's head!! So really what it means is that these things need to be considered as I draw - it would be stupid to draw all eyes the same distance apart...

I messed up some of the negative space in this one, but also got some of the areas pretty spot on as well.Here is my thoroughly un-original character Puss. I stole the pose from the Rabbit (below) and how to draw the hat from the goose. This was just a quick doodle trying to capture some of the elements from Blair's work. The leg widths are a problem as is the further most eye, it should be wrapped around the cranium more for better perspective.

Preston Blair Rabbit

NB: I had completed a lot more Preston Blair copies on my old blog, but when I created this one I deleted them all. There doesn't seem any point re-posting them.

Learnings: I slowed down, took my time and was a lot more careful with the second one and it shows. The line of action is much clearer, the feet are spread more and seem to carry the weight of the rabbit better (he looks more like he's standing rather than floating in air.)

Also, and this is something I need to concentrate on because I seem to do it all the time, I need to make sure that the face and eyes particularly stick to the front of the cranium. I have a habit of making the face fill the whole head, which makes the head seem flat. You can see this pretty clearly just in these two drawings, the top one is wrong and the bottom one is better.

Phone Girl Speed Painting - 1hr

Another speed painting done in Photoshop. This one took an hour.

Learnings: I spent most of my time working on details in the face so that would be the main point of focus. That was pretty successful I think! Some of the proportions are wrong, but that wasn't really the point of the exercise...

Speed Painting - Luchador

This is my first ever attempt at "speed painting" in Photoshop (or, anything for that matter.)

This is about 30 mins work.

Learnings: I don't need lots of details to describe forms, there's no real need to blend highlight colours into darker areas.

Ok, let's start again!

Hi,

This is not so much intended for people to look at, but rather for me to keep track of my progress.

If you have somehow found your way here, then Welcome!

Check out some of my real artwork here:

http://www.dkfabris.blogspot.com/

or

http://studioretardo.deviantart.com/

Anyways, the purpose of this blog is mostly for my attempts at JohnK's cartoon college (http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/) but also other bits and pieces of art too crappy to post in either of the links above.