Sketchbook Update

Last year I declared March to be “Sketchbook Month” and started an informal little blog challenge: a sketch every weekday for the entire month. Several other artists joined in and pretty soon we had a pretty good party going. With the new baby things are just too crazy for me to attempt it again this year, but I’m hoping next March I’ll be able to give it another go.

In the meantime I’ve been doing what I can to keep my sketchbook from growing too cold. Thought I’d post a few recent doodles.

After years of hearing other artists sing the praises of Blackwing pencils I finally ordered a box. The guy in the army uniform was from my first day breaking them in. I gotta say, those pencils make for some silky-smooth drawing. The Blackwing’s reputation is well-earned.

 

Sketchbook Update: Dancing Bear

dancing bear sketch

Yesterday I was sketching up some doodles as part of a new promotional campaign I’m working on. I liked how this bear turned out so I decided to clean it up and color it in Photoshop. If you’d like to purchase the rights to use this image please contact me.

Sketchbook Update: Posebook App

Sketches from Posebook App

A few weeks ago I won a prize giveaway of Stephen Silver’s new sketching app, Posebook. Today during my warm up I finally had a chance to give it a test run.

For those who haven’t heard, Posebook is a pair of new apps (Male and Female) for iPhone/iPad/Android/Kindle created to help artists develop their drawing skills. Each features a large collection of photos from professional costumed models in over 2,000 full-body poses for sketching, plus hands and close-up facial expressions. There’s also 6 instructional videos from app creator Stephen Silver, himself an award-winning character designer, as well as 25 sketches from other top character designers in the animation biz. That’s a lot of goodies for $9.99 each.

There are no nude models, although some of the costumes and poses in the Female Posebook fall into the “sexy cheesecake” category. Being a dad with daughters has made me more sensitive to issues of female modesty. Combine that with the warnings Jesus gave about the whole lust thing  (see Matthew 5:27-30) and it means as much as I’d like to unfortunately I can’t quite bring myself to recommend the Female version of Posebook. Which is too bad – otherwise it’s a terrific app. If only there was a way to delete some of those images, I’d be happy to give it the same big “thumbs up” that I give to the Male Posebook (iTunes link).

Both apps are wonderfully designed, full of many expressive poses that are well lit and full of character. In short, sketching from Posebook is just plain fun.

Sketchbook Update: Bowling

Sketch of man bowling

It’s not very often I get to take a little extra time to add some polish and shading to a sketch, but the Christmas/New Year’s break allowed me to slow down and be a little more leisurely with my drawing. Here’s a study I worked up in Photoshop using my Cintiq. It’s based on this photo which I found using Google Image Search.

Sketchbook Update: Sheriff

I’ve been trying to beef up my character design portfolio to get ready for the CTN Animation Expo next month. The other night I was up late noodling around on my Cintiq and this sheriff popped out. I liked how it was going so I thought I’d throw in some color.

Incidentally, if you are planning to go to the Expo I’ll be giving a talk on Freelancing called “Be Your Own Boss: Freelancing Tips and Tricks“. My presentation will be Saturday, Nov. 19. at 4:30pm in the Exec Boardroom. More info here.

Sketchbook Update: Creating A Character

 

Lately I’ve been trying to brush up on my character design skills. I’m planning to attend the CTN Animation Expo in Burbank this November and I’d like to walk through the doors with a beefed-up portfolio under my arm.

To get ready I’ve recently taken a character design workshop from Nate Wragg at the new CGMW online school, I’ve attended a lecture by character designer Chris Ayers, and I’ve been reviewing past critiques of my work from industry professionals. Over and over I keep hearing that in the animation industry it’s not enough to create a well-designed character if all you do is sketch him standing around in stiff and boring poses. Everything about your drawings – the pose, the costumes, the props and situations – needs to say clear things about who the character is and, ideally, tell a mini-story. As my friend Tom Bancroft says in his excellent book on character design, every pose should have a clear reason behind it. Animation studios don’t want someone who can just design a person or animal, they want someone who can create a character.

Chris Ayers has a really great trick that he uses to help him practice his character design skills. At his drawing table he has a ziploc bag full of little slips of paper. Written on each piece is a character type, a prop, an animal, or an attitude/expression. After he cracks open his sketchbook he reaches in and pulls out a few slips of paper and then challenges himself to create a character using that combination. For example, combining “rhino”, “lederhosen”, and “ready to fight” would probably result in a burly German rhino looking like he’ll knock your block off if you dare to snicker at his silly green outfit. If you purchase My Daily Zoo, Chris’s excellent drawing/activity book for children, he even has a batch of tear-off tabs in the back to get you started on your own ziploc bag of character ideas.

I loved that idea so much that I brainstormed my own list and now keep a similar bag near my desk. The other day I reached in and pulled out slips of paper reading “shark”, “charming”, and “southern gentleman”. I put those together to create the above sketch.

If all goes as planned I’ll be posting more sketches like this as the CTN Animation Expo gets closer.