Webinar: Kickstarter Tips and Tricks

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After the successful launch of the Pose Drawing Sparkbook on Kickstarter I was hired by the folks at HOW Design University to create a webinar sharing tips and ideas to help other artists who are thinking about Kickstarter. They included the webinar in their one-day event “Strategies for Creative Freelancers”. Now that the event is over, I’m offering the webinar in my store as a download. It’s 80-minutes packed with all the helpful information I could think of. Above is a clip on planning your Kickstarter. Get more info or buy the webinar here.

Now Available! “Bringing Your Drawings To Life”

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Pose Drawing Sparkbook Webinar by Cedric Hohnstadt

After months of work I’ve finally recorded and uploaded my new webinar, “Bringing Your Drawings To Life”. It was originally conceived as an optional reward for backers of my Kickstarter project (the Pose Drawing Sparkbook) but now it’s available for you to purchase and download as well.

The webinar is 90 minutes jam-packed with just about everything I know about making entertaining drawings. I’ve worked really hard to make it as helpful and informative as I can, including creating lots of sketches to illustrate the concepts.

It’s not a “how to draw” video, it’s about how to think as you draw. It expands on many of the ideas included in the Pose Drawing Sparkbook, such as:

  • Four ways to make your drawings more entertaining
  • How to think like an actor
  • Tips for making your drawings read clearly
  • Ideas for bringing out the personality in your characters
  • Understanding how your characters fit in the larger story
  • Recommended resources for further study

 

Here’s some sample clips:

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The video is 90-minutes, HD, and recorded in .m4v format. You can purchase it below or in the Sparkbook store:

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$20.00 USD.
Checkout

Upcoming Webinar “Bringing Your Drawings To Life”

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When I was raising funds on Kickstarter for the Pose Drawing Sparkbook, one of the rewards I offered my backers was a webinar called “Bringing Your Drawings To Life”. I’ve been working really hard to make this webinar and helpful and jam-packed with info as I can, including creating lots of sketches to illustrate the concepts. I want to cram this thing full with everything I know about making entertaining drawings.

After months of work I’m hoping to finally record and post it in the next few days. It will be available as a video download soon but you can pre-order it on my Store page.

For now here’s a small sampling of sketches from the webinar, along with the principle behind each:

Sketch by Cedric Hohnstadt

Contrast 
Add contrast to your sketches to make them more entertaining. Play around with size, personality, status, etc. Characters that are too similar will become boring fast.

Weight Lifting Sketch by Cedric Hohnstadt

Choose The Best Moment
Sometimes it helps to think of your character’s pose as a mini-scene with a beginning, middle, and end. Choose the moment in that sequence that has the most entertainment value. Sometimes instead of showing the actual action, it’s more interesting to show the moment just before or the moment just after.

Sketch illustrating how setting affects behavior

Setting Affects Behavior
Where your character is will affect how they behave. People act differently when eating at home than when eating at a fine restaurant. Where is your character? How might that suggest a more interesting pose?

Sketch of Crazy Aunt by Cedric Hohnstadt

Show Us Who Your Character Is
Use costume, props, and posing as shortcuts to tell us about your character’s personality.

That’s just a small taste of what’s in the webinar. Pre-order  and I’ll notify you as soon as it’s ready for download.

EDIT: The webinar is now available for purchase and download.

I’ve Been Interviewed on “Creative Independence”

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creativeindependence

The super-talented-illustrator-and-all-around-nice-guy Bob Ostrom and his co-host Chris Wilson have re-launched their Creative Independence podcast and have given me the honor of the first interview! I prattled on about my Kickstarter campaign for the Pose Drawing Sparkbook, including what I learned and what I’d do differently next time. Give it a listen. And if you like what I have to say, you can get more info in my upcoming webinar “Kickstarter Tips and Tricks”.

Webinar: Kickstarter Tips and Tricks

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Shut-up-and-take-my-money

I’ve put together a webinar about my Kickstarter experience called “Kickstarter Tips and Tricks”. I’m going to share what I learned, some mistakes I made, and what I hope will be lots of helpful advice for anyone thinking about doing a Kickstarter. Eventually I may sell the webinar on my website but for now it will be one of several webinars that are part of the “Strategies For Creative Freelancers” event on January 30, sponsored by HOW Design University. It’s a one-day event but if you sign up you can watch the webinar online 24/7 for an entire week,, download a copy to keep, and also get a  PDF of my notes. More info here.

EDIT: Use the promo code “CFWIN2014” and get the entire event for only $99.

My Audio Commentary On A Classic Popeye Cartoon

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Thought I’d try something different. Just for fun I’ve recorded my own audio commentary on a classic public-domain Popeye cartoon (“A Date To Skate”, 1938) focusing on pose drawing and animation. Let me know what you think.

I’m also starting to build my own YouTube channel with misc. odds and ends related to drawing (demo videos, etc.).  Not sure just exactly where I’m going with it yet, but you can subscribe to the channel and find out.