I’m On YouTube

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Hey YouTubers! I’ve decided to join the party and have created my own YouTube channel. So far it’s mostly clips from my webinars, such as the sample above (available for purchase in my store) but I’ve also put up a drawing demo, my own animation commentary on a Popeye cartoon, and a couple of other odds and ends.

I’m not really sure what exactly I’ll be doing with the channel or how often I’ll be posting. If you want to find out with me, head on over and click “Subcribe”.

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.

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.

My First Ever Drawing Demo Video

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I’ve just completed my first-ever YouTube drawing demo video. Back when I was raising funds on Kickstarter for the Pose Drawing Sparkbook, I promised my backers that if we reached a certain goal I’d do a demo video, with commentary, based on a drawing prompt from the book. The prompt I chose reads: “Vending machine took their money”.

There’s a bit of a learning curve, for instance I talk too fast at first. But it was a lot of fun. Hopefully there’s something here that people will find helpful. This was sort of “test run” to work out a few kinks as I prepare my upcoming webinar, “Bringing Your Drawings To Life” (which is available for pre-order in my store).

Here’s how the finished sketch turned out:

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Save 15% on the Pose Drawing Sparkbook!

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Got a New Year’s resolution to make better drawings? Save 15% on the Pose Drawing Sparkbook now through Jan. 10 with promo code “newyear2014”. Happy new year!