More John K on Character Design

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Recently I posted links to several blog articles on character design written by the talented, prolific, and opinionated John K. Here’s a few more good ones from his blog. Set aside some time to read these, his posts are always meaty:

Bill Tytla – Terrytoons – cute animation, is it such a bad thing to have appeal?

Appeal 1-starting with cuteness as the 1st element

Dan Gordon and what makes a cartoonist

Animation School. Lesson 9: Model sheets/Steve’s gift to young cartoonists who thirst for knowledge

Concept Sketches for “3-2-1 Penguins!”

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As I mentioned in Friday’s post, I’ve spent the last few months designing characters and props for the TV series 3-2-1 Penguins! which airs Saturday mornings on NBC. Last weekend the first episode I actually worked on (”Green-Eyed Monster”) was broadcast. My name was in the credits, which means that for two seconds on Saturday I was ignored by millions of people. Still, it was kinda cool.

(EDIT: I owe an apology to several of my friends and relatives who tried to watch the show but missed it. Turns out NBC’s Saturday morning schedule varies from city to city, even within the same time zone. Penguins airs at 10:30am in Minneapolis, 11:00am in Chicago, and Noon in Dallas. To make things worse the TV listings in Chicago, where I spent the weekend, listed the wrong time so I missed my own premiere. Back home my DVR was set to record it, so assuming the TV guide was correct I can still see it when I get home tonight. Anyway, thanks to everyone who tried to watch. It means a lot that you made the effort.)

Penguins was created by Big Idea, the company behind VeggieTales. Big Idea owns all of the concept art I created for the show, but they have graciously allowed me to post sketches on my blog after each episode airs.

The Green-Eyed Monster (pictured above) and the Sheep were based on some rough sketches provided by the director, the very talented Tod Carter. The rest I came up with largely on my own.

I’ll post more sketches from future episodes I’ve worked on after they air.

(All artwork is copyright © Big Idea. All rights reserved.)

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Shamelesss Plug

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3-2-1 Penguins!

I spent most of the summer and fall doing character design work for 3-2-1 Penguins!, a new animated series on NBC from the creators of VeggieTales. It’s a fun adventure comedy with lots of goofball humor.

The first episode I worked on, “The Green-Eyed Monster”, airs tomorrow morning on the peacock network (10:30am central time, check your local listings). The episode was directed by the very talented Tod Carter, and it was a privilege of working under him. For some characters Tod gave me a few rough sketches to build off of, the rest I did on my own. I also designed a few props.

I can’t post any artwork until after the episode airs, so look for a few sketches on Monday.

How I Insulted A Master Animator

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Yesterday during my studio tour I posted a photo of an original sketch of Jafar given to me by master Disney animator Andreas Deja. I have mixed feelings whenever I look at this sketch. On the one hand, I feel deeply honored and inspired to have met Mr. Deja and to have walked away with an original sketch by him. On the other hand, the event is one of the most embarrasing moments of my career.Read More

Schoolism.com: “Fat Joe” (Final)

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This is it. I’ve finished my nine-week character design course with Stephen Silver over at Schoolism.com. It’s been an amazing experience. Stephen is not only a brilliant character designer but also an inspiring teacher.

Our very first assignment was to design a character based on Fat Joe from the play The Long Voyage Home. We were given this description:Read More

Schoolism.com: Memory Sketching

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Yesterday I covered part 1 of my latest schoolism.com assignment (my instructor is Stephen Silver). Part 2 was to do a memory sketch. “Memory sketching” is an exercise designed to strengthen your observation muscles. It works like this:

Go to a place where there are a lot of people (i.e. a mall, airport, coffee shop, etc.). Choose someone in the crowd to draw. Before you pick up your pencil, spend a few moments studying everything about them (their clothing, their posture, their face, the way they do their hair, their height….everything). Don’t look at them for longer than one or two minutes. If they haven’t walked away by then, turn and face the other direction.

Now, close your eyes and continue to study them in your mind. Analyze as much as you can remember. What was that hairstyle again? How far apart were the eyes? What color were the shoes? What was with that funny walk? (Don’t peek. It will completely destroy the purpose of the exercise.)

Finally, when you’ve got your target burned into your brain and you’ve thought everything through, THEN pick up your pencil to draw. And again, no peeking.

This was my first attempt at memory sketching. This guy was helping to take down a small stage in the Mall of America east court. Once I started to draw, I suddenly realized how little I had actually noticed about him. I had to improvise a lot of the details. Memory sketching is HARD.

But that’s why it’s such a great exercise. It forces you to really work your observational muscles for faster and more accurate drawing. It will also help fill your memory bank with facial features, hairstyles, body types, etc. so that you have more to draw on when you have to design a character from scratch. Personally, I’ve noticed that I have a clearer memory of this guy than I do of most other people I’ve drawn.

To see sample memory sketches from other artists, check out these two blogs: SketchClub and Sketchcub East.

Two Reminders…

This weekend is FallCon, Minnesota’s largest comic book convention. Here’s a recent post about it, and here’s the official site. I’ll have a table to display some of my work and sell a few sketches. If you are in the Twin Cities area, stop by and say hi!

Also, don’t forget to watch the season premiere of 3-2-1 Penguins! tomorrow morning on NBC! (I’m a character designer on the show). It airs at 10:30am central time. Check your local listings.