No Substitute

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This is something I need to remind myself of regularly. I figured I’m probably not the only one so I created this meme to spread around. Feel free to share. You can download or link to the original HD image here.

 

Upcoming Webinar “Bringing Your Drawings To Life”

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.

Pose Drawing Sparkbook: Bookmarks, PDFs Added

If you’d like to order an ebook version of the Pose Drawing Sparkbook, I’ve now added a PDF option! You can also order bookmarks printed on the front and back with drawing tips from the book.

Pose Drawing Bookmarks

My upcoming book, the Pose Drawing Sparkbook, will officially launch at the CTN Animation Expo (November 15-17, 2013). If you’ve already ordered a copy, either through my Kickstarter campaign or on my Sparkbook store just stop by my table at the Expo and pick up your copy. Otherwise, as soon as I get back from the trip I’ll start mailing out pre-orders.

I’m having bookmarks printed containing drawing and acting tips from the book. These are sturdy 2 in. x 6 in. bookmarks, printed in full color on the front and back. Everyone who ordered a physical copy of the Sparkbook through my Kickstarter campaign will automatically get one when the orders are filled. The rest of you can pre-order them from my Sparkbook store.

Pose Drawing Sparkbook by Cedric HohnstadtPose Drawing Sparkbook by Cedric Hohnstadt

The Sparkbook is available both as a physical book and as an ebook. I had resisted making the ebook available as a PDF, limiting the choices to Kindle, Nook, and iBooks. After getting feedback from my backers and doing some more research, I’ve changed my mind and decided to make a PDF option after all. If you have already placed a pre-order and would like to change it to a PDF, just contact me and let me know.

Hundreds of people have pre-ordered the Pose Drawing Sparkbook, and I can’t wait to ship them out. See you at the Expo!