Inktober Day 22: “I May Be Old…”

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102214-I May Be Old-color

It’s been a busy month so my participation in Inktober has been pretty spotty. Today I found time to do another sketch from my free list of Inktober ideas based on the Pose Drawing Sparkbook. I chose a line of dialogue: “I may be old but I could still whip both of you!”

I usually work digitally but every once in a while I use good old pen-and-paper to remind myself not to rely too much on the “undo” button. For me at least, it’s easy for it to become a crutch that dulls my thinking as I draw.

In hindsight I should have roughed in a few bricks behind him. The suggestion of a brick wall might have hinted that this was a back-alley situation, which would give a bit more character to the piece. Oh well. If I’d have worked digitally I could fix that. Hmmm…

EDIT: I Couldn’t help myself. Here’s a digitally-colored version:

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I’m On Gumroad! Name Your Price On “Sketchercise”

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'Sketchercise' Samples

Like a lot of other artists I’ve decided to jump on the Gumroad bandwagon. It’s a bit of an experiment for me. I already have my own website store and people seem to be happy with it, but I’m very impressed with Gumroad’s slick-and-simple website. Just create a Gumroad account and have easy, “forever” access to any files you purchase from various Gumroad sellers. Also, Gumroad only takes a small sliver of commission which makes them an attractive place to sell.

As an experiment I’ve put together a PDF sketchbook called “Sketchercise!” (45 pages with over 120 drawings) and I’m offering it as a “name-your-price” purchase. For the time being you can have it for whatever you think is a fair price, no questions asked and no strings attached. Other artists such as Will Terrell advocate this model for selling some of their content so I thought I’d try it and see what happens.

You can also get the Pose Drawing Sparkbook (both versions) and my drawing webinar on my Gumroad page, at full price.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

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ALS Ice Bucket Challenge-Cedric Hohnstadt 2014

My friend Troy Wetzel challenged me to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Instead of soaking myself in water I decided to make a fun little sketch and turn it into a drawing video.

I also think it’s important to give money to help those fighting ALS so I’m making a donation. I am pro-life which creates a bit of an ethical dilemma for me. Obviously it’s important that researchers work as hard as they can to find a cure, but some people are reporting that most of the major organizations that fight ALS also use embryonic stem cells in their research. In other words, an embryo is killed in order to do the research. We all started out as embryos so for me that’s kind of a problem. So, I’ve decided to make my donation to Team Gleason, an organization started by NFL player and ALS patient Steve Gleason to help make life better for those currently battling the disease.

Anyway, here’s my sketch video:

[youtube_sc url=U2MGmHjyebA width=450]

Last Chance To Order “Pose Drawing Sparkbook”

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Sparkbook-Banner-Photo-NearlyGone
The Pose Drawing Sparkbook is almost out of print! After a successful Kickstarter campaign hundreds of copies were printed and now I’m down to my final box of books. If you still want a copy you can place an order on my online store: https://cedricstudio.com/store

If you are wondering if more copies will be printed, I’m afraid that, for now at least, the answer is no. Although the Sparkbook has been very well-received, like any other book sales have gradually slowed to a trickle, and most of the orders I now get are for the digital ebook version (which will still be available in my website store). Also, the economics of book publishing are such that to do another print run I’d have to order hundreds of additional copies. At the current rate it would take at least a couple of years before I’d sell enough to earn back my printing costs, if ever. Since most people seem to prefer the ebook anyway, for now that will be the only option once these are gone.

So, if you want to own a physical copy of the Pose Drawing Sparkbook grab one while you can.

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.