More Inking Practice

I busted out the ol' brush and ink last night to ink some of those Hank Ketcham studies I did and a couple of quick Owen Fitzgerald copies too. I then decided to try and ink someone else's work, which I've never done. So in order to fail right from the start I printed out a Jim Smith Chestacles drawing from his sketchbook and taped it to the back of a sheet of bristol and light boxed it. Why not screw up the best? Right? The original drawing was already tight to begin with so there wasn't much to do except try and keep the line thickness consistent with Jim's drawing. I still can't get a super clean line with a brush. I should probably splurge on a Kolinsky and see if that helps. I'm going to practice this some more and print out more of Jim's sketches along with other artists pencil drawings.

Awesome original Jim Smith drawing

Carl Barks Studies

Here's just a couple of studies from some Uncle Scrooge comics. Thanks again Thad.

Flexxo Pencil Test

I did this awhile back, there's a lot I should do over but I'm sure I won't.

Flexxo

Scribbles

Fun with Jim Smith's Chestacles characters.

Hank Ketcham Studies

I love Hank Ketcham's work. I have to pick up "Where's Dennis?", it's loaded with his magazine work. I'm give it go inking these tonight or tomorrow if I have the time.

I haven't been drawing all that much over the last couple of weeks and finally decided to sit down and try and shake the rust off. Nothing great here but I did try my hand at a couple of poses from old Esquire magazine pinups. I've never had much interest in drawing real people or objects but I think I'm starting to get the bug.

Tommy Peepers

This is just a quickie comic strip I drew. I figure I'll liven this place up once in a while with this little pervo. Nothing great, just for fun. I might try my hand at a couple of quick Flash shorts with him too. Though I'm not terribly adept at using Flash. (For those who don't know, click to enlarge).

Run Cycle-Re Revised

So after my last lame attempt at animating a run cycle David Gemmill was kind enough to offer me some tips. I sat down last night and tried to apply his advice. I think it's a definite improvement over the last two tries but the overlapping action is screwed up and kind of stiff. Feel free to tell me what else is wrong with it. I threw in some Daffy heads I drew while watching "Riff Raffy Daffy" for the thousandth time. I love that long-billed Daffy from Davis' shorts.

Oswald Walk Cycle

Taking a cue from John K's latest lesson, I decided to try and copy one of the coolest walk cycles I've ever seen. It's from the Oswald short "Hells Heels", just released on the Woody Woodpecker set. As you'll see I screwed it up when the cycle starts to repeat. The first and last drawings ended up too far apart so there's a noticeable jump when the walk cycle repeats, effectively killing any rhythm that was taking place. Maybe I shouldn't have tried something as difficult as this. One character is hard enough for me so two at one time is out of my league. I think I'll go and give those Bosko cycles a try. I added the click track to my version. The walk is on a 12 beat, meaning 12 frames per beat which in this case would be each step. Timing to a beat is something I've spent a lot time studying ever since reading about it in Bill Hanna and Shamus Culhane's books. Here's the original walk cycle followed by my crappy imitation.

Oswald-Hells Heels

Uploaded by klangley

Girls, Furniture and Junk

Just some more work trying to get the hang of drawing women and some random crap.

Another Pencil Test

Here's a cruddy little piece of animation. I'm going to keep adding to it, there's a reason he starts out in that awkward position. I just haven't drawn it yet. I've still got a couple more drawings to add to this bit also. I'm a little bit happy with the few frames of smear drawings. I've been freeze framing Bobo Cannon's animation in some of Chuck Jones' shorts, especially "Dover Boys" and it's starting to sink in. Yes, I know it looks like a poor man's excuse for Tex Avery's wolf. I think I study Louis Schmitt's model sheets too much. The drawing above is probably the best of the bunch. Too bad it only lasted two frames.

Girly Drawings

I'm still trying to get a handle on drawing cartoony women so I've been practicing from some of the artists on Shane Gline's Cartoon Retro. I'm studying from the drawings of Fantasio, Pepo and some more from Owen Fitzgerald. Some of the South American artists on his site are mindblowing. I spent time working on different parts of the body, now if only I can start to combine them all.

Fantasio Studies

Pepo Studies

Pepo/Bob Tupper Studies

Owen Fitzgerald Studies

Preston Blair/Model Sheets

Run Cycle-Revised

So I gave that dog another go at a run cycle except this time I tried it more along the lines of a Hanna Barbera limited animation cartoon. I've been watching the Huckleberry Hound DVD a lot this past week (my son's latest discovery) so I thought that might be fun. It was actually very helpful. I learned a lot from just this crappy cycle and I think it's going to help when I give it a go again using fuller animation. The first part is on twos and the second on ones. I can only assume H-B did it the same way. Just take a walk or run and pull out some frames. Real cheap time saving stuff.

Run Cycle-Work In Progress

Here's another crappy pencil test. This is a work in progress, I'm going to have him do more than run, I just haven't had the time to finish it today. I'll try and finish it up by the end of the week. I added music (again). I think it's a nice way to distract from the overall crappiness of it. In case anyone is curious the song is "Grab The Deed", written by Marvin Hatley and recorded by the Beau Hunks. They recorded five albums (I think) of music from the Hal Roach comedies. I very highly recommend anything that they've released. They're album "Contrasts" has a great cartoony album cover and the recorded a version of "Manhattan Serenade" using Scott Bradley's arrangement, among other great songs.

Beau Hunks-"Contrasts" (cool, ain't it?)

Dog - Run Cycle
Uploaded by klangley

Practice, Practice, Practice

Here's some more model sheet drawings from last night. I tried to just glance at the model sheets and the underlying construction and then go back and fill in the details. I was trying to build upon the various shapes rather than stare at the model sheets and try to copy them perfectly. Looking at Lulu I though she'd be easy to draw but I had a hard time with her. Much harder than the comic book version. At least for me it is. And yes, that's Gabby. He's annoying but surprisingly fun to draw.

Some Junk

Just some junk from the old sketchbook.

Some Poses from something I want to animate.

Owen Fitzgerald Studies (inks)

Here's the same sketches for my previous post inked with a brush. It's been a long time since I've inked anything using a brush and it shows. The line quality is really inconsistent and sometimes downright shitty. The chubby lady doesn't look too bad to me though. I have to say that I forgot how much I enjoy inking with a brush, despite the results. Definetly something I'm going to spend much more time working on.

Owen Fitzgerald Studies

I am really bad at drawing women so I drew these from some Owen Fitzgerald panels on Shane Glines' CartoonRetro. I'm going to ink them tonight and post the finished product. I haven't inked anything in quite a long time.