Chloe does HB

Chloe is one of the most naturally talented of the young artists who frequent my blog to do exercises.She's been doing studies of WB characters and has now decided to try her hand at HB.
I sometimes think it's harder to learn the HB style than the WB style - because it is based on the WB style (so you have to know all that) yet takes some clever liberties in construction and perspective - not on every apsect of every pose, but just in limited areas to help the design. It's hard to know what's on purpose and what might be just a rushed animation drawing.
Maybe Chloe can upload the frame grabs she based these studies on and I can give a critique on some of them.
I recognize most of these poses - that Barney on the left above is from a Carlo Vinci scene.
One important aspect of the HB style is balance of negative VS positive spaces.

I'll give an in depth critique later if Chloe gives me some originals these are based on.

Details

final details should aim to make each form a clear distinct shape. And each shape fits within the overall construction.

Lips and Mouth Accessories

Tips For Chloe and Anyone Else Who Cares

Chloe's copies of my roughs are good copies. She has a superhuman eye. Maybe even 2 of them. However, they could and should be more solid than my quick roughs, rather than softer. Here are some tips on how to do that:1) Start with Line Of Action
2) Construct Cranium and Jaw (lower face) - Cranium is hard and convex, lower face is fleshier
3) Eye and Cheek Area are related. Draw squashed eyeball for squinty expression-wrap that ball along and behind the upper cheek. Relate upper cheek with mouth/smile line - always.
4) Eye details: no parallel lines...BUT everything is related - eyelids and eyelash make a walnut shape, eyebrow radiates around eye, eyebrow wrinkle creates a worm of flesh above the eyebrow.
All these elements in turn wrap around the head's position in space.
5) Open Mouth - the open mouth shape is a big % of an expression. It is a dominant shape. Teeth, tongue and lips are secondary parts of the mouth. Do not let them compete or contradict the shape of the mouth. (Chloe didn't)
This man exhibits everything I talk about in this post.
So does this boy.
Well...


More to come: the miracle of lips...

Chloe's latest

It's an extra challenge to draw Looney Tunes on paper that's already been peed on, but Chloe's up to it.
She's getting closer with each practice.
I'm gonna critique these very slightly in another post, but I like the direction.
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/02/hierarchy-3-eye-area-eyebrows-irises.html

More Chloe - Cartoon Morphing

Chloe

Chloe is a supernatural artistic talent who should be rich by now. Her natural style is a kind of elaborate caricatured classical realism.
Or should I say surrealism? Anyhow, she has an amazing observational ability. she sees forms within forms to such an extreme level, that I can't imagine how complex the world must look to her eyes. She is also is very articulate and has written some of the most thought-provoking comments on this blog, although lately she has deprived us of her wisdom.

She decided a while ago to try her hand at something much simpler than what she normally draws - cartoons. She came up with these sketches of my characters and some others. I think it's very hard for her to boil things down to such simplistic rules and concepts. Her natural instinct is to make every drawing have hundreds of different planes.
Some of these interpretations of George Liquor are downright scary1




Here's Jimmy....



Here's her interpretation of Marc Deckter's style



So, I talked to her a bit and tried to convince to lower her I.Q. to the point where she could use just a handful of simple rules to draw cartoons.

There is a missing step here. She sent me a bunch of Bugs Bunnies from model sheets awhile back that were sort of halfway between the above and below drawings. She liked to use a thousand lines where just one would usually suffice.
Here she finally got it down to the simplicity that you need to draw good cartoons.
She still has a slight tendency to make things kind of wavy, as if the characters are made of flowing liquid, so I just suggested she try to make them a bit more solid.
If anyone ever figures out how to harness her talent, watch out.
I bet she feels guilty drawing this simply.

http://chloepaintings.blogspot.com/



Chloe should meet Adrian, a kindred spirit.