Rage Dog Drawing

Well, I don't remember drawing this one but I do know that it was done with a Polychromos Blue pencil.

This is a drawing that I did while I was good and angry about something and vented my rage in a drawing. I happened to like it and it went into a drawer for a couple of years.

Looking at this drawing today, I would probably approach this pose a little bit differently...like changing the angle of the head and possibly having the arms clench in a downward direction. But this is the way my emotion took it and for some reason it works for me. As an animation artist, I use emotion to fuel my quick sketches because I believe you get something absolutely pure on the paper. Sometimes I'm surprised by the result because you're not thinking about technique or second guessing yourself on the pose. You're focused strictly on getting that emotion down in a sketch and you're letting your talent shine through. 

The trouble with pitching shows...

Here's another character of a rat recording details from a crazy crime scene. It was from a project I was actively developing about six years ago that borrowed heavily from shows about detectives from the 50's and 60's. The pencil media is Polychromos Blue.
Now don't get me wrong, there's some great execs who take pitches all day long that get the ideas you're trying to sell...but unfortunately, there are a good number who have a hard time comprehending a good idea...or any idea.
It dawned on me after some rather unsuccessful pitches that a show like this could never fly today. It had a couple of strikes against it from the get go which I'll share with you here.
Strike One - It references a different time period. Because this show evokes old imagery from the 50's and 60's, Executives feel the show would never connect with todays' viewers.
Strike Two - The main character is an adult rat wearing clothes.
This would never fly with some executives because there would be too many confusing questions about the humanoid rat. I.E., Why is a rat wearing clothes? Rats can write? Is the rat really a human that looks like a rat? Why is the rat a detective? Can the rat talk? etc. etc. The questions would be too numerous to answer in a single sitting.
Besides, the rat is an adult and could never relate to children.
Strike Three - The rat character doesn't sing or have a band.  The kiss of death for a show like this. You see no band, no show.
Strike Four - The cartoon is a bit clever.  If the show has an ounce of wit or parody, the kiddies will never get it.
Strike Five - The cartoon has slapstick humor. You can't have characters hitting each other over the heads because kids watching will get the wrong idea and repeat it on their friends. Can you imagine the violence that could erupt nationwide?
Strike Six - The drawings are too slick and professional looking. If the drawing is drafted well, overseas animation studios will never be able to copy it. Better to stick to childlike drawings that are simpler to draw and kids can relate to better.
In other words, strive for the lower possible denominator. It's no wonder why kids don't watch cartoons anymore!

Son Of Discarded Portfolio Drawings Part Eighty Seven

Here's another discarded portfolio drawing that I had laying around. It didn't last long in the portfolio because of multiple reasons, the main one being that it was only there to serve the purpose of having more humans in it. My portfolio got a little too top heavy with cutesy animal characters and I was looking to balance it. This drawing got the boot a year after initially adding it. It's not that I thought there was anything wrong with it; just that I had things that I thought presented me a little better. I used to be very careful about letting people see work that I thought was below par or just not up there with my best. I don't worry about that anymore because even with drawings that you like very much, there's always going to be someone thinking that your work is not inventive, thoughtful, sincere, stimulating, subtle, organic, animated, etc (you get the idea).
Once you reach a certain degree of experience, even the drawings that are not so great by your standards, may exhibit a quality that you may gloss over all together. Sometimes those quick simple little sketches exhibit a whole lot about your abilities as an artist.
A quick story....Years after I went to school for animation and fine art, I took a life drawing class with a famous artist in NYC. In sketching out my first 20 minute pose, I was a little embarrassed by the drawing and wasn't in the mood to have my instructor critique the work. But as he walked behind me, he took a quick look at my drawing and exclaimed the following....
"Ahhh, a professional!" It was quite a good feeling to hear that, although it didn't make me feel any different about the sketch.. It did give me a certain confidence to know that even my half baked attempts at a good drawing are going to be tempered with an ounce of professionalism.

Discarded Portfolio Drawings: ...With the fishes...

Just so that you know, I'm doing my best to publish one post everyday (at worst one post every two days). I apologize for abandoning the blog for so long over the last couple of years, but I had a whole lot of personal issues that forced me to put it on the back burner. I'm committed to keeping the blog fresh, interesting and up to date, so please stay tooned. If there is anything you'd like to see more of, let me know.
Todays' post is of some fish, which I pulled from my portfolio about five years ago. However, for some reason I didn't discard them (and I throw out quite a few older sketches!) probably because I liked something about the design. Actually I still do! Years back I was a dedicated Bluth fan, I studied some of the animation of the fish from 'Xanadu' and 'Banjo The Woodpile Cat' and those influences made their way into these drawings.
Drawn with an Ebony pencil on regular bond paper, these sketches have no construction lines. These sketches were drawn clean, locking down the shapes and then adding the eyes, fins, mouths, etc.

Miceys....

I don't know why, but I've drawn a lot of mice over the years. Here's a few more. I hope you're not too squeamish! Actually, this is a page from my sketchbook and the page size was a little too large for the scanner, but I think I got most of the page in. Just for the record, these sketches were done with a cobalt blue Polychromos pencil.

Another sketch....

I did this sketch the other night and just happened to clean it up a little while ago. As you can see by the rough, I noodled a bit with re-working different areas of the drawing, but the pose pretty much remained the same. If this was a piece of animation with this guy walking, the left arm and leg would be opposing each other in the animation. However, when I drew this up the other night, it didn't bother me. Maybe it should, though I still like the pose. Any comments?
I kinda liked this sketch for a number of reasons. Mainly because it had a neat little attitude and has nice appeal.
Everybody talks about the appeal factor and how to achieve it. I think it has to do with making a good flowing drawing that communicates emotion in a strong way. Fred Moore's drawings always possessed this quality because of the cuteness of his poses. But appeal isn't just limited to cuteness as drawings of Cruella DeVil, Captain Hook and Roger From 101 Dalmations also possess this quality. Any drawing that makes you want to look at it more than a few moments is sure to have appeal.

OOPS! I did it again!

No, this isn't a post about Britney's Troubles.
The drawing you see here I posted a few hours ago. Well, I did the drawing, thought it looked pretty good and put it up on the blog. But looking at it again about a half hour ago I had second thoughts. Although I liked most of the drawing, there were a few things about the drawing that bothered me, mainly the characters stance. Rather than just pulling down the drawing and keeping it off line, I made a change in one leg and a few minor ones to the rest of the drawing and put it back up here.
Originally the right leg was bent in and didn't like the way the shoe was drawn.
It's light on the drawing but if you look hard you can still see the erased lite blue lines.
It's not a perfect drawing, but I like it better.
I'm very critical about my drawings, that's part of the reason why I haven't posted any drawings over the history of this blog...... A good case of stage fright.
I think you need an ego to create any drawing and it's important to have confidence in your abilities... but it's also important not to be happy with everything you do; meaning that you need to look at your drawings with a fresh eye. That's why most teachers tell you to walk away from your drawing and then come back to it and you'll begin to see the flaws.