FROM THE SKETCHBOOKS: Titanic sketches

From one from my sketchbooks circa 1997/98. Almost 30 years since I did this portrait drawing of Leo from Titanic. I was blown away by the film at the time and just started sketching one day for fun/practice. Once it started to come together, I just stayed with it till I was done. This type of work got better, and shortly after, it would get me regular freelance work at The Franklin Mint, and in mid/late 1998, I was invited into the art department where I had a little cubicle. My own little open office amongst the creative folk. Good memories! 

I used to use a bunch of soft pencil leads (HB, 2B, 3B, 4B) at that time but I've changed my process a LOT since then. I use mostly HB and harder (lighter) pencil leads due to working in licensing art. Keeping it clean and easy to erase is key.

I still have this drawing, although I did cut it out of the sketchbook it was in. Sketchbooks can build up fast and take up space, so I scanned the drawings I liked and then cut and saved the physical pages I really wanted to keep. This made the cut. I still like it. It really pops off the page holding the original in my hands.

It also set my preference as to why I don't like to draw in bound sketchbooks anymore. You do something better than average and it sets the bar higher where I felt I was competing with this when I did every other sketch. Since 2000, all my sketches have all been done on separate pieces of paper and I just kept the ones I liked in a box. I can go through a LOT of paper trying to work something out, and since I work mostly on cheap copy paper, the waste basket next to my drawing table is usually always filled.

Below is another Titanic sketch I did that I cut out of a sketchbook. Drawn around the same time and all done in pencil. It's another one I hooked into and stayed with till I thought it was done.

 

Do artists really see it on the paper before they draw it?

I recently watched Bob Kane and Stan Lee on this 90's "Comic Greats" video series where Stan Lee had guests on to talk and draw. It's on YouTube. Before you rag on me about Bob Kane and the whole Bill Finger thing (and all the other Bob Kane stories), I want to move past that and pose a question based on something he said. I had to transcribe part of the video for this:

"All drawing is knowing where to put the lines," said Stan Lee. (I agree with, Stan!)

"The brain draws, not the hand. This is the mechanical part of it," said Kane. "I see the picture in my mind's eye as a cartoonist and the reason that I can draw and other people can't is that I can visualize it. My mind's eye is the projector, so before I do a head or a car or whatever, I see it on white paper. I really have that vision as all artists do."

I've heard this notion before and wonder if it's true. I've only had this happen THREE times in 30 years! You average it out to be once every 10 years where I'm so in the zone that I could see it on paper. 

In reality, every drawing is a fight on paper. Not always. Sometimes it's easier but I always seem to only have a loose idea of it in my head. This is why I sometimes hate to get nailed down to being a slave to my thumbnails as things can change. Am I afraid to commit to the line as a better idea will come along? Possibly, as I've had many "happy accidents" as Bob Ross would say.

Case in point, here is a page of Phineas and Ferb I drew quite a while ago. I read the art direction and for some reason saw this complicated scene so clearly that I drew it on paper directly with a blue ink ballpoint pen. No erasing. I still use those pens for writing and they don't have erasers. I did draw a pencil line border that was the correct size spec for the page but that was it. When done I scribbled a blue line border over it to finalize it. When I was done, it was all there. I was kind of amazed by it. So much so that I still have it here. There's also an energy to the piece that gets lost as it goes through the process of refinement and then the cold, sterile look of the final inks.

I know Jack Kirby could start in the top left corner of a blank double-page spread and just work his way diagonally across the page and to the bottom right corner and it would all just be there. Some people have the vision better than others. 

The journey continues...

One From The Past: Master Ham-Ham!

I was going through some old art and teaching supplies that have been sitting in my basement the other night. Along with my easels and giant clipboards, I found two pads of 18" x 24" newsprint (in varying stages of aging) that had been sitting in a giant portfolio carry bag. One was barely used at all and I decided to keep it as the paper still looked okay. The other pad, however, looked mighty weary from battle... and it still had some drawings in it!

Laying on top of the pad was the drawing of Master Ham-Ham! 

I barely remember doing it till I thought about it. It's been a long time since I taught a class. Master Ham-Ham has been sitting for quite a while, but he still looks happy!

If I liked any drawings I did during a class, I would gently tear them out of the pad and place them at the front of the art pad to save them (if I didn't give them to students who requested them, which is what happened most of the time). It had to be from 15 years ago when I taught a class at the Delaware College of Art & Design, which is sadly no longer open.

When I uncovered Master Ham-Ham after all this time, I immediately felt his presence! He's loaded with appeal! Strong lush ink lines that make him pop! I still like him!

I decided to post this as I got some great response from people I showed him to, and to explain where he came from.

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I always thought it was much easier to learn how to do animation character or prop turnarounds based on looking at an actual three-dimensional object or toy. You subconsciously pick up things like construction theory, shape, and form much easier. You can see why decisions were made at a design level because the final design is right in front of you. If you created something out of your head, the front or 3/4 front view would be fine but there would be problems trying to get it to match up when you did the other views. Turnarounds are not easy, and you only get good at doing turnarounds by doing them. 

I would bring a box of small toys into class (or one big toy) and let student draw them. Complex toys, simple toys, etc were all fair game. Which brings us to Master Ham-Ham...

I had a Dancing Kung-Fu Fighting Hamster toy made by Gemmy Toys in 2001. You squeezed his hand and it triggered the toy to start spinning his nunchucks and moving while it played the 70s song "Kung-Fu Fighting". It was a cute novelty toy.

 

Master Ham-Ham came from pushing students to move away from the realistic approach we had taken in the first drawings and to then do a more simplified redesign, all while retaining his character and look. Appeal is always key. 

After the students did their versions, I would then do my own version so they could watch me. I used gray magic markers to simulate pencils and then a black magic marker to finalize and ink the drawing. This approach still works as I would talk through my thoughts as I did it. My simplified design used the basic character construction that most of the Pokemon characters all had.

The "Warrior of the Round Wheel" tag line came from the fact that I used a round spinning cake stand (or wheel) in class. You place the stand on a stool and let the students sit around the stool in a circle and draw what was on the stand. I'd spin the stand every 15-20 minutes to give them a different view. We worked faster as I wanted them to pick up the main points of doing turns without getting bogged down in details.

For more complex turns, I'd give each student a toy or object and they could hold it in their hand and draw from it close up. It's still a great way to learn!

 

AGENT P: From Start to Finish!

 

I made a GIF of the three phases to my drawing process from start to finish. The process is the same if you are working traditionally or digitally as well. I'm using one of my warm up sketches I did of Agent P for some new Phineas and Ferb work I'm doing. 

The first step is drawing the character and getting it correct in terms of pose, attitude, or action. You keep it loose and rough, though my work is usually still clean looking. This step can take a few sheets of paper to get right... and it usually does. Drawing is a process! 

The next step is the clean up and inks. I grab another sheet of paper and ink on top of my rough (via my light table) and make any minor tweaks that I need to make as I ink. I do this to keep my inks CLEAN! If I make a mistake, I use Pro White with a brush to fix it. Usually I try to make it a game and see if I can do the final inks without needing any fixes. 

For the last step I scan the art in and prep the art for coloring. I drop in the flat colors first and then color the line holds next. Phineas and Ferb as a licensed property can take a lot of time as there are line holds for everything! Thankfully the characters don't have any shading! The end result though can look amazing!