WHEN DECIDING TO part with your hard-earned ca$h because of an online offer telling you what you are going to learn, it is important to know what are you going to achieve with that kind of gain - if anything at all.
Remember the old tune that had a verse, 'Now that we have found love, what are we gonna do with it' or something -- I`m paraphrasing here.
The method I am showing here is the same that I am regularly applying when I draw. And not only me, but most of the professional cartoonists - no matter if they were illustrators, animators, character concept artists, or comics artists. I call it 'structural construction' and it looks almost like 'sculpting in 2D', pardon the somehow nonsensical description.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvKR_g77iBQ
Copyright (c)MGM/UA, not part of my 'Cartoon Sketching' course
See, the whole point of the gradual approach to sketching and drawing is to observe the character[s] you are drawing as a sort of a cartoony stylization - no matter if it`s grotesque or with a tendency towards 'naturalism' that most people mix up with 'realism'. In cartooning there is virtually no realism at all, but the so-called 'constant shapes' and 'areas of certain changes', as defined by a Disney animation giant Milt Kahl way back in the heroic age of the medium. For instance, the trunk of a body consists of two constant shapes - rib cage and pelvis area[s] as constant shapes and the waist as the area of certain changes. The same with an arm - shoulder and elbow are areas of certain changes whilst upper arm & forearm are constant shapes - and so on, and so forth.
I`d be rich if I got a penny or a cent for every time I heard others telling me after seeing me drawing, 'Oh, you draw like you are sketching little robots' or 'Wow, you`ve swiped the method of a computer drawing'... Sorry, no - I haven`t. The very computer way of 'wire-framing shapes' is based on totally 'analogue' way of sketching structural shapes and constructing them into a coherent form that can move, do certain things and function as an organism -- or a mechanism in cases we are drawing wee robots or gigantic ones. Hmmm, come to think of it, human and animal figures are some kind of a biological mechanisms... We should keep that on our busy but scatter-brained minds, along with the fact that this particular drawing method almost instantly teaches us to envision our designs as 'faux 3D' and ready to be imagined from all sides and every angle..! That is hardly taught in art schools that relentlessly encourage almost exclusively the 'contouring method' only where students are made dependent on a live model and next to helpless when it comes to drawing from imagination, envisioning the drawn subjects from various points of view.
Copyright (c)LINGO Planet Media, drawn & coloured in SAI Painting Tool imitating paper artwork
Frankly, I do believe I am hitting the nail on the head with the down-to-Earth explanations and direct way of explaining stuff I am drawing before my students` eyes, either under a camera for my first 'Cartoon Sketching' course, or digitally with the screen video-capture program making a movie of my drawing process, applicable both to 'paperless' [digital] or analogue procedure with pencils, pens or brushes on paper that is in pre-production now. On the one hand it makes things simpler logistically but on the other hand there is - besides four fingers and a thumb - no time saving whatsoever, I`ve discovered; as the fact of the matter, it is going to be a longer process but luckily time is what I got in abundance at the moment so I am not holding my breath worrying.
Copyright (c)MGM/UA, not part of my 'Cartoon Sketching' course
So, we know where I stand concerning this matter - my abundant experiences from drawing tons of comics and illustrated picturebooks, watching drawing masters create before my eyes [that you can witness too nowadays thanks to the magic of YouTube, Instagram, Facebook etc.], seeing animators give life to still drawings, animating myself and so on and so forth -- gave me the knowledge that I share with the breathlessly awaiting world. But what is that very world going to do with learning, in this case from me..?
It depends on every individual and his/her interests. I had students back in the day when I taught live to interested group[s] who abandoned my course wrongly thinking that I am gearing the gang towards comics, which wasn`t the case. I`ve never ever imposed my comics drawing background on anyone! My only goal was to encourage students TO THINK since I can`t teach anybody to draw..! And I mean this seriously - nobody can, to tell the truth bluntly.
The choice rests upon each and every individual. She or he has the widest array of possibilities at his/her disposal, whether it`s abundance of video-game studios or online animation possibilities, comics publishers or online chances for that creative activity... or constant search for illustrators, concept artists or storyboard sketchers all over the place..!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9JC8kd169I
Copyright (c)LINGO Planet Media
The most important thing is, what do you want to do..? Where do you see your talent and the basic knowledge applied and offered? As for me, I offer constant contact with my [ex] students, being here for them to counsel and guide them towards their desired career choices because the times are so exciting and opportunities a-many... Therefore get aboard, 'Cartoon Sketching' is but a first step; other courses are in pre-production, already written and at the storyboarding stage. I dearly hope to inspire you and offer choices where to knock and on which door.
But first and foremost, please look deeply inside you and know where your artistic heart is. After that, only sky is the limit. See you soon, Stargazers!
Salut.
