book sketching

day38- terry dodson x-men

2009-10-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

The original image is from the upcoming cover to uncanny Xmen 518 by Terry Dodson. Terry is a remarkable artist, as his figures are so damn solid. I don't think I pulled it off too well, but I am glad I gave it a shot.

When I first looked at this image, I was really scared. I thought to myself ' why put yourself through this? its just too complex.' Then I decided to try it.

First off the gesture image is a real mess. I approached this image the same way I approach all the images -which is to gesture all of it first, then build the shapes in the 2ND stage. The result was that stage 1 was a real jumble. The only advantage of it was that I knew it would all fit on the page. I wonder how Terry did it?

Probably the next time I come to doing an image like this, I will try and go back and forth. Gesture out 2 characters, then block in forms, then gesture the next character and so forth. I think this will help me with the relative proportions and also allow me to keep the page cleaner as I go through the process.

A reminder about the bounding box I use on each of these pages. I draw the box in, to give myself a false end of the page which forces me to fit the image on the paper. If you find you are drawing off the page try adding the bounding box and drawing within it. It really helps. If you find you still go off the page, draw the box even smaller and try and draw within that. That way, if you do go out of the box, hopefully you are still on the paper. ha ha.

When I got to sage 3 (the details), I realized that I was off in quite a few places in my compostion, in terms of placing the characters relative to one another. A clear example is the girl with the mohawk at the top. I drew her too high up compared to the original.

A note about construction.

The other day, a young lady stopped in the shop and showed me a drawing she did of a statue at the ROM or AGO in her sketchbook. She was very proud of it, and it really wasn't bad, but some of her proportions were off. I suggested trying construction but she was adamant that it wouldn't work for her. I didn't have time to discuss it further with her, as the group she came with was heading out, but what I would say to her is - you need to practice it to get it working for you. She admitted she had trouble working from her imagination, but even still - can you imagine working on a drawing like the one above by Dodson and not use construction. Figuring it all out would be much tougher.

By approaching it step by step, I was able to work through it in a relatively reasonable amount of time without completely wanting to kill myself. ha ha.

Finally a note about the materials. As you may have noticed, I am using a pencil for stage 1, blue pencil for stage two and a brush marker in stage 3. I am really enjoying this combination as it allowes me to work in layers (one on top of the other) and still be able to see all the steps. When I was using all pencil, or pencil for stage 1 and 2, I was losing the early stages when I got to the end.

punisher halloween- day 37

2009-10-18T19:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight worked from the new Marvel previews. the image is the cover to the upcoming Punisher 12.

Batman Hush : Book Sketching Day 36

2009-10-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

Batman Hush - Day 35

2009-10-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

Tonight I drew steps 1 and 2 together. As a result there's less process shown in the photos. Basically, I gestured out the poses and then immediately added volumes, panel by panel. This worked to speed things up and felt very comfortable.

Overall, I will need to think about solidifying the forms more tomorrow before going to stage 3 the detail stage. I think this will help me separate out the figures from each other. This seems especially relevant given the level of hatching/rendering that is happening on these pages.

book sketching day 34 -death to vampires

2009-10-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,

just wanted to say sorry -but the stage 1 image came out so light, there was no point posting it. I only realized after posting, and since I draw overtop the same paper - the first stage is now hidden undeneath the last two stages.

Day 33 book sketching in the kitchen

2009-10-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

I took a photo of 2 pages tonight. the 2nd page (the one on the right) I didn't draw, but I included it because I had mentioned yesturday Springer's technique of cutting of characters. This page really demonstrates that, and helps create the mood. Last night, I was planning to draw this page (and I still might) but in the end I went for the page on the left.

Book Sketching Day 32 - Volunteer Some More

2009-10-10T21:07:00.001-07:00

After 3 days on this book, I have to say I am super impressed by the way the artist (Benoit Springer) lays out a page. He sets up scenes in a location, and then proceeds to move the camera around that location, much the way a camera man might. Each angle hooks up to the next, in terms of object placements and character placements. I wouldn't be surprised if he maps out each location in advance.

The locations aren't super complicated, but he manages to maintain a consistent location regardless of the angle he uses.

Another observation worth noting is the way he likes to cut off characters. Look at the 2ND row -3rd panel. In the actual comic page -he cuts off a characters face with a word balloon. This is intentional. You can see there is room to move the word balloon over -but he purposely put it over top the characters face. I drew it in (since I don't put the balloons in.) Note - in French comics, the artist draws in the balloons on the actual art. It's not added in at a later stage the way its done on American comics.

You will see this occur again in tomorrows page. Although I haven't done it yet - I picked out the next page to draw and you will see he employs this technique again.

Besides consistency, I am also enjoying the amazing compositions Springer uses in each panel. The focus in each panel is always clear. His cutting off of characters works to support the focus of each 'shot'.

see you tomorrow.

Book Sketching - Day 31

2009-10-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

Day 30 - volunteer

2009-10-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

Missed quite a few days this week. My 3rd son was born this past week, and things have been busy to say the least.

Tonight I have started on a new book - Volunteer featuring the art of Benoit Springer. He's truly a great artist, and it was a great amount of fun to draw from.

the photos continue to be blurry -but I found out the reason is that my camera was dropped a few weeks ago. Hopefully, I can get it fixed or find a new one soon. thanks for baring with me.

Day 30 - delayed

2009-10-04T20:46:00.001-07:00

Hi Folks,

Fell behind today on the book sketching. Not a lot of sleep - as the new baby decided to arrive 2 weeks a head of schedule. Not premature, but definately early. Good news is, he's healthy and really cute. Mom is also doing great.

The plan is to catch up on all the drawings so that by end of this coming week - I should be back on schedule.

Cheers,
Dan.

Day 29 Rockwell around the clock

2009-10-02T21:37:00.000-07:00

Day 28 + 28.5 More Rockwell

2009-10-01T21:05:00.001-07:00

Another night without the camera - had to take the photos after I finished these, but FYI: the last 3 drawings shown took about 1 hour, and the first drawing (circus image) took about 30 minutes with all stages done. This goes to explain the post heading of 28 and 28.5. Tomorrow night I will likely spend 30 minutes to complete day 29 -before moving to post 30.

Working from Rockwell continues to be a challenge and definitely trying to capture the subtleties of his paintings isn't happening for me yet. ha ha. No doubt, it will be a long time before this happens, but the drawings are so cool to work from, it really doesn't matter too much. The process is really the fun part.

Tonight my wife asked me if doing this for almost a month now, I see any improvement. The answer is yes and no. Yes - in that I am more confident in my approach and no because the more I do, the more I realize I need to learn. As I move from artist to artist, and image to image - it becomes clear that some drawings come easier than others -so that the only real constant improvement is in the refining of the process I am using.

I started something new during stage 1( the gestured stage) tonight. I am trying not to lift the pencil off the page too much (if at all as i work through the gesture.) In the past I was putting in one line for the overall pose, and then adding demarcation lines for the shoulders and hips and finally roughing in lines for the arms and legs.

Now, I am still doing this, but it's all done with one continuous line, as I move through the figure Tomorrow I promise to get in some photos of all the stages and hopefully make this a lot clearer to anyone out there that might be curious about this.

In stage 2 I am also moving towards slightly more organic shapes for the chest and pelvis areas. Images will follow in tomorrows posting.

Day 27 Norman Rockwell

2009-09-29T22:13:00.001-07:00

After working from comics for the last few weeks, it was a nice change of pace to work from a true master - Norman Rockwell. I also loved working bigger. As with the drawings from Marvel Previews, I was able to focus on one image per page here - which made things much easier.

What I love most about his work is all the little details that he puts into an image. Every item is a story point, and nothing is extra. He also captures great expressions (body and facial) in his characters. The costumes with worn shoes and soiled clothes finish off the images to create a warm fuzzy fealing. Yeah - he drew propoganda, but he was good at it.

One of the things I started trying to do a bit more today (in the 2nd drawing) -was to block the heads in as cubes rather than simply spheres or egg shapes. Basically I am trying to add front, side and top planes to the head to help me place features. Still a long way to go, but it's a start.

In the drawing with the plumbers - I drew the character's heads as 2 dimensional shapes, rather than volumes. This seemed to work well in this case because the characters were drawn from the side/profile views. The 2nd drawing had a lot more angles, so using cubes felt better. Even still, I wasn't completely satisfied with the results.

Both images above were completed in about 1 hour total. There wasn't enough time to do the backgrounds, or really polish anything, but after looking at the results tonight I already have some things to think about for tomorrow.

I know that some of you folks out there looking at this blog do a lot of drawing each day, while others almost none. If not, it's worth asking yourself 'do I want to draw more?' -not 'why am I not drawing more?" because really its all about wanting to do it and not looking for excuses why you can't do it. It doesn't have to be book sketching, but if it is - I know you will have fun!

I recently heard an interview on CBC radio with a man who did a survey of some of the most successfull people in their professions across the USA and the number one factor of success was ...
persistance.

not talent.
not luck.
...
just plain old 'stick-to-it-ness'

those who were successful, worked at their professions for a long time, and reached the top, as many others dropped out.

If you want to be good at anything, you got to keep at it -but that means, you also got to get started. If you keep putting off what you really want to do - you will be succesful at not accomplishing it. See, the same rule that helps you reach success, can help you not reach it too -if you are persistant at avoiding that which you wish to accomplish.

remember - the more you don't do, the better you will be at not doing it. You will be a success at avoiding reaching your goals. It doesn't matter what your goal is - you get to decide.

Just decide what it is, and start taking steps, even baby steps are good. As long as you are moving towards your goals.

sorry for being so preachy. sheesh.

Day 26 - Still in Danger

2009-09-29T19:48:00.000-07:00

Have you had enough of the Danger-themed post titles? I have. ha ha.

Tomorrow will start with something else.

Day 25 : Danger in the snow

2009-09-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

Another day with stage 1 not shown. As I mentioned yesturday, I did stage one the other day when the camera went missing. At any rate, hopefully tonight is the last late night drawing session in a while. My hope is to go back to earlier hours in the day. Working when you're tired doesn't yield the happiest results.

Having said that - I am still jazzed about drawing from this book, so expect a few more pages to come.

Day 24

2009-09-26T21:35:00.000-07:00

I started this page yesturday - but didn't have the camera handy at the time, so step 1 (gesture) is covered up by stage 2 above the volumes stage. In order not to cover up the volumes stage without getting a picture, I left it to be finished today (stage 3) and repeated the process for another page which I will post tomorrow. When you see it tomorrow, it will also be missing stage 1 for the same reason.

Overall -still having a great time drawing from this book - hopefully next week I will be able to work on book sketching at normal (earlier) hours so I am not as tired. I think the tiredness is really affecting the final drawing stage.

If you're new to this blog - I urge you to check out the Introduction and method section -found in the links on the right side of this page. In it I describe what I am doing, how I am doing it and what is the purpose of it all.

Day 23 - Danger Danger

2009-09-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

Another day, another Danger Girl page.. and still so much fun. Today felt like a backward step again, as I try and adapt to J Scott Campbell's style. One thing I really want to work on going forward is the way he does lips - he uses a nice combination of straights and curves (lines) that I don't think I succeeded copying too well tonight.

On the flip side, I am discovering that I don't much fancy the way he draws ears -but really, who am I to judge. ha ha.

His drawing of hair on the other hand is fantastic -and when I eventually reach the rendering stage in a few months - I hope start figuring out exactly how he applies the blacks to make it look so great.

day 21 & 22: Danger Girl

2009-09-23T21:13:00.001-07:00

Today I am posting 2 days worth of drawing since last night I was just too dead to finish the first page. I did about half an hour last night -and so today I finished off that page and did the 2ND day of Danger Girl.

I also want to apologize for the fuzzy images. Something is up with my camera - and I haven't had time to work it out, but rest assured it's bothering me so I will eventually fix it.

I hate to say it -but out of all the comics I drew from so far, this one is hands down the most fun. I think the campy nature of it has a lot to do with it.

One of the many challenges I found working here was trying to deal with the stylized proportions. These girls have crazy hips and legs. The Anatomy may not be accurate, but it is fun to draw. I also love the way Campbell draws noses, eyes and eyebrows. He does fantastic hair too -and hopefully as I explore Danger Girl more - I can discover some tricks in these areas and pick up on the design specifics.

For these two pages, I stayed loose with the hair - not trying to match exactly, but tomorrow I will try and pay more attention. One thing that I did try and do was break up the hair into a few chunks, rather than focus on each strand of hair individually. I know I didn't succeed 100%, but I feel that I am on the right track with that.

Another thing I discovered while working on these pages is the use of the right tools. For stage 1 I used an 'H' pencil. For those that don't know - H - is a hard lead, so that you get a very light line. It allowed me to draw forcefully without worrying that my drawing would become to dark. In areas of stage 2 where there was overlap - It did get a bit messy, but I tried to focus on one form at a time to overcome this.

You can see what I am talking about in the 2ND page - 1st panel where the girls left arm comes out of the side of her shoulder. I used a cube for the chest/back and cylinders for the arms. the arm cylinder overlaps the cube which makes it kind of messy - but this is ultimately solved in stage 3 when i cleaned it up.

When I got to stage 3, I switched to an Ebony pencil (that's a brand name) that is much softer (perhaps the equivalent of a 2b or 6b pencil) which meant that I was able to get a much darker line that easily stood out above the H pencil drawing underneath.

A final problem I had tonight was with the shape of the girl's face in the 2ND page - especially the proportion of the jaw. This is something I hope to work out better in stage 2 tomorrow.

See ya tomorrow with more Danger Girl.

day 20 - fantastic four

2009-09-18T21:49:00.001-07:00

Tonight I did the 1 hour spread out over the whole day. Somewhere in there - I forgot to photograph stage two (volumes). It's been a busy day to say the least. Next few weeks will be equally crazy, so keeping up with this will be a serious challenge.

In the final stage I started drawing with the ebony pencil -but as you can see in the photo (last photo top left corner) -its quite tiny now and I was losing grip. ha ha. So I decided to go back to the brush -and am very glad I did.

Mike Wieringo's work continues to challenge me. I may try and sketch from it again next week -but it's too soon to know for sure.

With every new artist that I work from, I feel like I am starting from scratch again. Especially at stage 3 and it leads me to doubt if I am getting anywhere. Still, I know this is part of the learning process, and if it was easy, there would be almost no point doing it. For those who don't know my personal drawing style -its waaay more caroony. Far less super-hero-y. So Drawing from comics is really exciting, even though I have a lot to learn still.

Day 19 - Fantastic Four Mike Wieringo

2009-09-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

Mike Wieringo is hands down one of my favourite artists. I got to meet him at a few conventions and the man was a truly nice person. His work continues to blow me away, and in trying to copy from it - I realize I have a truly long way to go.

Drawing the Fantastic Four felt great. The drawings didn't turn out that great, but it was a lot of fun having panels with more than 1 character in them. Mike also likes to overlap a lot; something that didn't happen as much in the Spider-Man pages I did.

Earlier today I spoke with someone at the shop about this blog. He mentioned that he didn't feel the method I am using would work for a beginner. Furthermore, he said that it was was working for me since I already knew how to draw.

I don't really agree with this. I think this method can work for anyone at any level. The only difference is the speed at which a person goes will be determined by how much practice they put in. Remember, the purpose of this blog is to get a lot of drawing done in a relatively short amount of time, by copying.

If you are just starting out, you should spend all your time on stage 1 - gestures. Copy just gestures - don't move on to stage 2 until this becomes 2ND nature or at least much easier for you. In my case, I still have a lot to learn in stages 2 and 3 -which is why I am dedicating myself to doing this. I am not going to move on to stage 4 (rendering) until I feel comfortable with these earlier stages.

Once you feel comfortable with stage 1 - start doing stage 1 and 2, but with a focus on stage 2. Do this until you feel you got a grasp of it. Don't move to stage 3 until then. Again - copying to do any of these stages, will help you get a lot of drawings done faster, which in my opinion is the key to succeeding.

Remember back in school when you first learned to read/write - you wrote out each letter over and over on a page. Sometimes you traced the letters out on a pre-printed pad that had the letters as dotted lines. In both cases, repetition in doing the alphabet helped you absorb that information into your system. It's the same thing here. Just more fun -because at the end you have a picture of the Fantastic Four or some other character instead of the letter 'a'.

Anyhow, this is just my 2 cents. If you disagree or have any other tips you want to share, please feel free to comment.

day 18 : more Spider-Man

2009-09-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

This first part is a drawing from the cover. See the original in the previous post.

the next section is an interior page. I think I need to slow down when I get to drawing the final details on the faces in stage 3. Will keep that in mind as I move forward. Also got to work on Petey's hair more. ha ha. Design wise, what I really am loving is the thick eyebrows on all the characters.

Day 17 : Spider-Man

2009-09-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

Was hoping to find some copies of Mike Weiringo's Fantastic Four to draw from, but instead found an old copy of Spectacular Spider-Man 2 from 1968 and decided to give it a go. Today I chose a spidey page, but tomorrow I hope to do a page with more plain-clothes characters. John Romita Sr. is one of the best Spider-man artists ever, but his Peter Parker is (for me) the definative version.

Day 16 - volumes

2009-09-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

So here it is. The 2ND part of the exercise showing basic shapes being used over top the gesture drawings from the last day. This is the 2ND stage that I usually go through -but done here exclusively to demonstrate the concept.

This second stage is designed to help starting artists, or those re-learning to draw (like me) to clearly see/visualize volume in the drawings. Using basic shapes gives 3 dimensional form to the drawings over top which the design details can be done in stage 3.

One of the benefits of doing this stage is seeing how the forms of the body connect to each other. For example - in many of the drawings I was able to show how the arm connected to the side of the rib cage (box form). Practicing basic forms like cylinders also helps with perspective since its much easier to work out perspective issues with basic forms than more complex anatomy. One area that I kind of fluffed off was the feet. I either left the forms as basic 2d shapes or did 3d shapes that weren't satisfying. I will work on correcting this by focusing a bit more as I move forward on future drawings.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend recently about this stage with the conclusion that this stage is probably the least important of the 3 stages in the long run. Master artists should be able to visualize the volume in their drawing and apply it directly to the forms in a more organic way. An artist that has mastered drawing should be able to move from stage 1 to stage 3 directly, while incorporating this second stage invisibly.

As such, it's important to realize that using boxes and cylinders is not something you will have to do long term -but it is hugely important early on in an artist's learning since it provides a clear and simplified structure over top which the final drawing can be made.

Tomorrow, back to doing comic pages.

Day 15 (First Half) - Gestures/Lines of Action

2009-09-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

Day 15 - 1st half.

Trying something a bit different today - posting half of day 15s work. Too tired to do it all in one night.

the drawings tonight come from the very awesome new sketchbook Deadlines 3 by Sanford Greene. It's totally subjective -but this is one of my absolute favourite sketchbooks of this con season. There are a ton of great sketchbooks out there -but this one is really dynamic. Sanford really pushes his drawings and isn't afraid to exaggerate. Both his sketches and colour work are exciting and that's why I like it so much.

To be clear - although all the gesture drawings I did are drawn from this sketchbook, I didn't take pictures of all the pages I drew from. I just took a few random photos of the sketchbook for you to get a sense of the type of book it is.

I continued to draw on 11 by 17 inch paper, doing as many gesture drawings as I could in 30 minutes. The drawings are a bit more sophisticated than stick figures (but only slightly). Key differences include rough shapes for the chest, as well as added curves to to break up the arms and legs into 2 parts each ( the part above and below the elbow and the part above and below the knees). Notice that for the legs and arms - I used curves rather than sticks to both describe the direction of the limbs as well as describing a bit of the form without going into great detail. When I eventually hit stage 2, I will tighten this up to get 3 dimensional forms.

Tonights drawings were done in order to give a clear example of what you should aim for in the first stage of drawing. The Gesture drawing should demonstrate Action and Attitude as well as proportion (of body parts to one another.) If you are new to drawing, doing a lot of gesture drawings is a great starting point. The key to see if it's working is to compare the gesture drawings to the images you are working from and decide if you've captured the Action/Attitude of those drawings.

Tomorrow I will draw several pages of stage 2 (volumes) in order to hopefully show clearly what you should aim for in that stage.

I am continuing to form my ideas about drawing as I go through this process. So if you notice any inconsistencies in my method or ideology, please feel free to comment so we can work them out and clarify.

Day 14 - still drawing Marvel

2009-09-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone that is looking at this blog. Knowing you're out there has kept me drawing on schedule for 14 days. The work is often being done late at night, after a long day working -but at least its getting done.

The above 2 drawings were done in about 1 hour. maybe a little less or a little more. Lately I have stopped checking the clock -instead aiming for a certain amount of work and after doing this for two weeks, I feel I have good sense about how much I can get done in one hour.

a note about trying this at home:

Today I had a young man at the shop ask me a bunch of questions about doing this and expressed difficulty in following the process. The problem it turns out - was that he was having a lot of difficulty drawing basic shapes. Cubes and Cylindars. If you are new to drawing, I highly recommend spending a few days just drawing cubes in different angles as well as cylinders. You can use household objects like a tissue box and paper rolls to draw at different angles. Then when you start book sketching - try and stick to stage one (gesture/line of action) for a few days until you get the hang of it.

Two books I really like that show you how to do this: HOW TO DRAW THE MARVEL WAY by John Buscema and THE VILLPU DRAWING MANUAL by Glenn Villpu.

If I get a chance, I will try and post some images in the next few days to show this in more detail.

Day 13 More Spider-man and Deadpool

2009-09-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

Another day, drawing on the road - Didn't get photos of all the steps -but over all, still loving working from the marvel catalog, but really looking to going back to full pages next week.

Since starting Book Sketching a few weeks ago, I have spent the bulk of each hour on stage 3 (design/details) while moving super fast through the first 2 stages of construction. For tomorrow, I will try and spend more time on stage 1 (in terms of composition) and stage 2 in terms of proportions and volumes. This may mean I don't get as far in stage 3.

For anyone still on the fence about trying this out - get out some paper, a pen and start drawing. You just don't know the fun you are missing until you start doing it for yourself.

Day 12 - deadpool spider-man captain america hulk

2009-09-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

Todays drawings were done at the shop. Drawing in between of helping customers meant that keeping track of time went out the window, but my guess is about 20-25 minutes each including all parts. I actually drew the gesture (line of action) image last night before heading to bed, but the rest of the stuff was drawn on the counter at the shop. That's why there's no process photos for the 2nd stage in the first drawing or 1st/2nd stages in the 2nd drawings.

Still working from the Marvel Previews which is a ton of fun. Lot's more left in there to look at and draw from. Really looking forward to the rest of the week.

The 2nd image was completed with the brush pen. I included it in the photo so you can see what it is.

I was a bit dissatisfied drawing the hulk in the first image. his left arm (page right) feels like a mess. Will try and complete similar images, off the page in the future. Right now, it feels unconnected, and lacking correct anatomy (especially the shoulder). his legs could have been better drawn too, now that i am looking at it. ha ha.

One cause, might be due to the fact that the hand is cut off. At any rate, the process of drawing it was fun, even if the final result leaves stuff to be desired. In fact, If anyone is reading this - I would like to stress, it's all about the process.

While working on the first image, I was impressed to find 4 characters in the shot. At first glance when I looked at the catlog I only saw Captain America and Hulk, but as I went through it there was the wasp and some other cool female character that I missed. It goes to show, that its worth paying attention. ha ha.

day11 - marvel previews

2009-09-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

This week I will be working off the Marvel previews catalog. For those who don't know what it is -its the catalog that Marvel puts out for upcoming releases. This one is for November 2009 titles and as usual features tons of cover art. These cost 99 cents - and are worth every penny.

The best thing about working today was the size of the drawings. I kept to 11 x 17 paper - so that each image was huge compared to the small panels I was doing over the past week. As I mentioned in the last posting, working larger is way easier and felt far less constraining. Basically, I didn't feel crammed as I moved from stage to stage. There was enough room to put in details, and work out shapes.

First off I did Iron Man - in total, all 3 stages took about 10 minutes. Great pose, a lot of fun to copy. Screwed up the proportion on the hands/gloves. Tried to focus on the ellipses around the gloves, waist, neck line,etc.. for this drawing. Can't say I succeeded, but at least I was conscious of it. Also noticing that for stage 2 I am not exactly doing simple geometric shapes -but I think that's OK. As long as I am thinking about them as I work. Really what I am trying to do at this stage is put in shapes that describe the final image without going too detailed. I also try and think how the shapes connect in 3d space.

2ND image is from Skottie Young's upcoming Wizard of Oz Sequel. I did stage 2 -shapes/volumes, but for some reason didn't get loaded onto my computer. I will try and add it back in tomorrow. Overall, a ton of fun. Noticing that I need to take a bit more care to compose the shot. Each Character on their own is alright, but their relationship to one another on the page is off. The characters should have been closer together. Total time for the wizard image was about 20 minutes for all 3 stages. Simple characters - but definitely well designed by Skottie. More time would have been needed to give this image true justice.

For the last image, i started by drawing a box on the page and from there I blocked in the gesture. I drew the box, because I was afraid I would draw too large and go run off the page. Creating this 'fake boundary' allows room to go bigger without falling off the page. This is a trick we were taught at animation school in life drawing. If you find you're one of those folks that often runs out of room as you draw - put in a bounding box to start and try and work within it. As with the 2ND image (wizard of oz) the relationship of the two characters is slightly off here too. Ms.Marvel is a tad high. Still -not going for perfection, so will work on getting better at this next time. I tried my best to make connect the dots and make it work but it certainly has lost some of the energy the original has by splitting the two characters the way I did. Again, something to keep in mind for the future.

For stage 3 I decided to go with the brush pen. I went to the art store and picked up some new pens yesterday. Its a Steadler two ended pen. one side has a hard marker and the other side has a brush tip marker. You can see I screwed up Spider man's knee. Will try and pay more attention to this next time around.

Overall - more fun then ever. The variety was awesome and I know this week will go by way to quick. The Catalog is full of tons more amazing images that I can't wait to tackle.

BOOK SKETCHING DAY 10 - Sky Doll

2009-09-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

Final Sky Doll for the week. Tomorrow something else.

Last night I showed some of the pages here on the blog to a young artist at the shop and he was surprised how big they were. I am using 11 inch by 17 inch photocopy paper. It's 2 times as big as regular notebook paper. Drawing Big is much much easier and I highly recommend it.

The first 2 stages for this page were fairy fast, as most of the shots were close ups. As you can see after 2 weeks of this, the drawings continue to be very loose. I am not going for polish or finished looks. I am just interested in the process of building the drawings from the ground up.

Being such a 'simple' page, with a lot of close ups - I ended up drawing some of the details in stage 2. Well - I didn't draw them completely, but in quite a few spots I roughed in eyes, mouths, etc..

Looking over the page now that its done - I wish I had made a bit more effort to solidify some of the forms in the final stage. For example -in the first panel - Sky Doll's colar is loosely drawn in. I wish I spent more time getting the elipse perfect and making it feel like it was going around her neck.

On the 3rd row, first panel - i should have done a better job with the panel right shoulder. It looks like some mass/volume was lost there. His fingers while drawn, could also have been better defined.

Clearly -lots more to learn..

Day 9 - Sky Doll Continued

2009-09-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

Found another brush pen, but its not much better. Will have to go shopping soon.

One of the things I found frustrating tonight and for several nights is the size of the drawings I am doing. I am working off of Sky doll -a French BD, but the size I am drawing at is more akin to north American original comic art size. In France, the original art is on larger paper. I am not blaming the paper for my difficulties, only stating that I probably should use bigger paper if I continue with French books. It's tough fitting all the characters into the panels while getting some of the details right.

Once again, as I was drawing stage 1 the gesture stage - I had the urge to put in Shapes for the fat character rather than a basic gesture skeleton. For Some reason it felt natural and this may be come more routine for me going forward. My sense is that some art is shape based, and some is gesture based, and I think the distinction can be made based on the design of the character.

In both cases, its important to consider the action so that the pose is not too stiff. When it comes to shape based characters however (ex. fat characters, or very stylized characters such as spongebob squarepants etc - I think that its important to play with the forms (stretch/bend) in order to get a more dynamic image. On the other hand, skinnier or regular type characters are more easily manipulated with curves and opposing angles at the hips and shoulders. A good compromise, might be to use a single gesture line followed by dynamic forms for shape based characters rather than a skeletal type gesture. If this makes no sense, it's because it's super late. ha ha.

A note about the photos above. I am trying to post one image for each stage. In the earlier blog entries - I took close ups of the pages for each stage. Not sure if this is needed, so I stopped doing it. If anyone out there, feels they are missing something and would like me to go back to close up images, let me know. If you click on the images, they seem to be pretty large files - which is why I reduced the number of images posted here.

Tomorrow will be the last day for Sky Doll for a while. Next week, something new.

Book Sketching Day 8 - Sky Doll 3

2009-09-02T21:43:00.000-07:00

For anyone wondering what that cardboard is behind the drawing -its just some old illustration board, i am using to prop up the drawing paper as I draw at my desk. I started using it this week, after my drawing table became unusable due to the huge volume of con books piled on it.

Today went alright, but still a long way to go. The first two steps were about 10 minutes each and the last step about 40 minutes.

Sky Doll is a really well drawn book - copying from it in 1 hour, doesn't do it justice, but ultimately that's OK. I am doing this in the name of practice. Put another way, if you wanted to learn to play golf or tennis, you would be best to try and play against someone who is much better than you. That way you get challenged and can improve. Picking a weak player, wouldn't really help you. I feel the same way about the books I am copying from. I am choosing hard material because I want to improve. No point copying from work that is too easy.

One observation I want to make about Sky Doll is the way Barbucci and Canepa draw the eyes. In the front view, the eyes for the girl (sky doll) are huge, but in the side view they often like to draw the pupils right against the edge of the eye - like small slivers. This softens the look and and makes it a bit harder to read. Personally, it's something that I am having trouble with and will try to pay more attention to in the next couple of days as I finish drawing from this book. In animation school we were often told to draw characters 3/4 view -but on this page, Sky Doll appears quite a few times as a side view, which leads to the eyes being done in this way.

Another thing I need to pay more attention to is the way the eyes curve. In other words, how the curve of the eyes are drawn (top/bottom). In the 2nd stage I have been roughing the eyes in without much attention to this detail and I think it has hurt me in the final stage. Hopefully tomorrow I can focus on this and improve in this area.

In the details/design stage, I tried using my old brush marker - but it didn't last long, so I switched to pencil. If I get time, I hope to find the rest of my brush markers - or at least one that works. ha ha. I like using it, not as an inking tool, but instead of using a pencil because I like the quality of the line a bit more and find it easier to use.

Day 7 - Skydoll

2009-09-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

2nd day working from Sky Doll. Finding the overall process much more comfortable, but the new blue pencil could have been sharper. ha ha. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Book Sketching Day 6 : Sky Doll

2009-08-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

First off apologies - but a few of the photos I took turned out blurry - the first few (gesture images) were so blurry I didn't even bother to include them.

So - after a week off, it felt great to be back Book Sketching. This time, the subject was Sky Doll. It's going to take some time to get used to the style, but I really enjoyed it. I especially liked drawing the fat lady. ha ha.

I spent about 20 minutes blocking out the page with gestures and basic forms before hitting the details.

As I look back at what I did, I noticed quite a few mistakes that really bothered me. For example, in the first panel - the guy in the middle - his jaw (left side/right side) is not balanced. The same type of problem is repeated in several other areas of the page.

I think it's happening because - as I go to add the details, I am working over the underlying forms - rather than continuing the process of building the forms/volumes. It's as if I was sloppily highlighting text from a book, rather than writing the words out myself.

Another example of this is panel 3 - Sky Doll's arm - the under part. The line I put down was not really trying to build the form. It was more of a rough start, but then I moved on. Next time around, I will try to keep this in mind, and work to solidify the forms a bit more in the final stage.

On the other hand, I managed to fix other mistakes in the final stage - like the close up in panel 5. It's not perfect, but if you compare the final image to the blue pencil version, you can see the changes. For panel 4 (dancer) I went beyond the panel in order to try and figure out the forms of her legs better.

Overall the 1 hour limit - doesn't seem to be enough, but it's only been 6 days, so I am hoping to get faster in order to do a more complete job and hopefully with some more accuracy. On the other hand, it's exciting to race to the finish each time. It Feels like I am on a game show, as the clock counts down.

If you are still on the sidelines, give it a shot and see how much fun it can be for yourself.

During the first week, I jumped a lot from book to book, but what this meant was that I never really got comfortable with any one style. By style, I am referring both to the details as well as the forms the artist used. So far, all the books I used were cartoony, but the shapes of the characters were quite different from one another. Everything from head shapes, eye shapes, mouth shapes, etc..

If things go as planned, I would like to continue with Sky Doll for the rest of the week to see how much improvement I can achieve when I stick to one subject/style over 5 nights.

Are you Ready for Monday?

2009-08-29T22:31:00.001-07:00

I know most folks don't look forward to Mondays - but this week, I can't wait. One more day to go at Fan Expo, and I can get back to book sketching.

For those who are new to the blog: This blog is one man's journey (mine) to try and reclaim my drawing ability by copying from books. The goal is to draw for 6 months using construction in order to re-teach myself how to draw. I will do this 5 days a week, 1 hour each day, while looking for incremental improvements.

By making the process public, I am keeping pressure on myself to keep up with it all, while hopefully inspiring others out there to pick up a pencil and get drawing.

I hope to emerge on the other side with a much improved drawing ability.

You can try this too - it's a lot of fun and best of all -IT'S FREE.

After 6 months, hopefully I will be comfortable enough with construction, to move on to rendering. I already have some great books lined up. After that, I plan to invent the cure for cancer and find out who killed Michael Jackson.

Cheers,
Dan.

NEXT POST ON AUGUST 31ST

2009-08-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

just a reminder - I will be back with regular daily (monday-friday) posts starting on Monday August 31st.

until then -go do some of your own drawing. ha ha.

Day 5 - more vampires

2009-08-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

Found my old blue pencils (col-erase) and so decided to give them a try. I think I went a bit over 1 hour today. Didn't do a great job timing it, but it seemed a bit longer. Time passes by when you're having fun.

So this is the end of the first week. I will be off this blog for 1 week. back with new stuff August 31st. The next week will be crazy as we price, pack and prepare for the local comic/anime/horror convention.

My experience so far has been real positive. I really enjoyed myself. I know the art isn't so hot -but part of the philosophy behind this blog is to work out the 10,000 bad drawings within all of us, so I can get to the good drawings. Ha Ha.

Day 4 - Another Comic Page

2009-08-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was all gung-ho to continue doing sketches of cartoony characters and examine the relationship between shape drawing and gesture drawing, but as I was looking for reference tonight I came across this great French graphic novel called Daffodil about vampires. So I went back to doing a comic page.

Tonight I only took photos after finishing stage 3 (all the details) - but I think I will go back to photographing each step as I complete it for the blog starting tomorrow. Even though I am drawing for myself, taking the photo helps me define the end of each step with a clean break. The nice thing about having the distinct stages, is that it allowes me the chance to try and correct 'errors' each time.

At each point I look for different elements of the drawing and this helps me notice different problems in my drawing. For example, sometimes when I finish stage 1 gesture - and then try and apply volumes (cubes,cylendars) to the figures - I find some of the porportions no longer work as well. Limbs and body parts may be too long or too short,etc.. I try and correct these problems at this second stage. The final stage - allowes me to push the forms further beyond the basic forms and into the final design. For example if you look at the first panel on the last row - the close up of the dracula character, you can see his head is not a perfect sphere. Nor is it an exact egg shape. It tapers at the bottom and really bulges out in the middle, then rounds out at the top.

I stayed with pencil to complete all 3 stages, but at the end I had about 9 minutes left, so I started going over some of the panels with ball point pen. I was using a very dull pencil and didn't feel like looking for the sharpener. Tomorrow I will be sure to keep the sharpener handy -so I can finish the drawing (all 3 stages) a bit more cleanly. To make this work, I draw stage 1 (gesture) very lightly. Stage 2 - volumes a bit darker, but still quite lightly and then for the final design (detail) stage I press down for a darker line. Hopefully tomorrow this will be clearer

All in all - I found working from this book a load of fun, and I spotted several other pages that I would love to do -so expect to see at least 3 or so more pages from Daffodil coming up.

DAY 3 - the illusion of life

2009-08-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

A little something different today. I was planning to continue working from Alim Le Tanneur -but it got late, and so I found a different spot to draw at. The result was that I couldn't balance the 11 by 17 inch photocopy paper I have been using very well to do the comic pages. So I opted to draw sketches from an art book.

Overall, the drawings came up horrible, which is great -because it teaches me that I have a lot to learn and re-teach myself. The upside was, that I had a lot of fun drawing them. In fact, every day so far has been a lot of fun. I heard from one person following the blog today that said he couldn't believe how much fun doing this is. I encourage anyone reading this to try it.

**********
For those not familiar with the Illusion of Life -it's probably one of the most inspirational books out there for an animator or a would be animator. Not only is it full of awesome drawings, layouts etc.. but the stories are extremely interesting and educational.

What was really different about working from this book versus the last one -is the type of characters. In the last book -all the characters were human and so working with a 3 step approach that has gesture first, then volume and finally detail -didn't work quite the same way here. Even though its possible to force a strict skeletal type gesture on some of the cartoony characters in this book - it seemed a lot more natural to blend the gesture drawing with shape drawing. How does shape drawing relate to volume? That's a question I hope to answer as I work through it here on the blog.

To give you an idea of where I am heading with this, check out the last image above. In it you will find an unifinished gesture of a dog and a goose. I left it in this state, to help show what I am talking about. I am going to try exploring this a bit more tomorrow and see what what happens.

DAY 2

2009-08-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

Book Sketching Day 2.

Still working from Alim Le Tanneur volume 1.

Picked a page that was not as busy. At least -that had less characters on it. Still ran out of time. Stage 1 blocking in panels and gestures took about 10 minutes. I made a bigger effort to keep this stage simple. Yesturday I blocked in some basic shapes along witht the gesture. Basically, I added volumes for things like the torso etc. Today, I tried to avoid this and only work with a skeleton type gesture that showed the hips, spine, shoulders, head, arms and legs.

Stage 2 adding form (volume) took another 10-12 minutes, and then the last stage took almost 40 minutes, but I still ran out of time. Realizing I was running out of time when I got to the 3rd row of panels, I made the decision to focus on the characters and leave the background alone. As I got to the last panel of the page, I started to go back and do a bit more of backgrounds.

As far as backgrounds go, I am eyeballing the perspective. I know its not perfect, but right now it's good enough. I plan to spend more time with backgrounds in a few months when I am more 'warmed up'. ha ha.

Today I really tried to be conscious of what my purpose was in each stage. Especially during Stage 2 -where I tried to think of complete forms and draw through even where there was overlap. When a person copies, there's a tendency to want to only copy the what's shown rather than really drawing forms.

It's a bit messy doing this, so a couple of times, I erased a bit -to help me keep things clear after I drew forms on top of each other. a good example where you might see this is in the 2ND panel of row 2 , where the man is hugging the little girl. I drew the man's torso as a full shape (rounded box) then put the cylinder arm shapes over top. It was getting messy, so i erased the inside of the arm shapes so they could pop out and help me see the relationship of the shapes better.

Stage 3 was probably the least thought out as I was rushing to try and finish. For this last stage I basically went in with a pen to try and define the details. Because most of these were left out in the earlier stages I just had one shot to make these work. Sadly, I don't think I did a great job. Tomorrow I will probably try and block in some of these details (especially Eyes, fingers or other key details) before I go to use the pen. Hopefully, that will allow me to have 2 chances to work out the relationships of the details to the bigger shapes.

1st Day Images.

2009-08-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

I was expecting to be rusty, but I really felt it when I went to do todays Book Sketching. Being the first day, I decided to take some pictures showing the progress.

The book I sketched from is Alim Le Tanneur #1. It's a french graphic novel. The page I chose was quite ambitious, possibly too ambitious for the first day. As you can see, I didn't get to finish stage 3 which is the detail stage.

What I learned today -was that I need to work on stage 2 a bit more. looking at stage 1 gesture, versus stage two (volumes/construction) - I need to spend longer on this stage. I spent roughly 10-12 minutes on stage 1. roughly 15-20 minutes on stage 2 and the rest of the time on stage 3.

Tommorow I hope to make stage 2 a bit more of the focus, while still trying to get farther with stage 3. We'll see what happens. At any rate -the entire book sketching process is built around the idea that you get good the more you draw. Hopefully, after a month -there will be improvement. after 2 months, more so and so on.

1st Drawing will begin August 17th

2009-08-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

In case anyone has found this blog by accident, I wanted to let you know that I will start posting artwork starting August 17th. Then hopefully every day after that. This blog will be made public around that time.

CONSTRUCTION IN 3 PARTS

2009-08-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

Before starting, it would be worth while to explain the method that I hope to follow during my time spent book sketching.

Since the goal is to become a better drawer, I will follow a 3 step process that I hope will get me the desired results. The process is:

1. Gesture.
Also defined as Acting or Action. This begins with a single line that represents the action or the emotion. The single line is then transformed into a stick figure or skeleton that allowes me to judge proportion, and pose. This first area is quick and easily adjusted . For example, if I draw a figure (stick figure) bending forward, it is quite easy to make the figure bend further, or bend less. doing these changes with a finished/detailed figure would be a lot more work. Proportions, such as the length of limbs, size of the head, etc.. are easily adjusted at this stage. For inanimate objects, locations etc.. this is where I consider composition.

2. Structure.
Once the basic gesture drawing is done, the next step is adding volume or structure. Using basic forms such as cubes and cylinders to define the character in 3 dimensional space. The advantage of this step is that its easier to work with basic shapes when dealing with perspective issues. For in-animate objects like buildings or machinery, this is the stage where I consider perspective.

3. Design
This is the final stage or the detail stage where I hope to add things such as hair, facial features, clothing details etc.. For inanimate objects/locations this is where I add architectural details or other technical details.

4. Rendering
For the purpose of this blog, I will be holding off all rendering for the time being. While I personally believe that rendering is extremely important, there's no point spending effort/time rendering drawings that are poorly constructed or designed. For that reason, I will focus on steps 1-3 above and once I feel that the drawings I do are solid, I will begin the second stage of the blog which will focus on this 4Th step:

FYI: rendering includes everything from cross-hatching to shading to colour.

Copying without Construction is just Copying.

Most folks that copy drawings usually do so by jumping to step 3 - Design. They copy the outline and details of the drawings they are looking at. They are not constructing the drawings from the ground up.

The problem is that, while they may become good at copying, they will have a hard time drawing from their imagination. This is because they won't really know how to start a drawing starting with a blank page. By building a drawing using steps 1-3 above, I am preparing myself for the eventuality of drawing my own stuff.

Quantity vs. Quality

2009-07-31T22:16:00.001-07:00

Part of the reason for this blog is to test my theories on drawing. Here is the first one.

Quantity is more important than Quality.

Let me qualify this statement by saying that as long as you are learning from your mistakes, and focusing on your weaknesses, you will be better off by doing more drawings.

Sure - I have seen a lot of sketchbooks filled with bad drawings (including a few of my own. ha ha), but it's probably fair to say they were done by folks who weren't really paying attention to their mistakes. They were having fun, but didn't really think about what they were doing.

My first goal is to draw a lot. Then when mistakes happen - try and notice them so that I don't repeat them again. At least, not too often. In order to make the most of the 1 hour drawing sessions, I don't plan to erase too much or try and correct too much. Rather I hope to draw as much as possible, using the principles of construction. Then, the next time I draw a similar subject, try and avoid doing the same errors I did on previous sessions.

By following this process, I hope to achieve quality through quantity.

Quantity First.
Quality 2ND.

DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

2009-07-31T21:51:00.000-07:00

WHY - BOOK SKETCHING?

This is a personal blog, that I hope will achieve a couple of goals.

The first goal of this blog is to get me drawing again. As the manager for the Labyrinth book store in Toronto, as well as a professional in the animation industry my free time is seriously constrained.

Over the past 7 years, I have worked primarily in 3d animation, as well as book sales, such that my drawing skills are not where I want them to be.

I often advise, would be artists, that the secret to being good at drawing is doing a lot of it. The 2nd piece of advice I give is to copy a lot, because it's fast and allowes you to build a volume of work easily and quickly. The argument is that when you draw from your brain, it takes a lot of energy and time to come up with a drawing, so that ultimately you get less work done.

For example, if a person wanted to draw their own original character from their imagination, they first would have to figure out what that character looks like, what expression they have, their pose, their environment and so forth. All this thinking takes time. Time that could be spent drawing. Sure you can do exploratory drawings, but its still an inherently slow process.

When you copy, all the design elements have been figured out for you, so all one has to do is focus on structure. This means you can get more drawing done in a shorter period of time. Anyone that has ever done 1 minute or 30 second life drawings knows what i am talking about. There's no way, most of us could have done a drawing every minute out of our brains. Copying from the model made it possible.

Now, having mentioned Life Drawing I would like to say; YES - I have done Life Drawing and while it can be fun for some, it's really not why I got interested in drawing. I got interested in drawing because I loved Comics and Animation. I love funny drawings, fantasy stuff and fantastical locations.

This is why instead of using Life Drawing to get me where I want to go, I will be using comic books and art books instead. Copying from artists I admire, and characters that I enjoy will be key to keep me interested as I work to build up my skills to a point that I am happy with my drawing abilities again. Copying from books also means I can draw when I want and not have to attend scheduled sessions when I am crazy busy. Oh and don't forget - IT'S PRACTICALLY FREE. Sure you need source material, but if you buy the books, you can keep them, re-sell them, or give them as gifts in the future. When you pay thousands of dollars to go to school, that money is gone!

At the same time, when you "copy" from artbooks and comics, you can learn different styles and approaches to solving problems (like how to draw hair, eyes, fingers,etc.. in different styles) .

QUICK ASIDE: "Copy" is such a dirty word - but I hope when I start demonstrating what I do, you will think a little differently. There's plagerism -where you copy someone elses work and pretend its yours. And then there is copying for the purpose of study or understanding. In the old days, young artists would often copy the works of the masters to learn their trade.

Copying is not a bad word - if you are using construction and thoughtful methodology to build the drawings you are studying. More will be said on this later.

Under normal circumstances - I don't recommend people show these 'copy drawings' to other people. These are meant to be done as an exercise. Not to show off. Having said that - this blog is about me drawing a lot. Selfish - I know. Still, I figure that by making my goal public, I have a better chance at success. (It will look bad if I don't do what I promise to do. wont't it?)

The 2nd Goal of this blog is to get more people drawing. I hope that by demonstrating the process that I go through, I can help young artists out there discover a method that might work for them too. If after reading this, you feel like you want to try it along with me, I would be more than honoured.

It's been said that we all have 1,000, 10,000 (pick your number) bad drawings in us and the sooner we can work them out of our system, the sooner we can reach the good drawings. With that in my mind, I intend to do 1 hour a day of drawing from books or comics.