Preston Blair: Drawing Course 1 - Construction / The head

From the words of John Kricfalusi himself, 'CONSTRUCTION' is the most important concept you need to understand. It's like sculpting your drawings'.

Lessons for the Present Blair course are found online here at John's Curriculum blog

http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/2009/12/preston-blair-lessons-fundamentals-of.html

**Besides the Preston Blair lessons there are a ton of other great tips and tutorials to be found on John's blog.

Screenshot of 1st lesson - the bear head. Image courtesy of Cartoon Brew via ASIFA - Hollywood Animation Archive, 2006.

Further instructions from John K:

Step 1-draw the form of your character first - a sphere, or a cranium or whatever the form looks like.

Step 2- Draw center lines through the form both vertically and horizontally-
wrap those lines around the form in the right place. Don't draw straight lines.
right through the center. Not to the side - be logical! DRAW SLOW AND CAREFULLY TO GET IT TO LOOK RIGHT.

WHAT ARE THE CENTER LINES FOR? not for decoration.

They are guide lines. We call them construction lines.
They help you place the features on the forms in the right place.
Place the eyes on either side of the line in the middle of the face.

MY HOMEWORK:

4 bear heads were done of which I liked the 4th head attempt the most. 

Note on this page the 1st bear I have drawn some lines that cross from the smile line to the outer cheek. These little lines have become very important for checking the form of the shape. Don't under-estimate this principle. I have used it many times since to check forms.

Checking form of a shape

After drawing the bear head, compare it to Preston Blair's drawing and note any differences on yours. Draw it again, trying to correct your mistakes from the first, second or however anymore drawings you do.

3rd bear head

My observations of 3rd bear head: I have done fairly well with the shape of the cranium. The interior shapes like the nose and smile line are bang on. Because I have made they eyes smaller than Preston's, it has then pulled my bear's eyebrows, eye mask and consequently, his ears forward. Or towards the left.

Also my bear's eyes are to straight on the horizontal plane. Whereas with Preston's, the eyes are on a more perpendicular angle. This can be seen more clearly with my pink bear in comparison to Preston's at very top.

4th bear head attempt. In my next attempt I have tried to correct the eye issue from the 3rd bear attempt. I have corrected this and also bought the ears more into the correct position. But unfortunately I have shortened the cranium at the back which has squeezed the life out of the little beasties cheeks.

4th bear head

5th and 6th bear head attempt. 

5th and 6th bear head

This lesson has been very challenging. I have since been continuing to re-draw the bear head often to get as close to Preston's as possible. And this has been on and off since starting back in 2017.

I am thinking that once I have mastered this beast, I will post it up again. Maybe even ink it up as well.