Research to layout drawing process

Research

For any type of research, I have a basic methodology.
To note, because I already have a style in mind, which fall's into the 'Classic Golden Age of cartoons', this now helps to eliminate the thousands of options otherwise available once you go to Google Image search.

So with that established, I was looking for a Lion character. I found Tex Avery's 'Slap Happy Lion' to fit just the look I was after.

The above image shows the 'sample' Golden Age cartoon character and my quick study (top right).

Forms and Silhouettes

All I am interested in doing is observing the forms and silhouette of the character. I observe that the Tex Avery Lion has little eyes, big nose, big muzzle, big hair and small ears. All these varying shapes help to inform my decisions of things like proportions and negative spaces. And ultimately, the cartoon's appeal. 

Appeal

And this appeal is something I am learning more and more about as time goes by.
I have found that if you also do a google search for a clip art cartoon, say in this example, a lion - this will show very clearly the difference between a generic bland type cartoon (clip art) and the more exaggerated - lively type that I believe is present in Tex Avery's Lion. 
Appeal is everything. 

Don't be a slave to reference material

The Tex Avery Lion reference is only used for a 'quick' study. And I mean like 4-5 minutes at most. This timeframe trains me to see forms, silhouettes, negative spaces between forms, etc. And its these observations which then get translated quickly again into my own research sketch. This sketching element is very important as it takes what I observe (essentially thoughts) and brings them into action (now through my pencil). And as I draw, I build up a rolodex of forms/shapes that I can now use for my own drawing.

So in closing, it ultimately removes my needing to religiously follow the reference material. And as a result, it allows me to discover eventually my own style of art. 

Get that expression sorted

For my Lion's sad expression, I referenced John Kricfalusi's 'Cigarettes the Cat'. Again I did a quick study using all the above methods.

Here I made some notes as to what happens to the facial forms when you are sad.

I also made a sad face myself (physically), and observed what my muscles were doing. I could feel my bottom lip coming up. I could also feel my bottom and top lips coming together and squishing outwards. Doing this also adds to that rolodex of information that I mentioned earlier. Which informs my decision making for my own Lion drawing, coming up next.

Layout drawing - Sad Lion

Armed with A4 sheets of photocopy paper and a red/blue pencil, I start to draw.

As per Preston Blair's lessons, I started with the cranium. See here for the lesson I am talking about.
Because of the above research methodology, I am now ready to focus on my character. With the eyes and mouth of the character, I can start to explore and push the forms/shapes with confidence. Having done the ground work in research, I can now really push and exaggerate the forms to what I think is an appealing character.
What follows are my results.

The x2 sketches were stitched together and then cleaned up with on-going additional changes in Clip Studio Paint, for the blue lined finished layout drawing.

Now I am ready to ink up the layout drawing.

One more example of a layout drawing - Panda character

For this character, his pose was excitement.
Having done a previous drawing of the Panda been angry, I was able to reference from this to keep on model going forward.
You will notice I did a one-off facial expression test which I later rejected as I felt it lacked the 'appeal' I was after.
I also did up a very quick full body model to understand the overall silhouette of the character. The head size is way off - way to small.
Reference gathering for this Panda was more arbitrary, with me simply googling Panda animation. However I kept the researching to only 5 or so minutes.

I will post up these Panda illustrations soon.