Inktober 2020 - What I learned

 What I learned in Inktober 2020

After 31 days of rushing to the art-board and drawing yet another image, my two characters for a potential comic - I said to myself, why am I doing this? Why? So I started to take some basic notes to answer that very question. I realised, I had to to be conscious enough to see some improvements. What was the measurement for improvement? For me it was not enough to just submit an image only. I had to see an accumulation of my efforts rewarded.

 So, what follows are my observations of what I learned in Inktober, 2020.

1. Define/practice on x2 characters only

I decided from the get-go to illustrate in inktober only x2 characters. By doing this I

1. Eliminated the feeling of being overwhelmed with where to start. Because I knew I had to make the x2 characters work with the daily prompts, half the battle for me was already settled.

2.  Because I was constantly drawing the x2 characters I really started to get a feel for them. And my confidence grew when drawing them. I also found out what I didn't like - where on some days the characters became too cartoony. Overall, by the time Inktober was finished I had amassed a great deal of drawings. These drawings will definitely benefit me when I get around to doing up a small comic of these guys.

2. Using limited inking tools

In past Inktobers that I have done, specifically digital inking - I really tried an array of digital inking brushes. Which was good in some ways. A real chance to try them out. But more than not, because I was trying so many brushes, I wasn't able to pick up on the nuances of a particular brush. Let alone persevere with its limitations also. And as a result of this, I wasn't able to track progress. So, I used only x4 pen's for the whole challenge. They were

1. Zig Mangaka (Kuretake Brush pen)

2. Tom Bow ABT N15 (Brush pen) 

3.  Zig Art & Graphic pen (Kuretake Brush pen)

4. Artline 200 0.4mm (fine tipped pen with dead line weight) 

The go-to pens for me were numbers 1-2. The Zig Mangaka (1), which I only found days before the competition, is awesome. I found that you could keep a steady line, almost bring the pen to a stop, and then push it around and get a lovely smooth transition. It also gave nice fat-to-thin tapering effect. Number (3), Zig Art & Graphic pen was almost running out. But I found out you could get some nice textures as a result. So lesson learned - don't throw pens out until they are well and truly gone.

3. Where to place areas of black

It was rather by accident, but my wife had left a compass out on our drawing desk. And I thought to myself, drawing a circle might help along the composition for this image. Which yes, it certainly did. And so there a now quite a few images which have a circle (filled black) for my images.

So, the circle shape is a very pleasing element. It also helps to guide your audience to a particular section of your image - and create a hierarchy or focus. 

4. Not to be perfect

Perfectionism is such a beast. It can silently come upon you and then devour and destroy all your creativity, within minutes.

For me, doing Inktober is as much about getting better at inking as it is about pushing through to complete an image - no matter how (eek), ugly or imperfect one image maybe. And I certainly created my fair share of eek pictures. But what I came to appreciate was I could see why something wasn't working. And I still had to go through with it, say its done. And then upload it. Pat myself on the back, and do another drawing for the next day. And it was the next day where I found you had to overcome the beast of perfectionism. Because now you had a failure in your mind only a day earlier.

Lesson learned - fight the beast. The more ugly you do, the more resilient you will become and bounce back to hit those good/great and amazing images.

DON'T GIVE UP!!!!

5. Composition and the use of extra elements

This is something I am always struggling with. I think some days I've got it, then, damn it, it gets away on me.

Composition is challenging for me as I often go straight into the pose of the character/s without often thinking also about how other elements will work in a pleasing way, within the piece. And so often what will happen is, I will be stuck trying to add elements (like fire, wind, smoke, etc) with the characters.

These above poor babies (my imperfect offerings) - sad face, are for me, compositions which, with the added extra elements just weren't doing it for me. The one at very far right I laboured over. I used the black mountain (which is hard to read I think) to help frame the x3 creatures. However I feel that this then competes with the dark area at bottom left (which I initially thought might help frame for the bottom x2 characters). I just feel that overall the image doesn't read well - it's a little jarring and confusing. So to make myself feel better, here are some images of which I feel have good composition. And also good use of elements.

That's it. Survived another Inkober challenge. Wahooo!!! Until next year, 2021. Bye for now.

If you, yes you, dear visitor. Have read all the way to here. Thank you. Really - thank you.

Please check out my instagram account here for all new stuff. I upload there more often.

I hope you have learnt something, or enjoyed this read. Have a great day/night.

Book Competition and what I learnt

For a month and a half, I had the opportunity to submit illustrations for a book competition. Whilst I was unsuccessful, I had learnt a lot of things during the process.

What follows are key points that I learnt along the way.

1. Follow your gut

Due to time constraints of my daily life (daddy-daughter days, family commitments and looking for work), I had to find a way to maximise my time. And whilst definitely planning a head was a key factor, my attitude of backing myself was critical. 

What I mean is, to believe in your ideas and then move forward. So much of your efforts are underpinned by your beliefs. Beliefs like, can I do this!!! When I was developing thumbs for the story, I was constantly thinking if it was the right idea. And as much as ideas can definitely change, there comes a point where you need to just 'seal the deal' and back yourself. 

I still believe that even after not successfully winning the competition, I did the best that I could with what I had done. This choice to follow your gut (back yourself), to me is critical.

 

2. Allow your art to breathe

This point definitely complements the previous, but what it does is allows you to see your art with fresh eyes. Been able to step away from your drawings, even for a day, a few hours, really helps to re-set your vision. Obstacles that came up, and there were many, are managed by simply having a break. Many times I had serendipitous moments where an idea had formed - away from the drawing board. Away from the pressures of not getting it right the first time. Which is a crazy way to think. But oh-boy, have I had to learn that the hard way.

Much of creativity flows organically. And not necessarily all in one shot, at your desk drawing. Take breaks, often. Breathe.

3. OneNote, your friend

Ok, so there was some intensive planning too. Plan to plan. The last two points mentioned above definitely aided in releasing levels of anxiety. Planning however is the 'how are we going to do this'. And thats where OneNote (Microsoft) comes in. Its just awesome.

Some examples of the awesomeness of OneNote.

• Ok, lets breakdown how many days I have to complete this competition, OneNote. 
• Where do I find out how to best setup margins and crops for a dummy page. I need to make a note to remember this, OneNote. 
• Must remember to re-read the script and then have it ready for dummy pages, OneNote. 
• Don't forget to schedule for the rendered two page spread, OneNote.

Ok, hopefully you get the idea. Planning the project is critical. How to best plan, organise and just remember things, OneNote.

In closing, I really felt a sense of accomplishment at completing a submission for a story. Certainly if I had more time I would change things, but overall I was confident of what I had produced. And ultimately it has reassured me that I would love to continue working towards the children's book market. Who knows, maybe even sell my own children's book one day?

 

Ren and Stimpy illustration

 

Did you hear the news!!!! What??? You didn't. OMG. YES....its happening. And I had to do up an illustration to celebrate.

So excited (joy oh joy), a re-boot of Ren and Stimpy!!! REN AND STIMPY.

This cartoon show was and still is one of my all time fav's. Absolute awesomeness on every level. I am probably being a little one-eyed, but not many cartoons come close to these guys.

I JUST LOVE THESE GUYS!!!!!

Also of note, top left - created my new logo design 'Jason Crawford - Illustrator'. Maybe I will share some of my fledging designs around the logo concept? See what happens.

Star Wars

My favourite galaxy couple from one of my all time favourite films.

I also had Han Solo's gun - way back in the 80's. Made sound effects too. Awesome

I did this is illustration way back in 2015.

Will hope to post up soon some more Star Wars stuff.

Thanks for visiting.

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.

Preston Blair Top hat gentleman practice

Next construction of head practice.
My image at left and Preston's at right.

Below image is Preston's in orange and my attempt in blue. Sorry that it's a bit hard to see.
What errors that strike me most in my attempt are the face is longer than Prestons and the negative spaces between forms are to wide. Not in all cases, but more than enough.

For Preston's image I have put in red lines which denote (guide lines) and the blue lines are for the negative spaces (or gaps between forms). By doing these two measurements I could more closely see where I had gone wrong in copying Preston's work.

For now I can see that my negative spaces are out. And I think this is related to the fact that my face shape is vertically to long - which then pushes all the other elements out.

**Noticeable areas of error - my ears are too small which then makes the hair too long. Also the negative space between my eyes are too far apart - even though the placement of the eyes are fairly close.
Well - that's that for now. More to come soon.

Sad Lion Cartoon

Sad Lion Cartoon

This image is a continuation from this image posted here.
I am hoping to continue in this style and create some more characters, soon.