Hammerson's Learning and Practice Blog

Tom & Jerry construction exercise + more

2009-01-22T11:07:00.000-08:00

Here's my attempt to do an exercise from John K. blog:

Getting Back To The Primal Needs Of A Cartoonist

Use Line Of Action To Maintain Guts Of Pose

This Tom & Jerry comic cover by Harvey Eisenberg has been highlighted by John as an example that shows off all the fundamentals of a good cartoon drawing. I tried to construct and replicate it by following John's instructions.

One of the earliest attempts:

The last and most successful one so far. The proportions are not 100% close to the original, but I concentrated mostly on the correct construction around the line of action. That's the main goal of this exercise.

Finally, the cleaned-up and inked version, just to see if drawing mantains the solidity after removing the construction lines. I can see a handful of mistakes and differences from the original (Tom's arm is too skinny, mice are not particularly well drawn, the drawing lacks some dynamics and action of the original, etc). Tom's head and expression looks OK to me, and that was the hardest and most complex part of this picture.

More exercises, based on another recent John K. post:

Good Art to Copy From Comic Covers

Again, the same method was used. Construction, comparison with the original and clean-up. I put plenty of effort to be as faithful to the original as I can.

George Liquor - digital inking

2008-07-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

After several days of practice, here are my first serious attempts of inking in Adobe Illustrator, based on the layout drawings posted at John's blog.

It's OK, but could be better, and there's plenty of room for improvement. Here are John's inking tips with some amazing examples. That's the level I'm aspiring to, and need much more practice to reach it.

More stuff to come, later...

George Liquor Cleanup Drawings #2

2008-07-22T03:41:00.000-07:00

Coming soon... the improved versions of the cleanup drawings from my previous post. In the meantime, here's a quick ink & color job with a layout pose from John's blog

George Liquor cleanup drawings

2008-07-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

First attempt to cleanup some of Jim Smith's drawings posted at John's blog.

I will add more drawings tomorrow.

Sody Pop #3

2008-06-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

Slab 'n' Ernie

2008-06-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

Sody Pop #2

2008-06-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

This drawing was based on a Sody Pop picture I found long time ago, probably on Spumco web site:

Can you guess what was the inspiration for this drawing?

And finally, a picture inspired by this post on John's blog

Here are the construction sketches for these three pictures. They're a bit rough, and I just tried to get the construction and basic proportions of the characters close to the original, without going too much into the small details at this stage.

And here's a bonus George Liquor drawing from 7 days ago:

Sody Pop #1

2008-06-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

John's original drawing:

Construction (left) and comparison with the original (right):

Cleaned-up pencil sketch based on the construction above:

Inked version:

My final version, in color:

Not a 100% success. The legs are too thick in comparison to original, and few other details are off the mark.

Let's try another one...

John's original drawing:

Construction (left) and comparison with the original (right):

Cleaned-up pencil sketch based on the construction above:

Inked version:

My final version, in color:

I made some bad mistakes on this one too. The right leg has a very complex shape in the original, and in my drawing it looks awkward and wonky. Also, some fine details on Sody's sneakers aren't as precise as they should be.

Many faces of George Liquor

2008-06-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some original George Liquor expressions, based on my quick pencil sketches.

06-02-2008

06-03-2008

06-04-2008

I will add more George (and Jimmy) drawings to this post in the next few days.

How Sweet To Be An Idiot

2008-05-28T13:40:00.001-07:00

This is one of the greatest pictures ever of Jimmy the Idiot Boy. I guess it was drawn either by John K. or Jim Smith. It's staggeringly complex, and presents a tough challenge for anybody who's trying to replicate it. I made few attempts earlier today, just to understand the basic construction behind it. I made plenty of mistakes with various small details, so I decided to leave it for few days, and just use the original black & white drawing from John's blog for a coloring exercise:

This is a quick drawing inspired by "The Turtle Food Collector", and I haven't used any comic panel as a reference. I like Jimmy's expression here, but dislike the whole drawing - I made too many mistakes: the construction of the face, and the whole left hand for example. The left eye also looks weird and incorrect, though it adds something peculiar to the whole expression. Jimmy looks like he's trying to hypnotize the bug. Maybe I'll return to this drawing later, and add the real backgrounds.

Here are some of the recent attempts to do my own expressions of Jimmy the Idiot Boy, without using any of the reference drawings. I made dozens of such drawings and sketches of Jimmy or George Liquor, but I'm not too satisfied with them yet. I need to practice much more, to get a better grasp of both characters.

Drawing the Idiot - part 3

2008-05-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Click here to see John's original drawing that served as the model for this exercise.

This is my pencil sketch with construction, and comparison with the original:

The cleaned-up pencil sketch from above. Still not perfect and not identical to the original (though in some places it got pretty close):

The inked version, with few improvements over the previous drawing:

The final version, with added color. Hmm, I wonder what is Jimmy really doing in this picture :)

Jimmy - part 2

2008-05-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

Pencil sketch:

My cleaned-up and inked version:

Color version (using the Spumco Comic Book as the reference), with couple of small corrections in line-art:

John's original can be seen here

The next one has been really difficult, but also quite enjoyable to draw.
John's original:

Pencil sketch with construction:

Clean-up:

My final inked version:

Heeere's Jimmy!

2008-05-22T16:05:00.001-07:00

I will continue with George Liquor drawing practice, but for now here are few attempts to draw his nephew Jimmy the Idiot Boy. First, here's a clean-up and inking exercise I made yesterday:

This is the original pencil drawing by John K. It was posted several years ago, at Shane Glines' forum (I think). It's a very fluid and wonderfully constructed drawing (the wrist and finger actions are quite extraordinary).

Here's my attempt to clean-up, ink and color this drawing. It's not perfect, and I noticed plenty of things to improve next time:

Next, here are my versions of two Jimmy poses posted yesterday at John K. blog

My pencil sketches:

My final drawings, cleaned-up and inked:

Come back tomorrow for more Jimmy! I'll try to do some complex poses :)

It's him again!

2008-05-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

Two adapted and colorized versions of the drawings from my first post. More new stuff to come, after the weekend (for the next few days I'm going to work as an assistant director at a movie shooting, and I'll continue with drawing practice next week).

Angry George

2008-05-10T11:13:00.001-07:00

Next two efforts, based on George Liquor's poses from "Man's Best Friend".

Pencil sketch:

Clean-up & ink (it was rather difficult, and some of the lines and forms look little bit lumpy to me, unlike the original):

The final version with added simple background and color:

Next pose, my first and third pencil sketch attempt (I'm not very satisfied with any of them):

The last one served as the basis for my cleaned-up and inked version. Again, I'm not thrilled with this. The inking is relatively stiff, and I missed some subtle curves and changes of the line thickness. The face seem to be OK, and the body needs some serious reworking (especially the bottom half). John's original can be seen here.

The final version in color:

More George expressions

2008-05-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

Another day, another Liquor :)
Here's a very funny action pose, really enjoyable to draw. For some reason, George here reminds me of another John's character, He-Hog the Atomic Pig. You can see John's original drawing here .

My attempt no.1. I thought the face was well done. But, there are too many discrepancies from the original, and the direct comparison clearly shows them.

Few attempts later... this one's quite accurate, with exception of the eyebrows and too long hands and legs (a mistake I've done on several drawings from the previous posts):

My final inked version, and I tried to stay as close as possible to the original:

Is it worthy of the name Liquor?

And, here's a color version, just for fun...

More Liquor...

2008-05-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Here's the new one (I'll post the comparison later today):

First attempt

Second attempt

And finally, the cleaned-up and inked version. I really messed up the left wrist... it looks terrible! The crotch area looks suspicious too. The rest is OK (I think).

It's been a busy day, and I don't have much to show this time...
I attempted another of George's more specific expressions . This one has been rather difficult and frustrating.

First, John's original:

My pencil sketch. I didn't like it and the construction looked wrong to me, but surprisingly, of all five attempts, this was the closest to the original.

I tried a quick clean-up and inking on that one. Looks OK, though some of the subtleties are gone, and the drawing looks flatter than original (probably because of the construction problems from pencil sketch). The left eyebrow curve isn't accurate, and the bottom of the chin should be more rounded. The eyes and the mouth should be more precise too.

George Liquor #1

2008-05-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well, let's get started... first, George Liquor's head in 3/4 view. The original drawing by John K:

Although he consider this a simple and relatively generic drawing, there are so many things going on here, and there's an amazing flow, economy and elegance of the lines and details. Attempting to repeat what he has done gave me completely new appreciation of his enormous skills. The construction of George's head isn't difficult, but there are so many details that absolutely need to be wrapped around the basic construction, and if any of them is failed, the whole drawing can look like crap.

OK, so here are my first two attempts... and they're crap! I immediately had the feeling they look wrong:

Quick comparison with the original confirmed my suspicions. Back to the drawing board!

This one looks promising. Not 100% perfect, but a big leap towards the right direction.

Next drawing - another 3/4 view of George's face. First, here's John's original:

My attempt. I thought it was good...

...until I compared it. Must do another attempt soon.

And here are my final, cleaned-up and inked versions of these two drawings. I'm quite pleased with them.

Here's a quick attempt to do the color version. It's still unfinished.

Now, can I repeat the trick with the whole figure? John's original:

My first attempt, and the comparison. Not bad, but also not perfect, the hands don't look good, and few details on the face are not clicking (the teeth especially).

I decided to give it a go, and try to clean-up and ink the whole drawing. So, here's the final version:

In the end, I tried with a more complex drawing and a specific expression. The original:

The not so successful copy. I'll soon do another attempt.