Character Design & Poses #1: Tex Avery Character

The production model sheet above was used for the Tex Avery cartoon, Henpecked Hobos (1942). The character Jr. (that large, dumb bear) has the features of your typical "dumm" character for your typical Avery cartoon.


Note: It wasn't until now that I had forgot to pose this character. My apologies in advance.

In this first assignment, Bob had wanted us to design a character that's in the vain of your Tex Avery dumb type. The purpose of the assignment is for the character to have structure, a sense of balance and weight, and a hierarchy.

I wanted to design a large, ugly looking female (something that's in the vain of the frumpy looking pet owner in the '46 cartoon, Lonesome Lenny.)



All in all, Bob loved the sheer stupidity of my large female. The problem, however, was that both poses could easily have it topple over. So, after writing down Bob's advice, I soon went to work and came out with the following:



A taste of things to come....

From an aspiring animator/ cartoonist

Character Design #5: Speedy Poses and Winter Mascot

This time around, Bob wanted us to design an animal character that would star/ represent an animated commercial for the Winter Olympics (and winter sports, in general.) It has to have appeal, but should promote the "fun" factor of winter sports.

Also this week, he wanted us to pose our character revamp in two poses, which sould reflect what the character would do in a typical situation that is derived from that classic cartoon series.

All in all, both were fun assignments. My red-tail fox is a very poor attempt to design it, as Ed Benedict himself would have. Well, I'll ask Bob for some advice on how to improve the design after tommorow's class.

From an aspiring animator/ cartoonist

A Gift for a Pal

This is a doodle gift for a friend, who was nice enough to lend me one of his pencil extenders for the evening. That's him in the background, hooting at the girl.

From an aspiring animator/ cartoonist

Character Design & Poses #4: Character Revamp

My final design for the assignment and Bob's notes to fix up my mistakes.

For this assignment, Bob had given our class the task to update the design of a classic cartoon character, and to figure out what makes it work. Basically, this exercise is supposed to flex our design skills to add something new to it.


So, I went and watched Speedy's catalog of cartoons (I avoided the cartoons that stared Speedy and Daffy. Horrid stuff....) and did studies of the said character.

For my final, had taken elements from the 1953 prototype Speedy. It's nose, buck teeth, thick eyebrows, round cheeks and saucer-eyes where the elements that worked well for the original. However, I kept its clothes, whiskers and tail from the 1955 revision.

Since I wanted to make my Speedy to be a cute little rascal, I shrunk him town (he measures at about 2 heads in height, four if you add the large hat) and enlarged the hat. That way, it would emphasize his cuteness.

All in all, Bob liked it as a whole. He was quick to note that Speedy's hat seemed tacked on. He also notice that Speedy was missing his right ear, and felt that both ears should be more at an angle. After giving me the necessary notes, I soon went to work fixing my mistakes.

The poses will be added to this post on a later date.

From an aspiring animator/ cartoonist.

Character Design & Poses #3: 1930's Character

The above image of Betty and the cacti were drawn by Grim, himself. The doodles that surround the image are mine, which are studies from the classic cartoon, "Mysterious Mose."

The purpose of this assignment (due to Bob's disappointment of our class's ability to properly use construction) was to design a character that could of existed in a 1930's theatrical short. It should have proper hierarchy and construction.

Since I was fed-up with designing large characters, I wanted to do something that was "cute, girlish."

So, it was off researching/ drawing/ analyzing the cartoons from that era (Swing, You Sinners!, Mysterious Mose, Balloon Land, Toby Tortoise Returns, etc.) as well for some of the comic greats (Otto Messure, and so forth.)

Most importantly, however, was that I was studying the bulk of the work that was done by Grim Natwick, one of my heroes.

The image above was a slow, careful study from the Ub Iwerks cartoon, "Funny Faces."

The image above is what came out, after several hours of studying Fleischer cartoons. However, while Bob liked it, he believed (and he was right, I might add) that it was too "Spumco-ish."

Bob, being the awesome Fleischer geek that he his, had recommend me to watch the "lost" Betty Boop cartoon, "Buzzy Boop," as that title character had the qualities that would help my design ten-fold.

Sadly, the final design is in Bob's possession. However, I do have the two poses that were made for this assignment.

I hope you like these, Bob!

UPDATE:

Bob was able to send me a scan of my final design. It is displayed at the top of this post. Thanks again, Mr. Jaques!

From an aspiring animator/ cartoonist.

Character Design & Poses #2: The Geek and Avery Character Poses

For this assignment, our character design teacher (Bob Jaques) assigned us to draw a nerd-type of character, without resorting to the standard clichés of the classic archetype.

So, with that in mind, I went to every possible comic book shop (great gathering places for nerds, such as myself) and focused on what makes a nerd, well...nerdy.

Believe it or not, the final image (above) is a semi-caricature of a guy who works at "Big Pete's Comic Book Shop," which is located near the Lonsdale area. I find it funny that the guy was fat all over the place, which was something I wanted to emphasise for my design. Also, he had stocky legs which (sadly) I had taken out in the final design.

Overall, Bob loved it (the man tits, especially) but he did give me notes for where I should improve it:

-Give him love handles, which wrap around the form of the subject.

-Define the pocket on the pants

-Don’t make the shoes as graphic; think more solid shapes.

Take note that his corrections are in black pencil.

The second part of the assignment was to take one of the classes designs (I choose Gaston's beaver) and put it in two different poses:

-The character was angry, and is about to throw a punch

&

-The character is hanging on a rope, 1000 feet in the air, and is clinging for his life.

Critiques are most welcome.

From an aspiring animator/ cartoonist.

Great Fornication On The lords Birthday!

I had some fun with using a very basic colour scheme for this ink, but difficulties were found in the following:

-Balancing thick and thin on Sody's hip's and left hand.
-Need to figure out the shape of that tassel for George's hat.
-Unsure of the shape of Georges shoes.

Pencil Drawing by John Kricfalusi, inks by me. Inked digitally in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Critiques are much appreciated.

From an aspiring animator/ cartoonist