starting a character design

A fun way to start a character design is to just make a shape and turn it into a character. It's like staring at the ceiling stucco and seeing a face in it.

Leading the eye

Composition is like a big figure drawing. In anatomy, every line flows off to hook up with something else. You never have lines just floating by themselves. They all rhythmically tie together. You can use the same principles in a composition.

Drawing with pure shape

sometimes it's fun to draw by just making cool shapes and not think about form.

"From Life Drawing to Cartooning" class at LAAFA

I will be teaching a class on how to make the transition "from life drawing to cartooning", or drawing from your head, at LAAFA this summer on Sundays from 1:30-4:30. The summer term starts July 6th. This class will be extremely valuable for anyone who wants to be a storyboard, or comic book artist. Feel free to post any questions here.

Here is a link to the summer brochure

the ball and pear with shapes

Once you understand the ball and pear, then you can try making cool shape designs.

Ball and pear

The good old ball and pear. I love this style of drawing because it's easy to make things very fluid and flowing. You can always change the "surface" features to make it look more original, but it's good to know the classic basics that lay underneath.

More torso stuff

Someone asked how to find the ribcage: