I don’t work at Cartoon Network any more. But I’m going to give you a very quick portfolio review in hopes that you find it helpful!
Here are some things I noticed when looking at your stuff – lessons I learned from brilliant people while working on AT for two years:
1) AVOID SYMMETRY. Humans are organic, randomly shaped animals. Perfect symmetry rarely exists in nature and if it does, it’s conspicuous – it’s the exception rather than the rule. Find interesting ways to throw your characters off-balance.
Don’t repeat objects in twos – (buttons or rips or whatever) – it feels prescribed – cluster things in threes or fives if necessary.
2) AVOID CONCAVITY – I don’t know what else to call this. But it’s those lines that go “in” rather than “out”. You are using inward sloping lines to describe many of your characters. As an exercise, try using outward, rounded, voluminous lines to draw EVERYTHING. Humans are fleshy lumps connected together by other fleshy lumps. Each mass is either in front of or behind other masses and as a designer, it’s your job to tell the animator where it is. As a designer, you are providing a technical blueprint for the location of masses.
Only occasionally allow a concavity to connect two convexities. Look at the work of Robert Ryan Cory (spongebob), Tom Herpich (Adventure Time) or Phil Rynda (AT / Gravity Falls) – master character designers – for examples of this. If you need to, trace a couple of their drawings and you will see what I mean.
3) AVOID GRAPHIC DETAILS – Some shows use a graphic style; it’s very appealing and looks clever when done right. But in animation, everything needs to move in space – so if you use a graphic element – it needs to correspond with an actual 3D thing that can move. Therefore it is better to start with a voluminous style and then revert to graphic elements where appropriate. Art directors will look for this. Do not jump straight to graphic representation if you do not yet know what you are representing.
Look at the work of Tiffany Ford and Jasmin Lai for amazing examples of volume expressed graphically.
4) STUDY JAMES MCMULLEN – To truly understand volume, and fully respect your subject, you should read very carefully High Focus Figure Drawing by James McMullen. Slow down and think about drawing “around” your subjects. It’s a truly meditative experience when you get there. Think about the weight and mass that your characters, props and effects are experiencing. Many students from SVA – Tomer Hanuka, Becky Cloonan, Rebecca Sugar, James Jean – studied under McMullen’s philosophy and you can see this common richness in their work.
Jeffrey Smith, a top student of McMullen’s now teaches life drawing at Art Center. These are two of the best illustration schools in North America – anyone who is interested in drawing living things, should probably read his book.
Also look at the work of Andy Ristaino or Danny Hynes – two other character designers’ whose work is seething with volume.
I hope this is useful and I hope you have a wonderful career.
hey so protip if you have abusive parents and need to get around the house as quietly as possible, stay close to furniture and other heavy stuff because the floor is settled there and it’s less likely to creak
socks are quieter than bare feet on tile/wood and for the love of god don’t wear slippers/shoes if you can help it
climbing ON the furniture will disrupt the pattern of your footsteps and make it harder to hear where you are in the house
crawling will do the same and if you get caught crawling you can pretend you fell
the floor near the wall can be really loud if the floorboards/carpet is old and not completely flush to the wall
do NOT attempt to use a rolling chair to travel without footsteps. they are extremely loud and hard to steer
Also. Breath with your mouth and not your nose. Your nose will whistle. Trust me. If you need to get into your fridge, jab your finger into the rubber part that seals the door closed and create a tiny airway. This will prevent the suction noise when you open the door. When drinking liquids (juice mostly), pour out your glass (or chug from the jug) and replace what you drank with water. If it was full enough in the beginning, no one will notice. DO NOT STEAL ALCOHOL. THEY WILL NOTICE IF IT’S WATERED DOWN. Bring a pillowcase for dried foods like cereal and granola. It helps to muffle the sound it makes when it pours.
If your house has snack packs (like gummy bears or crackers or chips), count them every day until you know the rhythm that they get consumed. (This took me a week and a half with my twin brother and sister). Then join the rhythm when you make your nightly visits. It will be that much harder to figure out it was you.
KEEP A TRASH BAG UNDER YOUR BED FOR WRAPPERS AND STUFF BUT DONT FORGET TO THROW IT OUT WHENEVER YOU CAN. BUGS YKNOW. Hope this helped.
some more generic #abusetips by rae
observe your abuser’s patterns so you can learn how to avoid them when they’re prone to rampages/being drunk or violent, etc.
if you have siblings and can safely do so, talk to them. it’s easier to deal with this stuff together.
carry around something small (pocket knife, etc) that you can use to defend yourself in a pinch.
avoid alone time with your abuser AT ALL COSTS.
password your phone, password your laptop, clear your search history, don’t leave anything for someone to get angry at
become familiar with your surroundings (neighborhood/woods/city/whatever) in case you need to run away. look for motels within walking distance and memorize their locations
if your parents don’t make you food or there isn’t much in the house, pasta and cheese is amazing. cook some pasta (macaroni or really any other kind), put some cheese on top (again, any kind) and microwave that bitch for :45 and you have yourself a surprisingly filling meal with only 2 flexible ingredients. if you’re tired of/don’t have cheese, ragu/tomato sauce is great too. i could alternate those 2 meals and live on it for weeks honestly
document EVERYTHING, as it happens. abusers are great at twisting your memories and making you think you’re exaggerating in your mind. write down abusive things that are said or done to you (or take pictures) so you can use them to reassure yourself later that the abuse isn’t in your head. don’t do this if you don’t have a secure place to keep the proof.
and my favorite
have a small bag (walmart bag or equivalent size) that has a few days worth of essentials ready to grab and go! fit some stuff like
– money ($20 ish, more if you can) – a water bottle or 2 – granola bars – light jacket – change of clothes – flashlight – tampons, hand sanitizer (amazing for cleaning w no water)…
and whatever else you need and can fit into a small bag, and keep it under your bed or in an easy grabbing location. i call it the Shit Hits The Fan bag, for if you ever need to just book it outta there asap.
if you can store one in your home somewhere and one outside (in a weather-resistant location like a shed or in a tree) it’s even better.
A compilation of stuff I know about drawing Asian faces and Asian culture! I feel like many “How-To-Draw” tutorials often default to European faces and are not really helpful when drawing people of other races. So I thought I’d put this together in case anyone is interested! Feel free to share this guide and shoot me questions if you have any! I’m by no means an expert, I just know a few things from drawing experience and from my own cultural background.
The dos and don’ts of designing for accessibility are general guidelines, best design practices for making services accessible in government. Currently, there are six different posters in the series that cater to users from these areas: low vision, D/deaf and hard of hearing, dyslexia, motor disabilities, users on the autistic spectrum and users of screen readers.
[…] Another aim of the posters is that they’re meant to be general guidance as opposed to being overly prescriptive. Using bright contrast was advised for some (such as those with low vision) although some users on the autistic spectrum would prefer differently. Where advice seems contradictory, it’s always worth testing your designs with users to find the right balance, making compromises that best suit the users’ needs.
I’ve been wanting something like this to reference! Boosting for the others that like to dabble in code/design.
This is some of the most lucidly written accessibility advice I’ve seen. Making accessible web pages should be the default, not an add-on. It’s really not that hard to do, especially when you think about it from the start – and it benefits everyone.
(Obligatory note that there are exceptions to some of these guidelines, e.g., “bunching” some interactions together is an important way to cue which interactions are related to each other, but that’s why these are guidelines, not absolute rules.)
young web designer: thank you oh my god no one has been able to explain this quite as well and this is just good shit
yo here’s a useful tip from your fellow art ho cynellis… use google sketchup to create a model of the room/building/town you’re trying to draw… then take a screenshot & use it as a reference! It’s simple & fun!
Sketchup is incredibly helpful. I can’t recommend it enough.
There’s a 3D model warehouse where you can download all kinds of stuff so you don’t have to build everything from scratch.
reblog to save a life
This is an incomplete tutorial, and it drives me crazy every
time I see it come around.
We live in a pretty great digital age and we have access to
a ton of amazing tools that artists in past generations couldn’t even dream of,
but a lot of people look at a cool trick and only learn half of the process of
using it.
Here’s the missing part of this tutorial:
How do you populate your backgrounds?
Well, here’s the answer:
If the focus is the environment, you must show a person in relation to
that environment.
The examples above are great because they show how to use the
software itself, but each one just kind of “plops” the character in front of
their finished product with no regard of the person’s relation to their
environment.
How do you fix this?
Well, here’s the simplest solution:
This is a popular trick used by professional storyboard and
comic artists alike when they’re quickly planning compositions. It’s simple and
it requires you to do some planning before you sit down to crank out that
polished, final version of your work, but it will be the difference between a background
and an environment.
Even if your draftsmanship isn’t that great (like mine),
people can be more immersed in the story you tell if you just make it feel like
there is a world that exists completely separate from the one in which they
currently reside – not just making a backdrop the characters stand in front of.
Your creations live in a unique world, and it is as much a character as
any other member of the cast. Make it as believable as they are.
Great comments and tutorials!
I’m a 3d artist and have been exploring the possibilities of using 3d as reference for 2d poses. I want to add a couple of tips and things!
Sketchup is very useful for environment references, and I assume it’s reasonably easy to learn. If you’re interested in going above and beyond, I highly recommend learning a proper 3d modeling program to help with art, especially because you can very easily populate a scene or location with characters!
Using 3ds Max I can pretty quickly construct an environment for reference. But going beyond that, I can also pose a pretty simple ‘CAT’ armature (known in 3d as a rig) straight into the scene, which can be totally customized, from various limbs, tails, wings, whatever, to proportions, and also can be modeled onto and expanded upon (for an example, you could 3d sculpt a head reference for your character and then attach it to the CAT rig, so you have a reference for complex face angles!)
The armature can also be posed incredibly easily. I know programs exist for stuff like this – Manga Studio, Design Doll – but posing characters in these programs is always an exercise in frustration and very fiddly imo. A simple 3d rig is impossibly easy to pose.
By creating an environment and dropping my character rig into it, I have an excellent point of reference when it comes to drawing the scene!
Not only that, but I can also view the scene from whatever angle I could ever want or need, including the character and their pose/position relative to the environment.
We can even quickly and easily expand this scene to include more characters!
Proper 3d modeling software is immensely powerful, and if you wanted to, you could model a complex environment that occurs regularly in your comic or illustration work (say, a castle interior, or an outdoor forest environment) and populate the scene with as many perspective-grounded characters as you need!
SHORT STORY/ONE-SHOT/ONE CHAPTER/COMICS 101 CRASH COURSE RAPIDPUNCHES’ STYLE
I’m NOT an expert but I have some working experience I can share. You need experience to become great. Here is my set of instructions, tips, and notes towards making a 12-page comic.
My method is to work backwards. Personally I work “backwards” because the end is the only wholly necessary page or set of panels in the story. Everything in between is open to editing and hacking as the most important moments are emphasized and chosen.
I even plan/draw the end page first. The end is the last page a reader sees- so spend your freshest energies on making it as epic, memorable, poignant, and beautiful as #$%^&.
If you draw the pages from 1 to 12 sequentially you run the risk of fresh to burnt out- an uneven distribution of drawing skill. (treat the first page and the 2-page splash as you would the last).
Roughly… the steps to making your comic is
WRITE
PLAN THUMBNAILS
DRAW
…BEGIN THE WRITING (DO NOT SKIP NO MATTER WHAT) like this, in this order:
How does it end?
Does the protag succeed or fail?
What is the turning point of their story?
What the protag do that led them there?
Where does it start?
Who is this protag?
EXAMPLE:
Guy gets mauled by a bear.
This is a fail on the guy’s half.
The bear must eat something or he’ll starve to death.
It’s the guy’s fault the bear can’t find other food. He caused the avalanche that buried all the cabins.
The guy is yodeling in an avalanche zone.
The guy is some guy.
CREATING “THE BEAT SHEET” Take the above stuff and reorder it to make sense.
This guy yodels.
Echoes roll.
Snow slides down.
Avalanche buries the mountain.
Cabins are engulfed.
This bear has no access to cabin food and garbage.
Bear eats this guy.
Expand. Blow up important beats for emphasis. Keep less important beats brief.
This guy is hiking in the snowy mountains.
He comes across an avalanche warning sign.
There is nobody around but him.
A dumb expression forms over his face and he yodels.
Echoes roll but nothing nearby is moved.
At the top of the mountain the snow drifts twitch.
Guy, satisfied, hikes away from there still yodeling.
Frozen snow cracks.
Snow puffs billow and great slabs of ice crash down the mountain side.
Guy sees this and hightails it to safer ground.
Animals, people, are all panicking and getting pushed over by the rushing snow.
Cabins are destroyed.
The guy takes cover by an outcropping of rocks, fastens himself securely to the rock face, and waits for the avalanche to die down.
Avalanche dies down.
A lone bear shambles over from the other side of the mountain.
The bear goes to where a cabin used to be (only roof tiles are left). Bear sniffs a dish satellite.
Bear forlornly eats a food wrapper.
Bear tries to dig.
Guy comes down from the rocks he as climbing and sees bear.
Bear stops digging and sees him.
Guy runs.
Bear chases him down.
Bear eats the guy.
BEAT SHEET COMPLETED!!!
After the beat sheet, write up all the sound effects and speech bubbles and conversation/dialogue you want to be in your comic.
Since comics are a visual medium, highest priority is given to the beats. If a story can’t be told with the art without the dialogue– you messed up and it’s time to rethink your life choices.
Try to keep all your text chunks as short as a tweet. Professionally you don’t want more than 25 words per speech bubble and no more than 250 words per page.
Next is translating the beats to pages…
STRUCTURE OVERVIEW:
[1] point of entry, in media res, hero intro
[2][3] conflict. establish conflict, setting, and mood by the third page. [4][5] rising action/false resolution to conflict/investigation
[6][7] turning point/plot twist/epiphany (this one epic image, to page spread is pivotal, spend a lot of effort into creating this)
[8][9] aftermath/“darkness before dawn”/struggle [10][11] recovery/“rise and conquer”/“fall”
[12] resolution/final end/cliffhanger
[front cover][interior] [interior][back cover]
——————–
My maximum per page is nine panels but I’ve seen pages that have way more. I like to have about 3 to 4 panels per row or less but I’ve seen the “rules” broken before. Advanced comic book artists manipulate time with the number of panels and the size of each panel.
remember, DIAGONALS!!! open up an issue of batman, superman, spider man, deadpool or whatever youre reading theyre everywhere.
———-
…DRAW IN THIS ORDER:
Page 12,
Page 6 and 7 (this is typically one large image that takes up the space of two pages),
Page 1,
and then the rest.
ONLY “DEVIATION” ALLOWED:
Page 12 and 1*
Page 6 and 7,
and then the rest.
*Draw the first and last page as a spread in situations where the beginning of the story mirrors the end of the story.
Cover is dead last.
———-
(If at the very end you find out you need more pages and it’s absolutely unavoidable and totally necessary you have to add them in fours. Try to stick to 12 pages for this crash course.)
——————–
FURTHER NOTES:
Plan and draw the pages in spreads (the twos) since this is how it will appear in print and when you submit them to an editor for review guess what, the pages with an exception to the first and last will be reviewed as spreads.
You at most only need one establishing panel of the setting and environment (scene) per page.
Forget “true to life” perspective outside of the establishing panel). Practice diagonal composition of objects and subjects within panels. For dynamism.
You don’t have to present the text all in one go (one paragraph or bubble). You can and should break up paragraphs, sentences, and if you need to single out words– to make smaller, more easily managed bubbles to scatter through the panel.
Less important moments have smaller panels and or lesser detail. More details (or more word bubbles) slow down time. More drawn detail also creates a concentration of values (it’s darker and sometimes combines together as one shape or mass)
Know your light sources. Control the blacks. Control the values.
Every
time I post a personal meditation I get a person or two asking how
they can perform a similar meditation. Here is a list of the
meditations I have done recently if anyone is interested to see what
I mean:
I
type as if I am having an out of body experience, but in reality I am
having a normal meditation where I am aware of my physical body, but
very focused on my imagination.
These
meditations take place using the platform of your imagination. I
believe the imagination is a highly powerful tool for magical use. In
essence, you are ‘imagining’ what is going on. But I think you will
find that this sort of imagination is different than everyday
daydreams.
You
are not journeying to any outer worlds, you are going deep within
yourself to find whatever you seek. I believe outer worlds can be
contacted using this method, but that is not what we are doing here.
Although
these meditations are within, they can still be scary or
intimidating. Wear a personal protection to help make you feel
comfortable and safe.
I
have very vivid scenes because I have been practicing for so long. In
order to make your meditations more vivid, practice, practice,
practice! Also engage in relaxation exercises before you begin. The
more you do, the better. I recommend deep breathing. I have also
found some youtube relaxation exercises to be excellent.
Step
1: Relaxation
Sit
or lie down in a comfortable, quiet place. Begin your relaxation. The
more relaxed you are, the easier it is to focus on your imagination
and let the story unfold in front of you. Try breathing deeply for
three, seven, and nine breaths. If it helps, turn on ambient sounds
related to the adventure you want to have (for example, I like to
turn on beach sounds when I visit the ocean).
Step
2: Visit the Green Well
When
you are feeling ready to move on, imagine a well in front of you. It
is surrounded by willow and oak trees. Look down in to the well. The
water emits a calming green glow. Because of the glow you know that
this is a magical well that will transport you to a realm within
yourself. Jump in the well and sink to the bottom. If you are like
me, you will physically feel a sinking sensation.
As
you near the bottom of the well, something magical happens. Your
frame of perception shifts, and suddenly you are not sinking, you are
rising! Soon you surface out of the other end of the well, upright
and dry. You see before you a magnificent tree.
Step
2: Visit the Green Ladder
If
the thought of sinking down a well doesn’t sit very well with you, or
you can’t manage the perception shift, instead imagine a ladder. The
ladder is made out of green wood and is very rustic looking. You
understand that this is an old and powerful ladder that will take you
deep down inside yourself. The ladder goes down in to a massive
cavern within the earth. You begin climbing down the ladder. There
are many rungs to climb [you can do deep breathing and counting
exercises as you descend the ladder if you wish], but soon you reach
the bottom.
At
the bottom, it seems the cavern is so large that there is a new sky
with clouds. And the cavern contains a wonderful tree.
Step
3: View the Tree
The
tree you have found is your World Center, like a highway that will
connect you to any place you wish to go within yourself. You notice
that the roots of the tree grow out of the ground, and are as big
around as a house. Spotted along the roots of the tree are doors of
all shapes, sizes, and colors.
These
doors will take you to any place you wish to go. You simply have to
find the right one.
Step
4: Find a Door
Decide
where you would like to visit (a list of ideas is at the end). No
matter where you want to go, use this technique.
State
clearly where you want to go.
Then,
whirl around in a circle and suddenly stop while facing the Great
Tree.
The
first door you see will take you to where you wish to go.
If
you are having trouble finding the ‘right’ door, then simply be aware
that no matter which door you choose, it will be the right one. They
are magic doors.
Step
5: Having Your Adventure
Walk
or teleport to the door and open it. Step through. Inside you will
see what you have asked for.
This
is the difficult part of the meditation, because your mind must fill
in the blanks. Some people find this to be difficult, and indeed some
rooms don’t help at all; I have found rooms which are pitch black or
just a grey mist. I would recommend you begin by asking for things
which your mind can easily fill in, such as physical locations.
Request to be taken to the ocean, a park, or an old house.
Step
6: Interacting with Denizens
You
will most likely meet beings on your adventures. I cannot say what
these beings really are; if they are archetypes we can tap in to, or
parts of our subconscious, or what. Treat them nicely and listen to
what they say, and do not be startled or afraid of them.
Step
7: Leaving
You
must always finish the meditation by going back the way you came. Go
back through the magical door to the Great Tree, then go down the
well or up the ladder, until you return to the starting place. Then,
view yourself laying down or sitting and walk to your body, returning
to it. Finish with a grounding and/or centering technique.
Places
you can visit:
Bodies
of water
Rivers,
lakes, ponds, hot springs, crystal grottoes, mermaid coves, the vast
ocean, underwater cities, tidal pools.
Tracts
of land
Meadows,
enchanted forests, dragon lairs, great mountains, farms, sloping
hills, vast deserts, painted cliffs.
Civilized
areas
Any
famous place, fictional or real; cloud cities, massive libraries,
your personal workspace, your inner temple.
Abstract
concepts
Places
of healing, places of remembrance, places of friendship, places of
learning, places of wisdom, places of power, places of combat.
Things
you can do:
Shapeshift
In
to elementals, animals, mythical creatures, or any form you desire
Change
in size
Large
to small or small to large. Try becoming very small and exploring
tidal pools or forest trees.
Talk
to people
Collect
power objects
If
a particularly interesting or meaningful object catches your eye,
collect it and put it in a special bag. The next time you meditate,
look for the bag again and inside of it should be all the things you
have collected.
Explore
Look
around and allow your mind to populate your area with scenery,
objects, and people.
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