"Come along with us to Zoobilee Zoo." I don't remember too much about any particular episodes, but I do have the theme song embedded in my brain (below for your own torcher) and think I may have had a boyhood crush on the kangaroo. So I thought I'd take a shot at the characters in a bit of an animation style. Sadly, time got away from me this week and I narrowed it down to one character. Ultimately I'm not too happy with it. He ended up looking way more like Barack Obama than I ever intended. If I were to take a second pass at this, I would probably try to push it further and make it a direct caricature. There are some hand problems too which are making me real close to proclaiming that I will no longer draw hands without a reference for as long as I live.
The one thing I am kind of happy with is its my first try at simulating a "marker look" while still working completely digitally. I found a site with some pretty interesting brushes and may be trying some different styles in future pieces. All in all, I learned something from this piece and I think its important that I try and take something away from everything I work on.
You can see the original sketch over at my personal site:
Mayor Ben Sketch
Marker Brushes:
Premium Pixels
-Ben
Personal Blog: Still-Reaching
Twitter: NeedYourDisease
Oh man, I remember clicking thru the channels and catching a clip or two occasionally. That theme IS a fine piece of mind flotsam.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry if you think this didn't work, you have to go thru hundreds of not working drawings to get the good ones. I like your direction, taking him away from a human in a suit to more of a cat guy. I wonder if you pushed him further away from human? Plus he does look like a relative of Ben Verine, you aren't that far off!
Barack or not, you nailed the look of the dude. I watched the hell out of that show without ever liking it.
ReplyDeleteLet's talk about hands next time we see each other. I had an instructor break it down for me in a way that's helped me immensely. Link to your brushes site?
I'll take you up on that. The markers were from Premium Pixel. Don't let the name fool you, they're free. I put the link at the bottom of the post.
DeleteI want to hear that hand talk too. Art club!
DeleteIt amazes me at times how much you work reminds me of Bruce Timms. As far as hands, they can be such a bitch to draw. I had another artist explain to me that hands are just like faces. Every person is different and shape, texture and pose can reflect the character as well. I think comicbook characters are a good example. (See any villain caught soliloquizing whilst using extreme dramatic hand gestures.) After clicking on the image I can see your line weights a little better. I think if you keep the principal of line weight in the back of your mind...not to far back :D, it can be a huge help. And add a lot more depth to your work...it's a constant struggle..I still struggle with it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think my problem is that I'm zooming in so much while I'm inking that I'm not getting the single, clean sweeps that I want. Its definitely something I'm wanting to work on in the future.
ReplyDeleteBen do you ink by hand at all, or just digital?
DeleteThis show would have been a million times better i fit had been an animated show in a style half as cool as this, nice job Ben.
ReplyDelete