Project Five: stepping back and reassessing

I had some fun yesterday transforming a Google map structure into a model.  That would be fine if I was creating a realistic drawing... but when I noticed I spending way too damn much time playing with the perspective grid... gawd that thing can be infuriating... at that point I asked myself: exactly what am I doing?

The object is to draw "cartooney" houses... not realistic houses.  So, back to the drawing board.

Not so long ago I saw Paranorman and what I really loved about that movie was the look and design of the sets.  Although the artists at Laika Studios created actual physical models, the structures looked so wonderfully cartooney.  See if you agree:

You can see the amount of work that goes into these sets:

Think anybody at Laika cares whether the perspective lines are exact?  Neither do I.



So I got to thinking: what about my Google house?  How to make it look cartooney?  Well, it seems Laika prefers 'em thin and tall and they really exaggerate the angle of the roof.  Big doors and windows and squeezed dimensions that couldn't possibly be comfortable for the inhabitants. 

With all those Photoshop tools, couldn't I do that with my house?

What do you think?

Man, that's a far cry from how it appears in Google Maps.  But tall and thin, with exaggerated roof angles... it's a cartoon house!

I'm starting to really dig this pad!

I think to capture the "cartooney-ness" you don't even need a guide.  Draw it freehand.  The crazy angles will come out like a cartoon, like it or not.  See if you can avoid any perfectly straight lines.  That's tomorrow nights' project.

Stay tuned.