The Running Lad

This one was a real challenge, a real learning experience, and as frustrated as I got in attempting to draw it... I'm glad I did.

There are several contentious experiences contained in this little learning package... and package is what it is!  This was hard for me to draw, I won't pretend otherwise.

First, I'm using an Intuos drawing tablet and that means working with digital files.  My normal practice is to pull up the original picture for a reference filling one half of the computer screen and my drawing space taking up the other half.  Great for drawing each figure one at a time.  But guess what happened when I compared the first two side-by-side?  They might have been close cousins but they clearly weren't the same little boy.

Lesson one: back in the day animators worked with multiple references and light boxes.  They could overlay a new sheet over the previous drawing so they kept the basic proportions and features consistent from one to the next.  That won't happen when you isolate one .tiff file at a time even if you have the original series as a references.  Little variations will creep in.

So I had to think like an animator.

I eventually figured it out but at first there was pronounced variation in the head shapes and features.  Thus I learned to draw this bodies first... referencing one to the other so they were fairly consistent... and drawing the heads last.  Again referencing one to the other.

What should have been a one-night exercise took me the better part of a week.  Whew!  Puff puff pant pant.

Oh well, onward!