guthrie

Cartoon Summer Special!

Gee whizaroo..! How's come there have been so precious few cartoons and posts on this idiotic blog the past few months?  I do firmly believe it can be remedied, and should like to delight my audience with a shed-load of brush and ink offerings for the coming month of August. I'm half tempted to write a few coherent lines about each drawing as well, but let us see how that pans out.

Here is the first instalment, as a gentle countdown to the coming month. I tried a couple of things with this illustration - firstly, it served as more practice in using the diagonal vanishing point. Projecting a square onto the drawing and using it as a sort of grid or floor plan -  I find that very useful while drawing, it seems to help give me a feeling of space and proportion. And more often than not, I'll keep the grid as a tiled floor. I ought to draw a carpet one day, now I think of it.

And secondly, I wanted to use more blacks in a constructive way. I find it difficult to "spot" blacks - it's kind of a juggling act between contrast and interest and clarity. And clarity is what I find most difficult. Obviously, the floorboards and more of the floor should be in shadows here (not to mention most of the figure...) but in trying to develop my own style, I tend to stylize the reality of it all. The lighting could be much more dynamic, much more dramatic - it's something I have to work on.