Fundraiser For Dexter

Last night there was a fundraiser held for Dexter, a sweet little tyke who has been battling cancer and other major health problems. No little two year old should have to go through what he has, yet through it all he is a happy baby who is adored by family and all who meet him. Dexter is the nephew of Derek Spencer, one of my former students, now in his graduating year at Sheridan College Animation. Derek should be commended for putting together this fundraiser for Dexter, and he's lucky to have such a lot of wonderful friends among his fellow students who were all there to lend a hand and support the cause through donations and volunteering. It was very touching for me to see just how much they all did to help out Derek's sister Lisa and her husband Dan, who have been facing mounting medical bills through this crisis.

Derek had asked if I'd be able to help out by doing some caricatures to help raise donations. I was honoured and happy to take part in the event, and here are the caricatures I drew during the evening:

More Character Types

Here are a bunch more sketches drawn from video, like the ones I showcased on my Oct. 4th entry. The ones pictured above are all of guests who have appeared on the Charlie Rose interview show seen on PBS. The show's website features numerous archived clips that are just great to sketch from, since the interviews allow you to study the subject in medium close-up, moving just enough that you can get a good feel for the design of the face and body, as well as their personality. I deliberately have drawn guests who I am not familiar with, as the point of the exercise is to take an honest approach to seeing the "design" of a face, in the size, shape and relative placement of the facial features on various head shapes, without getting hung up on whether or not a good likeness has been achieved. These sketches can then later be used as a starting point in developing "Character Types" for your cartoons and animation designs.

Here are direct links to all of the clips I used, so you can see how I interpreted the video reference:
Alison Gopnik
Klaus Schwab
Yang Lan
Jack Ma
Annie Cohen-Solal
Tung Chee-Hwa



The montage above is just of various people I have sketched recently from TV, so unfortunately I can't link to any clips for you. But I post them in the hope that it will encourage some of my readers to try this method of sketching people from video reference while taking a more caricatured approach. Specifically, I offer these up as examples to my Sheridan students as being representative of what I will be looking for in your ongoing assignment that I'll be assessing at the end of the fall semester.

Sketching Character Reference

I put this post together to tie in with what I'll be starting to cover in my Character Design classes at Sheridan College this week. The topic is "Character Types", and these are a few samples I just sketched yesterday to illustrate what I'll be stressing in this subject. I'm a firm believer that an animated or illustrated character should aspire to be distinct as an individual - the visual design suggesting a certain personality through the physical face and body type. The character designer on an animated film should serve the same role as a casting director on a live-action production. Just as a casting director tries to cast an actor or actress who has a believable "look" for a particular role, so should the character designer be trying to create a character that visually suggests the personality to be portrayed in the film.

There is a tendency for the novice to simply design a character off the top of his head, without considering what physical aspects and personality traits seem to work well in combination together to communicate a clear visual statement to the audience. My view is that, before an artist can have any knowledgeable output, one must first have some informed input. Therefore, I strongly recommend sketching people in the world around you, either from life or, as is my preference, from studying various character types on video in order to build up a library from which to draw upon when designing a specific character. I prefer the latter way of working, as video provides a way of studying the subject in a completely controlled manner, allowing one to study the subject at one's leisure. It helps to see the subject in motion, which makes it easier to see the physical "design" of the face and body type in order to then exaggerate and abstract it. Additionally, seeing the subject in motion and displaying physical nuances through body language, expressions, vocal mannerisms, etc. makes the resulting sketches far more successful in capturing personality and inner life than one would likely achieve by working from a still photo image.

Anyway, here are some samples sketched from YouTube that hopefully will illustrate what I'm saying more clearly. It should be noted, however, that the goal of the sketches is not to come up with a perfect likeness of the subject, but rather to make an honest attempt at seeing a unique design in the face and body type and using that as a springboard for abstraction and caricature:


Here are the links to the YouTube videos I sketched these from:
Character #1 Character #2
Character #3 Character #4


Here are the links to these videos:
Character #1 Character #2
Character #3 Character #4

Ironically, the "tough guy" character I've sketched from the YouTube clip is an imagined personality suggested by the physical type, as the fellow in the video really comes across as a very friendly and gentle sort. But in animation and cartooning, perception can carry more weight than being literal to the subject. Remember, you're trying to put forward a visual impression that your audience will understand at a quick glance. When required, more subtlety can be developed though story and animated characterization as your film progresses.

Fan Expo 2010 (pt.2)

Even more than the exhibits and stuff for sale, I think the real fun of Fan Expo is seeing all of the fans who turn up in costume. Here's a sampling of what we saw at this year's event:

Here's Sheridan instructor Apollo Okamura with students, Vanessa Stefaniuk and Nicole Gagnon, as well as Vanessa's brother Robert.

Vanessa strikes an action pose.

Iain Lew Kee as She-Ra poses with He-Man.



Just what the HECK is this thing?!!

Some Star Wars characters.




HOLY HOOD ORNAMENT, BATMAN!!!






Hey, that's no Boy Wonder!

Baskin' Robin, perhaps?

Arrrrh, girls, let me have a Pikachu!

It's those wacky anime kids!

Whatever it is you're delivering, I'll be more than happy to sign for it!

Yes, there are lots of cute girls at Fan Expo, all happy to pose for photos!





I hope this girl heals up okay. Maybe I'll hang around while they remove her bandages, just to make sure she's all right.

This girl had everyone's head turning. I found out later that she's Kat Curtis, "The Naked Nerd" from The Naked News show. I'll have to tune in sometime to see what she uncovers.

This poor alien creature is obviously pooped out from breathing in the earth's atmosphere all day. It must be time to gather up the swag and head back to the home planet.

"Sayonara, people of planet earth!"

Fan Expo 2010 (pt. 1)

On Saturday, August 28th I went to Toronto's Fan Expo at the Toronto Convention Centre down on Front St. Here's the first selection of pics I took that day at the event. I'll post up all of the costumed fans in a second installment.

"Welcome to Fan Expo 2010, foolish mortals".

Some neat Batman sculpts.

More DC Comics figurines.

Holy Dynamic Duo! It's Adam West and Burt Ward from TV's Batman!

Here's the (now autographed) caricature I drew of Julie Newmar, who played Catwoman on Batman and "Stupefyin' Jones" from the movie version of Li'l Abner, among other roles.

Here I am with the still stupefyin' Julie Newmar herself!

Here's legendary actor, Ernest Borgnine, who was the main reason for me wanting to attend Fan Expo this year. Ernie was just wonderful, greeting all of his fans with a big friendly handshake and happy to chat with them.

Ernie was thrilled with the caricature I gave him, and autographed the second copy for me. Though a lot of years have passed since he starred in McHale's Navy, he still has that great big gap-toothed smile and a real twinkle in his eyes. Just a really sweet guy!

This is my pal, Ken Steacy, comic artist extraordinaire.

Here's the always fun Lar DeSouza, a great cartoonist and a fellow member of the International Society of Caricature Artists (ISCA).

Coincidentally, only a week before Fan Expo I had stumbled upon the website of Jason Edmiston. This guy is just a brilliant talent, shown here with one of his original acrylic paintings.

Here are Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera, Sheridan grads and founders of the very successful Schoolism online art courses. They also were responsible for many of the character design concepts for Tim Burton's recent Alice in Wonderland.
.
Sheridan grads, Jen Tisdale and Braden Poirier sell their wares.

Sheridan grads, Damian Czerniakiewicz and Christina Deljanov, with some of Chris's great art prints on display.

Sheridan grad, Perry Osuna. He was in the year before I started teaching, so I didn't have the pleasure of having him in my class. Very talented cartoonist!

Sheridan grads, Ogi Grujic and Brian Paquette ham it up for the camera.

Recent grads, Ben Thomas and Wayne-Michael Lee ponder what life will now be like after Sheridan College. If animation doesn't work out, they could always become masked crime fighters like Batman.

I'll continue in the next post with all of the fun costumed fans!....