Make like an Apeman.

I was listening to the Kinks song ‘Apeman’ and got the idea for an Apeman cartoon that would be simple and hopefully in some way instructive.

I admire all kinds of cartoon styles but my own preference when drawing is for a clean solid look with no cross hatching for shadows.  Everything is expressed with a clear thick black line, and any colour is usually solid with little blending.

Here’s the finished cartoon.

But why does he look like that? 

First, he’s solid and chunky and could almost be fitted into a series of squares or oblongs.  The head, torso and legs all fit into one vertical oblong, the head by itself fits into an oblong, almost conforming to a square.  Another long horizontal oblong takes in the arms, crossing over the body, and a similar smaller oblong takes in the feet.
 

Squares around the head and body - the head - the arms - and feet.

I didn’t plan this too consciously and it’s not some tedious rule that has to be conformed to, but if you can keep squares and oblongs in mind it works for a type of cartoon where a solid robust effect is needed.

Other aspects of the design are a big head with a small body and large eyes which look cute.  But why?  Because they are infant characteristics.

Many cartoon characters look like this, just look at Mickey Mouse.  When he first appeared in the 1920’s he looked like an adult.  He had adult proportions, a small head with a long body, a big nose and small eyes and ears.  As he moved into the thirties his nose got smaller and his head bigger.  His body also grew smaller, by the forties the process was complete, he’d done what we all wished we could do – grown younger.  He had a big head small nose and body and large eyes.  He’d grown into an infant!  This was a gradual process of small accumulative changes.

 But making quick small changes can really effect the nature of a character.

With the Apeman we can change a few things and see what effect that has.

First if we take out the line over Apeman's eyes, his browridge or eyebrows, then I feel the effect makes him look blanker, less intelligent, but possibly a little friendlier.

Apeman with Browridge line removed.

 If we give him a different mouth, a kind of fixed grin he looks slightly more aggressive.

Apeman with fixed grin.

 The third mouth is obviously designed to suggest snarling aggression, but I think it also suggests craziness.

Apeman with snarling aggressive mouth.

 If we give him small eyes and an aggressive mouth then that really increases the feeling of craziness, and he suddenly becomes an Apeman you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.  (Are there any Apemen you'd like to meet in a dark alley?)

Apeman with tiny eyes and aggressive mouth.

What about the friendly smile with the small eyes?

Apeman with nice smile and tiny eyes.

Well, we're back to square one, except now he seems a little less mad, but slightly more stupid.

But if we were to introduce those brow ridges again -

Well I think they now make him seem suddenly cunning, like he knows something.

What do you think?

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An attack of the Red Devils.

Hi, I'm a bright red brick chucking imp - pleased to meet 'cha!

Sometime ago after stumbling on the Print On Demand site Zazzle, and determining to have a go at selling at least one item on it – I was looking around for an idea, a theme I suppose, and I hit on devils.  I don’t know why I felt I needed a theme; possibly it was so I wouldn’t lose interest.  After a while I downgraded the idea to imps.  Not quite as nasty as devils, less sickly sweet than fairies and elves.

Then doodling, I came up with this image, and I gave it the temporary title ‘Brick chucking devil’.   I liked him, he seemed to have a bit of character, was bold and therefore noticeable – in fact he was impish and my idea for a theme began to grow.

 

This sketch, even though I liked it was still just a sketch, done in pencil on paper and then scanned and quickly coloured.  I felt it would look better after I had drawn a proper clean outline using a graphic tablet.  I like the strong clean outline, with a big vibrant colour.  With different designs maybe a subject might benefit from some patterning in the way of stripes or spots to give it some life and you have something that can be seen across a room.

This simple imp was the first thing I designed for my project, and I have used the same approach to design a handful of others just like him.  They’re all rendered with a rounded realistic feel, with strong light sources hitting them at the side.  I like a good strong yellow for the one side with the opposite side illuminated by a blue.  The light should zing and sparkle and give a slick glossy effect.

Here’s the latest addition to the small red imp family, looking highly pleased with himself.  Note the light effects on the teeth,  I tried to give an appearance of them glittering in a burst of light, like a flash photograph.  I suppose that’s the look I’m going for, the celebrity imp caught in the flashlights glare.

 

This bright red Imp used 'Vrill' toothpaste!

To achieve the effect is easy enough, use an art package that has layers, Photoshop - Painter - Corel Draw, and draw a thick black outline on a floating layer, then place colour underneath on another layer.  You might prefer to scan a drawing, and then have that also on a separate layer, with the opacity reduced.  This helps to guide your hand while redrawing it, without tending to compel you to follow the original drawing.  It’s always best to be a little flexible, and you might want to make changes to the redrawing as you go along.  The thing we need is boldness, and a simple approach that can be used quickly and even adapted to use again for other similar designs.

For an idea of how the different stages look, here’s an image of just the outline of the finished design  Although it looks similar to the pencil sketch it isn't traced, just drawn using a bamboo tablet using the original for reference.

 

I may be smiling - but actually I'm feeling a little drained.

And her'e a look at the finished article, after a coloured layer is placed beneath the lines.

Ah, that's better.

The original drawing at the top of the page and this one do look very similar, the greatest change being the size of the eyes.  In the original I made them quite small, but found the 'cuteness' quota was improved by enlarging the eyes.  The tiny eyes I originally gave him made him look insane or stupid, which wasn't the path I wanted to take.

Finally I’m well aware that some people don’t like any talk about devils, imps and so forth, but it’s a big world wide web, and those people will either have to indulge me or go to a less devilish corner of places www.  If you’re still with me, why not check out my website, at the Implounge?

http://implounge.jimdo.com/ 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/128857877@N07/