More Squash and Stretch + Facial Expressions

Squash and Stretch on the Head

I am finding that I have to do warm-ups, like in figure drawing or running track. My first bunch of drawings at the begining of a session are really bad, then they get better as I loose myself in the drawing.

Taking lessons from John K and Preston Blair

Head construction. Yeah, that looks good. But I wasn't drawing that well a few hours ago. I think I learned the concept of the Head Construction spread quite well, but it took a couple of sheets of paper (and I should probably do more) to grasp what was really going on. The main points to hammer into your head are perspective, solid construction and placement of features. My heads were getting good and solid and tight by the time in stopped about half an hour ago. You learn more stuff the more you do it. Doing it is definetly better than reading about it.

Click Here to see my the full page of "More Head Construction." If you must, click here for my first page of Head Construction.

John K's Animation School Revisited

The wikipedia article on John K no longer has the convenient list of links to his animation lessons, so here you go:

John K's Animation School Lessons
Lesson 1:Construction of the head
Lesson 2:Squash and Stretch on heads
Lesson 3:How to check your copies-Proportion
Lesson 4: Legged Characters
Lesson 5: Line Of Action, Silhouettes
Lesson 6:Construction of the head (Advanced)
Lesson 7:When Generic is a Good Thing
Lesson 8: Proportions affect design-Contrasts
Lesson 9: Hands-Simplifying complicated things
Color Theory
Color Theories for Cartoons- Garish versus Warm
Color Theory: Pee and Poo colors versus Colorful Greys
Color Theory- look at the sky before you paint a sunset
Color Theory- good color without a lot of money - Art Lozzi HB
Color Theory - does cost equal quality?
Color Theory - eye relief
Color Theory - steal from anime if you can't think of anything yourself
Color Theory - neutral or natural colors
Color Theory- Art Lozzi - Interview - Early Days At Hanna Barbera
Color and BG Painting Reference-Old Golden Books
Color Theory-Art Lozzi on Bob Gentle-Skeeter Trouble
Art Lozzi- scooter looter-paint technique-BG painting
Color Theory- Art Lozzi explains some technique
Color Theory- color isolated from detailed technique-Yogi Bear "High Fly Guy", 1958
Composition
COMPOSITION For Layout and BG artists - part 1 - Framing
Composition 2 - Intersection
COMPOSITION 3 For Layout and BG artists - Clear Staging
Composition 4 - Staging Groups Of Characters
Composition 5 - EXTREMELY IMPORTANT CONCEPT! Negative VS Positive space
Composition 6- Avoid The Middle, Asymmetry is more natural and interesting
Composition 7 - compose your poses together - also very important!
COMPOSITION 8 For Layout and BG artists - form over detail, lettering, study other artists