Friday, April 20, 2012

Process

So, since I've missed a couple of days and I've been doing an extra hour for my employer the past couple, I figured I should do a deluxe sort of post. So, here's something interesting that occurred today.

While I was drawing today, I did something interesting. One of my employers' favorite subjects is these guys:
The Quack Pack! Everybody's favorite Huey, Dewey, and Louie as punk 90s teenagers with attitude and bad hair!
Unfortunately this presents a problem. Unlike Ali and Ali's sister, there's not just two of them. There's three of them. This makes a request for "Quack Pack" kind of difficult to draw in an expedited manner.
Often, I end up covering parts of them or putting them in similar poses with slight differences, like so (from today):
However, with the three hours wearing on, my client starts to get a little antsy, so I decided (almost right after the above drawing) to try something a little different to draw them all faster. The request was "Quack Pack, Dry Mouth Gulch." That means cowboy costumes ahoy!

So, throwing off all my instincts to try and add personality, I created this little doo-hickey:
Fig. 1: a doo-hickey
This was my template.
Then I copied it three times and worked on one at a time, adding colors, expressions and hats. First was Huey, who I tried to make...red. And smarmy. Because that's how he rolls. Also, I colored him first because he's the leader, and gave him the best hat, because that's what he do.
Fig. 2: smarm
Then I drew Dewey, who needed some thinking. Styles. I decided to make him have a ten-gallon hat because it looks so silly that no Western hero would wear it, and every sidekick ought to wear one.
Fig. 3: thinky-boy
Also, he's a thinkin' type and more calm than the other two (at least in my head), so I gave him a casual...erm...if you just change the eyelids does it count as an "expression?"
At any rate, I did that.
Finally, it was time for Louie. The hat was again the starting point. Because when nothing else changes, what does change really defines the character. I chose a badguy hat for some reason. I guess the other roles were taken. Or something.
I thought for a second about making him an accountant/desk-jockey with a green visor and those sleeve-band...things...because that would have fit the "green" thing. However, since he's the muscle I didn't end up doing that because the muscle is never a desk-jockey! Those dang pencil-pushers!
Fig. 4: so villainous
So there you have it.
Or rather, here you have it:
Fig. 5: Final Product!
All together at last!

4 comments:

  1. Seeing your thought process is the most fun, my doge.

    Did he buy it?

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    Replies
    1. Hayup. I've used this technique a couple times since then and he didn't seem to mind.
      So is this like in the 60s when animation dialed back so much that we ended up with things like Speed Racer?

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    2. Oh, wow. Probably, in fact. Those poses and expressions and everything.

      But Speed Racer has its own kind of beauty, right? AND YOUR WACKY.

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    3. ...Can I say that I especially liked that you used the word "your" there?

      I especially liked that you used the word "your" there.

      Because it's beautiful.

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