#33: Doodling is fun!

When Shane and I went to McKay a couple weeks ago, I randomly picked up a book on drawing cartoons just because. I have always been interested in drawing because my dad is an architect and can crank out some amazing drawings, and of course, I always wanted to be just like him. I didn't end up as an architect (that market is soooo saturated right now) but I still doodle occasionally. I don't get to practice very much and my drawings can't hold a candle to his, but it's still fun. 

I pulled out the cartoon book tonight and decided to give it a shot. Not to toot my own horn here but I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out! 

This guy in the hat is actually the first thing I attempted, from a diagram showing how to show perspective and get the face shapes right. The top three are using the drawing techniques taught in the book, the bottom one I freehanded. Yep, I'll be using their methods from now on haha.

Next I got into the actual "lessons". I decided to flesh these out a lot more. I'm a perfectionist so you can bet that the chins took at least 10 tries before I got them halfway straight and not all squiggly. I'm a lot better at rough sketching out a line, but when it comes down to actually drawing ONE line and that's it, I have trouble. 

My sister has given these next drawings all names and elaborate back stories, which I will share in each photo's caption. 

This is Roy J. Marcus. He's a used car salesman who lives in Oklahoma with
his wife and three kids. 

I didn't worry too much about drawing them EXACTLY like the drawings in the book, but tried to stick pretty close. Roy's eyes are a little less beady than the illustration, and he also has a much toothier grin. 

This is Stanley H. Fillmore. He is Roy's cousin, and the manager of the
local chicken shack. He has a wife and two kids.

This is Susie Q. Marcus, Roy's wife. She works at the bank. 

Susie gave me the most trouble of all three. I just couldn't get her eyes to look quite right (drawing perfect-ish circles is hard!) and they always ended up a little too far apart. Oh well, close enough. 

Just in case you're interested, here's what a sample lesson looks like. I had a lot of fun working on these and hopefully that can be a regular thing in the future.