Donut Crumbs and Other Small Things
Today article is small and mostly little donut crumbs of thoughts that came up in conversations over the past few days. You know the kind of shop talk that collaborating artists have when they interact. So I thought I'd share them with you.
Stretch Your Boundaries
Cartoons are supposed to be extreme caricatures. You want to loosen up and exaggerate past the boundaries you have in mind. Stretching actions and your ideas past their practical limits adds more interest to your work and makes it more “readable” on the screen. I think that you have to go beyond what you would normally think an action needs. Otherwise most people are too rigid and will understate things and that's too subtle to read well in a fast moving cartoon.
Creating is Evolutionary
I think it is important to let your unconscious mind work for you when you are between drawing and brainstorming sessions. A lot of people make it seem like decisions are made at a single sitting, but my experience is that significant background processing really takes place and you have to account for it in how you work and what you expect from each session. Drawing like any skill takes practice which instills confidence and creating is also about confidence. You want to develop the confidence not to force your work but to let it evolve.
Software is a Blessing and a Curse
We all tend to let our software take way too important a role in our work. Yes, without the software, producing animated content would be out of reach for most people so that is the blessing provided by the software. But the curse is that so often we let our software monopolize our thinking and we miss our real objective which is to produce entertaining and interesting content. We all fall victim to this distraction, just do your best to remember why you are making content and what your trying to say. Tools are just that, tools.
Stretch Your Boundaries
Cartoons are supposed to be extreme caricatures. You want to loosen up and exaggerate past the boundaries you have in mind. Stretching actions and your ideas past their practical limits adds more interest to your work and makes it more “readable” on the screen. I think that you have to go beyond what you would normally think an action needs. Otherwise most people are too rigid and will understate things and that's too subtle to read well in a fast moving cartoon.
Creating is Evolutionary
I think it is important to let your unconscious mind work for you when you are between drawing and brainstorming sessions. A lot of people make it seem like decisions are made at a single sitting, but my experience is that significant background processing really takes place and you have to account for it in how you work and what you expect from each session. Drawing like any skill takes practice which instills confidence and creating is also about confidence. You want to develop the confidence not to force your work but to let it evolve.
Software is a Blessing and a Curse
We all tend to let our software take way too important a role in our work. Yes, without the software, producing animated content would be out of reach for most people so that is the blessing provided by the software. But the curse is that so often we let our software monopolize our thinking and we miss our real objective which is to produce entertaining and interesting content. We all fall victim to this distraction, just do your best to remember why you are making content and what your trying to say. Tools are just that, tools.
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