Sunday, April 17, 2016

"Sign Here" (aka "Paperwork")


Poop joke! Field-tested out in "the wild" (ie camping out at the cafe) to reaffirm that there's fortunately a sizable enough contingent of folks knowledgeable about the traditional terminology of animal crap to get the double entendre. Not to mention the veritable avalanche of paperwork that's currently cresting everything else in the studio, along with the usual bureaucratic and administrative hamster-maze we all have to scamper through as Responsible Adults.
If it's one thing that always reminds me that I'm a cartoonist, is that regardless of the workload - in fact, almost in direct proportional opposition to - I'll keep getting distracted by what's on the drawing board. And the more you do the more you want to do... it kickstarts a feedback cycle of creating: this panel begats that one, which in turn begats a bunch more until a cascading, fractal mess of ideas + accompanying sketches and the myriad of intermediate stages of completion all begin to blossom simultaneously. Not a bad place to be, or "problem" to have.


Teachable Moment®™: Even in a simple panel like this, the employment of basic linear perspective is a subtle yet crucial factor in promote pictoral depth in the picture plane. Reminds me of a common  exchange I have with beginning drawing students who need some additional input on assignments and critique pieces: I encourage them to shoot a quick pic of the piece in progress if they hit a speed bump, and with a few minutes of Photoshop I can usually bounce back some suggestions on correcting any problems. Now, does it matter that it's not mathematically precise in measurement? Not really, especially considering the task it's supposed to accomplish, namely that of successfully rendering the illusion of a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional sheet of paper. And if it works, the simple criteria carries over from classroom exercises and corresponding assignments (see here, here and here from the archives) all the way to a basic cartoon panel. In conjunction with demonstrations I think it really helps to see the principle not only in action but illustrated in an unassuming context such as this published panel for example.
Or failing that, it's a poop joke.

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