Sunday, 28 December 2014

Make like an Apeman.

I was listening to the Kinks song ‘Apeman’ and got the idea for an Apeman cartoon that would be simple and hopefully in some way instructive.

I admire all kinds of cartoon styles but my own preference when drawing is for a clean solid look with no cross hatching for shadows.  Everything is expressed with a clear thick black line, and any colour is usually solid with little blending.

Here’s the finished cartoon.

But why does he look like that? 

First, he’s solid and chunky and could almost be fitted into a series of squares or oblongs.  The head, torso and legs all fit into one vertical oblong, the head by itself fits into an oblong, almost conforming to a square.  Another long horizontal oblong takes in the arms, crossing over the body, and a similar smaller oblong takes in the feet.
Squares around the head and body - the head - the arms - and feet.

I didn’t plan this too consciously and it’s not some tedious rule that has to be conformed to, but if you can keep squares and oblongs in mind it works for a type of cartoon where a solid robust effect is needed.

Other aspects of the design are a big head with a small body and large eyes which look cute.  But why?  Because they are infant characteristics.

Many cartoon characters look like this, just look at Mickey Mouse.  When he first appeared in the 1920’s he looked like an adult.  He had adult proportions, a small head with a long body, a big nose and small eyes and ears.  As he moved into the thirties his nose got smaller and his head bigger.  His body also grew smaller, by the forties the process was complete, he’d done what we all wished we could do – grown younger.  He had a big head small nose and body and large eyes.  He’d grown into an infant!  This was a gradual process of small accumulative changes.

 But making quick small changes can really effect the nature of a character.

With the Apeman we can change a few things and see what effect that has.

First if we take out the line over Apeman's eyes, his browridge or eyebrows, then I feel the effect makes him look blanker, less intelligent, but possibly a little friendlier.

Apeman with Browridge line removed.
 If we give him a different mouth, a kind of fixed grin he looks slightly more aggressive.

Apeman with fixed grin.

 The third mouth is obviously designed to suggest snarling aggression, but I think it also suggests craziness.

Apeman with snarling aggressive mouth.
 If we give him small eyes and an aggressive mouth then that really increases the feeling of craziness, and he suddenly becomes an Apeman you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.  (Are there any Apemen you'd like to meet in a dark alley?)

Apeman with tiny eyes and aggressive mouth.
What about the friendly smile with the small eyes?

Apeman with nice smile and tiny eyes.
Well, we're back to square one, except now he seems a little less mad, but slightly more stupid.

But if we were to introduce those brow ridges again -

Well I think they now make him seem suddenly cunning, like he knows something.
What do you think?

My Website

My Flickr page. 

1 comment: