Taking Lessons From Eastern Animation

 

 

 

Doodling with pen, I studied and practiced some characters from anime until I figured out what I was missing in my own drawings. Then, I was able to create this drawing. I've long admired eastern-style animation for being able to create aesthetically beautiful characters with so few lines. They've really broken down what makes a drawn character attractive to look at. Many western animated characters have "Appeal," but most character designs could hardly be considered attractive. This is somewhat intentional on our part too. Ever since The Simpsons, American creators have been competing with each other to make equally nonsensical, avant-garde character designs that still read as human. Look at Phineas and Ferb or Gravity Falls. To be clear, I don't personally dislike this style. I love Gravity Falls and Phineas and Ferb. Fanart of those shows has featured on this blog. I owe my practice in art to Gravity Falls and its simplistic character style. I just want to be able to do something else.

It took me a long time to figure out how to make something like this consistently and without a specific reference. When a character looks attractive, it doesn't feel like a lot of work has been done. It just feels "right." You'll notice on Atla here (the character pictured) the shading of the eyes, how the shoulders are formed from misshapen rectangles rather than circles, that the shoulders are connected to the neck with a concave curve instead of a straight line. These were some of the elements I misunderstood.

One downside of doodling with pen is that your practice work may bleed onto the next page. I tried to mess with the contrast and colors of the picture so that my drawings on the opposite page were not as distracting. I'm sure someone who has more understanding of camera work could do better. 

Praise God. I love you. God's will be done.