Doodle 014 - Studying and the sea.

Well, I figured out why I was feeling so down yesterday, I was starting to feel ill and didn't realize it until very early this morning. In the end I had to stay home to make sure I was all OK for the rest of the week.

I hate missing work, but since I was stuck here I spent part of the day getting better and the other drawing.

On time to time it is a good idea to look at the artwork of masters in the area you would like to apply your focus on. In today's case I pulled out my copy of "The Art of Tangled". I bought this book a couple of months back.

I am a big fan of Glen Keane, if the name doesn't ring a bell, he is one of the master animators and character designers who have helped develop characters like Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Tarzan from Disney's Tarzan, Aladdin, The Beast, Rapunzel and Eugene (AKA Flynn Rider) and many more.

The Art of Tangled has many development sketches for nearly all of the characters, along with an awesome design section, I really love it.

To help myself learn things I use the development sketches as way to figure out how the original artist laid down and drew the characters, then I try to draw them myself.

I started with Rapunzel:

Rapunzel* - Sketch from reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 30 mins.

I drew the one on the left first, then decided to copy a difficult expression (on the right). My drawings are close to the originals, but still need a lot more practice.

Rapunzel* - Sketch without reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Then I tried to draw Rapunzel again without copying a drawing to begin with. I chose to draw her with her short hair, she is probably reading a book about traveling.

Next up was Flynn:

Flynn* - Sketch from reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

Flynn* - Sketch from reference. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine notebook. Aprox 20 mins.

The second drawing was way harder from me. I was so tired by the time I finished these I decided to not try and wing a drawing of Flynn without a reference.

Instead of that I drew an original doodle:

Mermaid - Sketch from memory. Graphite and mechanical pencil on plain moleskine and notebook. Aprox 15 mins.

The first time I watched The Little Mermaid on theaters it was a Japanese version. My mom and I made it a movie day. In that version the mermaid turned into foam, just like in the original version.

When Disney's version rolled around several years later I was indignant that Ariel didn't turn into foam in the end. By then I was already quite a bit of a book lover, so  it made me a bit upset lol.

*(Legal disclaimer: None of the Disney characters pictured above belong to me. These drawings are meant only as a didactic tool and not to be reproduced nor sold.)