He does a lot of animal characters and two things I always notice about them, even in the rough sketches, are the character's skin, and it's skull. Isn't that strange? The small far apart eyes that he gives them accentuates the cheekbones, as well as the empty space that smaller eyes leave on the face (so many cartoon characters have such large eyes)- extra room for foreheads, nose bridges etc... Check out this lion, and this dragon or even better, this whole mess of creatures. Chris also always puts interesting little wrinkles and folds in the skin also, at least on the face. Anyway, this wildebeest-thing, is a vain attempt, not only to draw like Chris, but also to push beyond my own conventions.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Wildebeest ala Sanders
I felt like trying to draw something the way Chris Sanders does. If you remember sometime back I got a bit philosophical about his style. I'm sure my analysis was totally inadequate- how can you sum up any artist, much less one as unique as Mr. Sanders, in a blog post?
He does a lot of animal characters and two things I always notice about them, even in the rough sketches, are the character's skin, and it's skull. Isn't that strange? The small far apart eyes that he gives them accentuates the cheekbones, as well as the empty space that smaller eyes leave on the face (so many cartoon characters have such large eyes)- extra room for foreheads, nose bridges etc... Check out this lion, and this dragon or even better, this whole mess of creatures. Chris also always puts interesting little wrinkles and folds in the skin also, at least on the face. Anyway, this wildebeest-thing, is a vain attempt, not only to draw like Chris, but also to push beyond my own conventions.
He does a lot of animal characters and two things I always notice about them, even in the rough sketches, are the character's skin, and it's skull. Isn't that strange? The small far apart eyes that he gives them accentuates the cheekbones, as well as the empty space that smaller eyes leave on the face (so many cartoon characters have such large eyes)- extra room for foreheads, nose bridges etc... Check out this lion, and this dragon or even better, this whole mess of creatures. Chris also always puts interesting little wrinkles and folds in the skin also, at least on the face. Anyway, this wildebeest-thing, is a vain attempt, not only to draw like Chris, but also to push beyond my own conventions.
i'd say you nailed it! did you know one of his first jobs was on muppet babies? knowing that you can see how that has inflenced a lot of his work, especially hands and feet but also face proportions. like you pointed out his eyes are always pushed way up on his characters heads and large open areas for mouths...who does that sound like
ReplyDeleteI think I did read about him on Muppet Babies, but never really thought much about it. I have always loved how "Muppety" stitch's head was, and a lot of his characters I guess.
ReplyDeleteAs for my wildebest, looking at it now, the eyes could be a bit smaller. It's funny how hard it is to break your natural inclinations. I'm sure it was a struggle for me to get the eyes as small as they are, but they really should be smaller and maybe higher. The eternal struggle....
Great design on this...I think you did a fine job here...you always get a lot of personality in your characters...even in different styles...
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