Scheduling Notes -- UPDATED

Hiya, Folks.

We will not meet on 1 April, because I will be moving that weekend.

We will not meet on 8 April, because I will be at Colossal Con in Pleasanton.

We will not meet on 15 April, because of the Easter holiday.

Nothing personal. I like you guys! Please mark your calendar.


See you soon!

John

P.S.:  There is no new homework assignment this week. But you are encouraged to do any homework you may have missed, such as the cop and beggar assignment. If you can't do that, I'd recommend plotting a three-page story from the world of your self-assigned dream project that we've been talking about.

More Inspiring Lively Little Figures...

By an Academy student 

See you Saturday eve! INKING!
John

Roy Chang at the Chinese Historical Society Museum in Chinatown, Mar 26

Hey, Saturday Comics Classers!

I was contacted by the Chinese Historical Society of America museum in SF Chinatown.

They will host Cartoonist and Comic book author Roy Chang at the museum on Sunday March 26th. Here are the details of the event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-comic-book-author-cartoonist-roy-chang-tickets-32483764815 Please save the date and reserve a space if you are interested in meeting Roy. He is also giving a small comic book workshop. 

JH

Stop Me Before I Blog Again.

Hey Artists,
I should be working on a commissioned sketch or my space bordello project, but instead I'm analyzing skull depths like some 19th century German crackpot.

Reducing the vast variety of humanity to three "specimens," I've found that what I've told you guys so far is broadly correct--if you go by these three pictures!

You decide if any of it matters to you and your style.

To review (in order to make this exercise have any value at all):

• The human head basically fits in a square.
• Black folks have the deepest crania, and Asians the shallowest. (Our representative Asian has a head notably taller than square, the white girl just taller than square, and the black guy, just deeper than.)
• Eyes are about at the halfway line. Children's crania are bigger, "pushing" their eyes below the halfway line. Our white girl has that going on too. Better to err in that direction in drawing women, I assume, unless you want to make them look older or less elegant.
• Ears are a healthy fraction of an inch farther back than the vertical halfway line. Making the skull come to its greatest height above the ears seems reasonable.
• I marked her picture, in green, with the landmarks of the Loomis "thirds" scheme and learned that her forehead is a little more than a third--not surprisingly, since she looks like a teen.

John



Wait! New data!
This normal-looking guy has a head that's way taller/shallower than square, and eyes well above the halfway line. What did I tell you guys about generalizing?!

;)

John

One more

We puzzled over this one in class. When someone looks strongly to the side, which eye opens more?



My oh-so-scientific conclusion is:

There's no rule! It must depend on several factors....

John

A Grab-Bag

Hi, Artists,

This time I've got some old-fashioned odds and ends for you.

First, to hammer home the180 rule, a couple of graphic restatements of the idea:



Next, some very nice drawings of feet from an artist named Willy Pogany, whose instructional books on drawing are helpful and appealing, sez me. He really brings out the solidity of the form and its component forms. There's is a slight angularity or blockiness that strengthens the descriptive strength of the drawings.



Next, a real-life example of the line of action--not the same line of action cited in the 180-rule graphic above, which could better be called the line of interaction, if you're asking me. We're talking about capital-A action now. So how would you draw the lines of action running through these two?






Here's my try at it:

• Notice in the case of the guy who fell, the head and neck jut forward without much respect to the direction taken by the rest of him. This isn't at all unusual. The neck writes its own ticket, you could say.
• Notice please also that the lines of action are quite different from the directions these guys are moving, which I think you can readily infer. That too is not unusual or problematic.

The line of action lives to help: Its job is giving figures "flow," and evidence of intentionality. The opposite of a rag doll thrown in the air. Even the falling Niner here is exerting some control--he keeps his head level enough that he can see what's happening. His neck and stomach muscles are much involved in that.

SEE YOU SATURDAY!

John