bus doodles

[egypturnash]

I was sitting in the side-facing seats on the way home today. When I pulled out my sketchbook, a kid sitting across from me started preening and posing. He thought I was drawing him.

Little did he know...




The first two are probably somehow due to my attempt to read Crowley's book on the Tarot this morning. As a side note, he loses major credibility points when "Master Therion" refers to the work of "Frater Pedurabo"; both are aliases of his - the book is written by "Therion", and it seems that "Pedurabo" was a name he used in his days as a low acolyte of his Sekret Majikal Order. The lengths I'll go to for a drawing are sometimes amazing.

The third scrawl is the heroine of 'The Drowning City', gazing worriedly out at me, silently asking when I'll resume my efforts at telling her story. I'm trying, Alecto dear, I'm trying! She's drawn with less abstraction than I have in the past, due to a comment Mutley made on my previous bus doodles; she was designed before I decided to make a concerted effort to abandon the easy ways of 'furry', and it shows to some degree. This attempt needs a little more forehead, a bit more nose, and a little less lower lip to really be her, but I like it otherwise. Lots of little subtelties of expression and muscle that I've learnt to imply without having to think it to death.

Comments

[kamenkyote.livejournal.com]

I think the second one looks most like the kid on the bus. :"D

Seriously, nice work all around. I do have to kind of take issue with the generalizations of calling furry a "crutch," or an "easy way." Often, I find it harder to get expressions, gesture and likeness with anthros than I do with people as they're aren't ready examples of such to go by.

Thanks for posting the doodles. They're always fun to see.

-T'

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

*nod* It does take more effort to put expression and character onto furries - but I know I started on them because they were easier to make look "good" than people. You don't have the same expectations for cartoon animals that you do for cartoon people. We're all experts in how people look; few of us are experts in how animals look.

[synnabar.livejournal.com]

"Often, I find it harder to get expressions, gesture and likeness with anthros than I do with people as they're aren't ready examples of such to go by."

and

"You don't have the same expectations for cartoon animals that you do for cartoon people. We're all experts in how people look; few of us are experts in how animals look."

Interesting points, both of them. There's only so far I can tweak an animal's expression (if I'm, say, trying to draw a realistic fox with a certain human expression) before it starts to look bizarre and "fake", but at the same time, for me, drawing people is all about obsessing over tiny details (like a curve of a lip, a slant of an eyebrow, a certain set to a nose) because THAT's what people will point out first. If a nose is a tiny bit to big or the eyes a little too far apart, people tend to notice things like that pretty instantly in a drawing of a person, but not so much so in a drawing of an anthropomorphic creature.

[kamenkyote.livejournal.com]

Well, there's a difference here, too if you're going for a distcint likeness in the human realm, or just a general face. I've seen lots of comments on general furry stuff that equates to what you're saying, comments such as, "fox muzzles are pointier," or "wolf paws are much bigger," or even, "the shoulders of the wildebeast don't bunch that way" and so on. I think animal features are harder to make distinct without exagerration, partially as most general animals look alike to us humings. I think both have their challenges, furry and human drawing, and there's such a variety of style with both that experimentation could go on forever.

-T'