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Ok... so I was watching PA TV today and I got to thinking that I really enjoy Gabe's style and I thought I'd try my hand at it... They do say that mimicry is the greatest form of flattery
-The first pic is a quick copy I did of the "He Who Fights With Nerds" Comic/Desktop.
-The second is just a quick random Gabe pose that I jotted down (nothing fancy).
-And the Third is a character I made up but with very heavy influences of Gabe's style... I take that back, it in Gabe's style, like completely.
Give me whatever feedback you can guys I'm new at this and I need to know if I should spend my money on a Wacom or if that would just be wasting it.
PS. NotSafeFor 56k
===NSF56K===
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AGAIN: thanks for the feedback it really means alot to me
Copying someones style isn't exactly being inspired. Nor is it a good indicator of where your ability is at currently. Do you have other drawings, possibly from life? Maybe just doodles?
Why would you need a wacom if you are just going to copy comics?
Anyways, take Sublimus' advice and fill some sketchbooks with drawings. Practice Practice Practice.
Yea I have some other stuff that is more realistic that I can post. I'm USING Mike's style as a spring board if you will. As I keep drawing things like that, I'm building on the way that Mike does it so that it becomes more of my own style. Just to see if I could pull off something simpler, something that I'm not used to.
It's kind of how Mike pulls alot of his style and inspiration from the "Kim Possible" tv show... I admire Mike's style and I want to make stuff that has the same feel but with my own personal look. And yes I know that they aren't that good, it took me like 15 minutes on each, but at least its a starting point. Its something that I can build off of.
First of all, Steven Silver is the artist behind Kim Possible. Second of all, Mike doesn't directly rip off of Silver's art, he's inspired by it. He has taken elements that he likes and added it to his personal style. This is the proper way to to go about it. You can see the influence but it's not a direct copy.
Now, what you have going on here isn't going to help anyone. You'll never improve if you believe that you are getting better by drawing panels out of a webcomic.
There are so many problems that illustrate that you do not understand what is going on at all...like the folds in Gabe's shirt in the first image. You don't understand why Mike colored it in that way, but you still try to copy it without knowing why he decided to draw it like that.
What you need to do is grab a few art books, join some drawing classes at your local community center, buy some sketchbooks and draw from life.
Please, PLEASE don't copy any more comics like this until you have an understanding of how things work in nature.
Even then...just don't rip off other people's art...
Yea I have some other stuff that is more realistic that I can post. I'm USING Mike's style as a spring board if you will. As I keep drawing things like that, I'm building on the way that Mike does it so that it becomes more of my own style. Just to see if I could pull off something simpler, something that I'm not used to.
It's kind of how Mike pulls alot of his style and inspiration from the "Kim Possible" tv show... I admire Mike's style and I want to make stuff that has the same feel but with my own personal look. And yes I know that they aren't that good, it took me like 15 minutes on each, but at least its a starting point. Its something that I can build off of.
this is a very common approach to learning, i did it myself. but i'm going to warn you, it's slower than going about it the "proper" way and it's much easier to find yourself stuck in a rut.
mike's style is the one you like, and that's great! (i'm always partial to fellow cartoonists) the thing about being a successful cartoonist though is that cartooning is all about simplifying and manipulating proper anatomy and form. one of my favorite pieces of advice to offer up is that you can't properly manipulate what you don't understand in the first place.
you may be able to fake it by copying someone else's style, but you'll find yourself to be far more versatile and far more satisfied with your work if you start off by learning how to draw the proper human form, then going back and stylizing it
bottom line is, you're doing it for fun, so have fun, if drawing gabe and tycho is what you want to do, then do it. it's a hobby for you right now. if you do want to become a serious artist with serious skills though, i recommend you take some of the advice to heart on these forums. it'll do wonders for your skills, i promise you.
beavotron on
0
NakedZerglingA more apocalyptic post apocalypse Portland OregonRegistered Userregular
edited April 2008
NO no no no no no.
Beavotron is correct as is Sublimus. The best thing you can do is fill some sketch books with drawings from life. Copying someones art style because you like it a lot is totally understandable, but as Beav says, it will turn into a giant crutch. Lets say you spent all your time copying the PA styale and after a while you could nail that down pretty well...well ultimately you would just be a PA copy, because you don't understand the basics.
Make used Kim Possible style, yes, but he already knew how to draw. So that style influenced his. You don't nail down a style to learn the basics...you nail down the basics and a style emerges.
Bottom line is people come into here and other forums every day doing exactly what you're doing. Posting work that isn't really yours and hoping to hear good things. Someone who doesn't know better might say you're doing a good job, and that seems to be all those people listen to. They tend to ignore the great artists who give them real advice. so it boils down to 2 choices.
1) Ignore the advice that ever decent artist will give you, and listen to the people who don't know shit. This might make you feel good at first, but it will NEVER help your art, and you will not progress.
2) Listen to the ARTISTS here and WORK HARD. It's the harder decision and requires more work from you. You may not be getting the results you want for weeks, moths, or even years...it's really up to you.
Read books like "Drawing on the right side of the brain", study anatomy, go to http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/ and draw 3-4 pages of quick poses EVERY DAY.
After you do all that, think about style.
You can keep throwing back excuses like "I have better stuff" "I'm just trying to get the style down" "The scan looks bad" blah blah blah its all BS.
Good luck, I hope you take it seriously and come back here to show us your progress.
Yea you guys are right... I'm gonna go back and hit the pad and develop my own style. However, don't be pissed when I keep coming back here and posting new things that I've drawn, I like the feedback... it helps me get better.
don't appologize for that, that's the whole purpose of this forum!
if you truly take the advice for what it's worth, you do improve quite a bit
i certainly have!
and also, keep drawing the stuff you like to draw, by no means stop drawing cartoons, you like them, so have fun, but you will notice that if you're doing life drawings as well as doing cartooning, over time, your cartooning will benefit greatly, and your own style will really just start to fall into place on it's own.
beavotron on
0
MustangArbiter of Unpopular OpinionsRegistered Userregular
I love this site, it's a huge resource for someone who is early in their development (like me). It makes an insurmountable task seem surmountable...or at least less insurmountable.
Posts
[edit] And I forgot the most important part, fill it! Then you might want to consider a tablet.
But you might want to fill like three first.
Copying someones style isn't exactly being inspired. Nor is it a good indicator of where your ability is at currently. Do you have other drawings, possibly from life? Maybe just doodles?
Why would you need a wacom if you are just going to copy comics?
Anyways, take Sublimus' advice and fill some sketchbooks with drawings. Practice Practice Practice.
It's kind of how Mike pulls alot of his style and inspiration from the "Kim Possible" tv show... I admire Mike's style and I want to make stuff that has the same feel but with my own personal look. And yes I know that they aren't that good, it took me like 15 minutes on each, but at least its a starting point. Its something that I can build off of.
First of all, Steven Silver is the artist behind Kim Possible. Second of all, Mike doesn't directly rip off of Silver's art, he's inspired by it. He has taken elements that he likes and added it to his personal style. This is the proper way to to go about it. You can see the influence but it's not a direct copy.
Now, what you have going on here isn't going to help anyone. You'll never improve if you believe that you are getting better by drawing panels out of a webcomic.
There are so many problems that illustrate that you do not understand what is going on at all...like the folds in Gabe's shirt in the first image. You don't understand why Mike colored it in that way, but you still try to copy it without knowing why he decided to draw it like that.
What you need to do is grab a few art books, join some drawing classes at your local community center, buy some sketchbooks and draw from life.
Please, PLEASE don't copy any more comics like this until you have an understanding of how things work in nature.
Even then...just don't rip off other people's art...
this is a very common approach to learning, i did it myself. but i'm going to warn you, it's slower than going about it the "proper" way and it's much easier to find yourself stuck in a rut.
mike's style is the one you like, and that's great! (i'm always partial to fellow cartoonists) the thing about being a successful cartoonist though is that cartooning is all about simplifying and manipulating proper anatomy and form. one of my favorite pieces of advice to offer up is that you can't properly manipulate what you don't understand in the first place.
you may be able to fake it by copying someone else's style, but you'll find yourself to be far more versatile and far more satisfied with your work if you start off by learning how to draw the proper human form, then going back and stylizing it
bottom line is, you're doing it for fun, so have fun, if drawing gabe and tycho is what you want to do, then do it. it's a hobby for you right now. if you do want to become a serious artist with serious skills though, i recommend you take some of the advice to heart on these forums. it'll do wonders for your skills, i promise you.
Beavotron is correct as is Sublimus. The best thing you can do is fill some sketch books with drawings from life. Copying someones art style because you like it a lot is totally understandable, but as Beav says, it will turn into a giant crutch. Lets say you spent all your time copying the PA styale and after a while you could nail that down pretty well...well ultimately you would just be a PA copy, because you don't understand the basics.
Make used Kim Possible style, yes, but he already knew how to draw. So that style influenced his. You don't nail down a style to learn the basics...you nail down the basics and a style emerges.
Bottom line is people come into here and other forums every day doing exactly what you're doing. Posting work that isn't really yours and hoping to hear good things. Someone who doesn't know better might say you're doing a good job, and that seems to be all those people listen to. They tend to ignore the great artists who give them real advice. so it boils down to 2 choices.
1) Ignore the advice that ever decent artist will give you, and listen to the people who don't know shit. This might make you feel good at first, but it will NEVER help your art, and you will not progress.
2) Listen to the ARTISTS here and WORK HARD. It's the harder decision and requires more work from you. You may not be getting the results you want for weeks, moths, or even years...it's really up to you.
Read books like "Drawing on the right side of the brain", study anatomy, go to http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/ and draw 3-4 pages of quick poses EVERY DAY.
After you do all that, think about style.
You can keep throwing back excuses like "I have better stuff" "I'm just trying to get the style down" "The scan looks bad" blah blah blah its all BS.
Good luck, I hope you take it seriously and come back here to show us your progress.
if you truly take the advice for what it's worth, you do improve quite a bit
i certainly have!
and also, keep drawing the stuff you like to draw, by no means stop drawing cartoons, you like them, so have fun, but you will notice that if you're doing life drawings as well as doing cartooning, over time, your cartooning will benefit greatly, and your own style will really just start to fall into place on it's own.
I love this site, it's a huge resource for someone who is early in their development (like me). It makes an insurmountable task seem surmountable...or at least less insurmountable.
Use it!