Another fairly straightforward composition this week to go along with the discussion of setting up the time function of starting a story. The most noticeable part of the drawing, the recursive gag in the middle, took the least amount of thought and time to bring off, and you barely see it being done in the above time lapse. It was basically a matter of copy+paste and scaling all the way back into the background. (The idea isn't mine, it was used before in Spaceballs to humorous effect, and I'm sure elsewhere before and since.)
I played around with different techniques between the two images of past and future; on the right I used what's become my usual outline-then-color-in method, and on the left I used some blocks of color for the building and street, and filled outlines for the windows. I'd like to take more time to practice with the latter, as I believe the results have the potential to be more satisfying and less cartoony than the everything-is-outlined look. It might sound weird, I'm pleased with how easily this drawing came together, and I still think it looks pretty good. I'm learning to think of drawings as "cheap" or "pricey" depending on how much time they take to produce, compared to how good it winds up looking in the end. One thing I'm learning from trying to be consistently creatively productive is that time is always a limited asset, and being able to quickly and easily draw a Dennis figure without much sweat, thanks to practiced familiarity, is one thing I'm definitely learning to appreciate.
I tried to experiment in this drawing with an approach I've used for minor flourishes (faucets and knobs in kitchens and bathrooms), where instead of drawing an outline and then filling it in, I draw first what I imagine would eventually go inside the outline without bothering with the first step Three quick reasons why I wanted to use this technique and try it out with this drawing: 1. If I'm ever going to move past coloring-book style artwork, it seems like a good place to start might be to imagine the objects in the image without having to outline them first 2. For whatever reason, it's easier for me to imagine a white object against a black background and then outline it than it is to put down solid colors over a white background, so the idea I had for this image sounded like a good place to start 3. In the past, the results in using this method for faucets and knobs etc. have been fairly satisfying in terms of the lighting feel, and I wanted to see if that would apply to a fairly simple, flat object like a spacesuit. I think it worked out okay, it definitely gives a sense of the glare of direct sunlight, although the colors are of course super super primitive, and the shadows should be a lot darker wherever there isn't earth-glow. In a version of this drawing where I had more time, I would obviously want to render the background with a lot more attention and care. I would also want to use different colors to offset the highlights and lowlights in the suit texture to give it a more solid feel. Mr. Brain would be rendered exactly as-is, because if I made him photorealistic I'm sure he would horrify me. Music in the video is by Kohei Tanaka; no copyright infringement is intended.
