Hungry Kaspar

Who needs pic-a-nic baskets when nature's bounty surrounds?

it's from this story

Ukrainian Ranger Mating Urges

Yes, every spring the Rangers come out of hibernation to spread their pheromones around the Urals.
The garish males perform spectacular displays to impress the blander female of the species.
Ranger Horst goes all out, puffing his breast, spreading his feathers and finally extending his perfume bladder which emits a pungent odor - offensive to we civilized folk, but quite pleasant to female Rangers of the Steppes.

It is Kaspar's job to keep the population down by thwarting nature's most powerful urges.

Even marking your territory becomes a challenge in the primeval forest of Ruthenia

NEW WAY TO READ THE STORIES

READ THEM IN ORDER HERE

In case you've come into the stories in the middle, or want to read them top to bottom in order, Isaac helped me make a site that automatically keeps them in order.
The magic of technology astounds me.

Toenails 11 - It's Him! Forest Demon

Malynisky and his innocent charge wonder what kind of evil monstrosity would tamper with the God-given tensility of their beloved Orthodox undergarments.

continued from:http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/11/toenails-11-shock-of-real.html

Of course, it is the mange-demon of the Carpathian forests!
What horrific plans does Kaspar have in store for the hapless man things?
Fragile, flaky hominid bones are no impediment to Kaspar's grip force.
Yes, he has found the day's prey.
And what glee does our forest fur mountain display at the sight of his defenseless victims?
Eyes protrude with true Slavic hunger.
Leathery lips quiver in anticipation of the exquisite pleasures to come.
Chomp!
Kaspar absorbs the nutrients from Ranger marrow by chewing them into a soft fleshy man-paste.
Grind! Gnash! Absorb!Is this the end of of our ancestors?

To be continued:

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Thanks to these folks for supporting the cartoons that I put up in the only way I can get 'em to you!

L.O. 3b: More Kaspar translations to Layout from Storyboard

This is how I block out poses. Then I stare at them and se what looks toned own.
I see that the expressions have lost a bit -especially in the eyes, so I am gonna go back and push them farther.

But I also was flipping the 2 drawings to make sure they moved right, which further complicates the process of layout while trying to maintain the life of the storyboard.

Kali Lesson in Translation from SB to Layout

Attempt 1: face has been pushed in. And it's cramped.
Kaspar is falling over because his feet aren't solidly planted.I made the silhouettes of his face and the underpants clearer. Also added perspective to his huge body.
Kali made another attempt and improved all those things. His face is now much more open and not cramped. It has a good silhouette too.
Feet are better planted.

As a last step I traced her drawing and pushed the contrasts a bit. After pushing and pulling the first drawing around a bit, we ended up with a more solid, clearer and more stylish drawing.

L.O. 3c: Applying Preston/Disney Principles to my SB sketches

I gave Kali a layout lesson yesterday. Here's just the first drawing I did. It came from this rough below. The first thing I did was block everything out real roughly to make sure I had the line of action and big negative spaces between the main parts of the action- between his body foot and dresser.
Like everyone does, I toned it down a bit, but now that it's all constructed I could easily go back and push the foot and eyes a little more like the rough.The Focus of the pose: THE FOOT PUSHING THE DRAWER IN.
The whole pose is made to highlight this action.

His body leans back. I used a line of action to do that.
Second in importance to the physical action in the drawing, is his reaction to it. His feeling. His personality. That takes place mostly in the face.

I AVOIDED A CRAMPED FACE

Note how I left space between all the important major elements of his face:
The eyes.
The nose
The mouth
Some people tend to push all the features together where they get cramped and hard to read.

THE EYES ARE CHEATED FOR EFFECT

Looking at the lucky accident in the rough-where the eye that is further away from us is bigger (which is wrong perspective) I used that to enhance the expression.

I made sure the rest of his head and face were in solid construction and perspective, and then gave the eyes cartoon license. I overlapped the farther away eye over the close eye. This exaggerates the impression that the eyes are looking back at us, opposite to his body pose which is facing the dresser.

If I broke the rules all over the drawing and made nothing logical, you wouldn't be drawn to the eyes because nothing would make sense.

NEGATIVE SPACES FOR SILHOUETTE

To help read the face against the arm I made sure that there was a clear silhouette to the edge of the face. Some shapes push out (muzzle and nose), some indent in - the eye mask area. This indented eye mask area helps him look smug. It helps pull his eye brows up.

HOW CHEEKS AND SMILES WORK TOGETHER

Note that the smile line and cheek line above create a shape (in yellow). The smile is pushing the meat of his cheek up, squeezing the area between. Note also the soft angles curving around the cheek/face area. It isn't a simple circular curve or half oval.

CONSTRUCT HAND SHAPES BEFORE DRAWING FINGERS

His fingers are not doing anything so I keep them contained within the shape of the hand.
For organic pseudo-realism, I made the fingers converge towards each other at bottom, rather than be parallel sausages.
The other hand is just hanging back and those fingers "splay". They aim very slightly apart, also for organicness.
I put weight on the foot on the ground by bending the knee and having the lower part of the leg overlap the top of the foot.
Also, the top of the foot bulges upwards in the middle, while the bottom part is being squashed flat against the ground.

I kept the toenails compressed together so as not to compete for attention with the other foot that is closing the drawer.


Note the shape created by the space between his foot and arm (in red). It's diagonal, which helps draw attention to the fact that the foot is pushing forward of the body. If the hand had been posed right on top of the foot, it would have eaten away at the focus of the whole pose.

All this is logic and control and is what separates functional drawings from elaborate fancy ass sketchbook doodles.

In order to get functional, you have to do lots and lots of thoughtful planned drawings (as opposed to random doodling in your sketchbooks). Not just one every couple weeks. It's not enough to think you understand the concepts. You have to apply them to make them sink in and eventually become second nature.

Later, I will show you Kali's first try at doing a layout from the scene, my corrections and comments and then her 2nd try where she fixes everything and makes the pose stronger.

OK?

Hey, I have a question. How many people who read the blog are here for the drawing tips?

Toenails 10 - The Shock Of The Real

Never is there such glee as when man gets to slip on his first spring underthings."As shoon ass Ve are Shnug in our Onderfings, ve can take a nice cold shower!"

Ruthenia is particularly prized for the quality of its snappy elastic sock and waistbands.
Uh oh! Little Horst senses a disturbence in his nether regions.
He feels no snugness today. Can this truly be spring?
In a flash his papa, experienced in the ugly parts of life, knows who's to blame for this atrocity. "Only vun wrrretched creature vould do soch a ting!"
The ruiner of all precious treasures enjoys his well-earned moment of spite.
"Who eesh dat ting all coovered een hairss, Tato? Whoooo?"

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/11/toenails-11-its-him-forest-demon.html

Thanks to you generous folks who cherish your cartoon stories you can't get on TV and lessons they didn't give in school! I know it's a tough time out there, so it's extra appreciated.