Emulating Talented People #2

So yesterday, I spent the evening in Barnes and Noble. Fortunately Tina works there, so I didn't get kicked out.

In the end, I picked out Action! Cartooning by Ben Caldwell to be my guide to drawing something more sophisticated than 'man in beer t-shirt.'

Action! Cartooning is a brilliant book. Ben lays out the guidelines very simply and soon gets you drawing convincingly. I'm a LONG way from the talented style of Erica Henderson or Randy Millholland - but if you look at their stuff, I can see that Ben Caldwell's style of cartooning is pretty reminiscent of the style they use.

If I can just develop some natural aptitude and spend years developing my art, I'm sure I could approach their level of artistic awesomness.

Ben Caldwell's website is certainly worth checking out too. It's great.

This sly looking chick is Space Girl, for a music video Erica Henderson is doing for intergalatic pschobilly sci-fi band The Phenomenauts.

Study the way the head's designed, the face is built and all that funky stuff and then peer at some of the hamfisted sketches I did last night. You can see we're not dealing with the same sort of animal here - but my attempts are at least the same species.

If I can achieve that in one night - well, there's hope for me yet!

Action! Cartooning by Ben Caldwell is available from most good bookstores for $9.95. Space Girl kidnapped gratuitously from the blog of Erica Henderson and shall be returned unharmed once the briefcase full of unmarked tens and twenties is delivered.