The guy from BluishDot
The guy from BluishDot
The guy from BluishDot
Compared to the attempt I had before watching the demo, this one was a way more pleasant experience. Seeing how to approach this type of exploration was very helpful in giving the process a bit more structure for me. Only after watching this did I realize how chaotic I went about it on the first try. These demos are great. Thanks!
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The guy from BluishDot
Attempt after watching the demo. The idea of getting into a specific mindset while sketching was really useful. It might not be the easiest thing to achieve at first but it's definitely something worth practicing. Thanks!
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The guy from BluishDot
Hello, The fact that this question stumped me the first time I read it made me really want to try and answer it. It’s funny how sometimes common terms like this one are actually quite tricky to define. When I hear “cartoon,” I think – heavily stylized, exaggerated proportions. I also find that cartoons are usually a bit more lighthearted in tone and include comedy to varying degrees. But I think that’s not always the case. Not all cartoons are made for kids. For me, animated shows like Kid Cosmic, Spongebob Squarepants, and even Rick and Morty fall under the umbrella of “cartoons.” But a show like “Primal” for example… I’m not sure if I would consider that a cartoon. But then again – why not? Maybe it's because of the fact that as kids we get exposed to a lot more "cute/silly" cartoon styles. And we might take that perception with us into adulthood.  It's quite an interesting topic. I’m curious to know other opinions on this. :D
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The guy from BluishDot
My attempt at the level 2 exercise. The exploration stage felt a bit too messy. I might need to slow down a bit. I'll try out a couple more of these and see what happens.
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The guy from BluishDot
Here's my first attempt at the level 1 exercises.
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The guy from BluishDot
I tried to practice some loose, confident lines by referencing an image of solidified lava. It was quite fun!
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The guy from BluishDot
Two more attempts after watching the critique video. I'm happier with the line quality but not so much with the proportions...
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The guy from BluishDot
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The guy from BluishDot
 Day 2-7. Since I’m mostly at home, I decided to challenge myself and attempt to draw stuff from around the house that I find a bit boring. Hopefully this will get me into the habit of focusing more on the joy of the process and not only on the final result.  
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The guy from BluishDot
 Attempt at level 2 before (left) and after (right) watching the demos. As I’ve mentioned in the post for my level 1 attempt. I was way to careful and timid with my lines before. My hand would hurt a lot and it was easier to get overwhelmed. The demos really clarified the purpose of the exercise for me. Even though some areas in the second attempts look messier, at least I knew this time what I was supposed to focus on.
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The guy from BluishDot
 Comparison: before watching the demos (left), after watching the demos (right). I was way to careful and timid with my lines before. My hand would hurt a lot and it was easier to get overwhelmed (especially with the laces). The demo video really clarified the purpose of the exercise for me. Even though some areas in the second attempts look messier, at least I knew this time exactly what I was trying to practice. I’m really enjoying the course so far. It’s very well explained and actually quite fun. Thanks for putting it together! Have a great day everyone!
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The guy from BluishDot
Here's my attempt at level 1. At some point I got really lost in the laces. I’m realy looking forward to seeing the proper technique for these in the demo.
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The guy from BluishDot
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The guy from BluishDot
 Turned out to be more challenging and way messier than I expected. I’ll definitely start doing this exercise every day until I feel more comfortable with it.
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The guy from BluishDot
I decided to give the level 2 exercises a try. The first one is after watching the demo. The second one is after watching the level 2 critique video. Both were very challenging but I also learned a lot. Any feedback is welcome. Thank you!
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The guy from BluishDot
 My attempt, before watching the demos, at pair no.1 and a red pepper I had in the fridge.
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jimm
Hi all, I am having trouble getting the kind of tonal range you guys seem to be able to get. My 2B and 4B are VERY similar and the 6B is nowhere near as dark as some of yours. Do you change the amount of pressure applied based on the hardness of the pencil you are using? I used the same pressure on all four of the boxes and they look too....similar.
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The guy from BluishDot
 Hi jimm, I think you could try varying the pressure and see how that changes the tone. I did the exercise as well and found myself in the same situation as you. You can see in the top row of the first image that the tone doesn’t vary a lot. Not even from 4H to 4B (top right corner at least). However, I was only trying to achieve a flat tone and didn’t really concern myself with the tone range from one pencil type to the other. Now, even though the tones are similar, achieving them had a different feel depending on the pencil type. The feeling of the pencil on the paper was different (especially when comparing a 4H to a 4B). And I think that’s something the lesson was trying to convey. You can get similar levels of tone but where a 4H might ruin the paper in the process (because you have to apply a lot of pressure to get a darker tone) a 4B might require a much lighter touch to achieve that same tone. When I started experimenting with the pressure I got different extremes in tone based on the type of pencil (see crooked table in the second image). However, the tonal range of pencils does overlap. So the fact that you got similar results with a 4B and 6B is, I think, quite normal. I hope this makes sense. Good luck and have a great day!
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The guy from BluishDot
Hey everyone! This is supposed to be a cartoon drawing of Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin morphing into a sort of tiger/jaguar. And of course, we have the show producer in the middle to tell the story. :D  I still have a lot to learn but I made a commitment to submit something for this challenge, no matter what. Hope you enjoy it!
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Steve Lenze
Hey Bluishdot, The problem with your scene is that it is very flat. You also need to add correct perspective to your scene. One way to make this scene more interesting is to use two point perspective. It will give the scene more dimension. I did a quick drawing to show you what I mean, I hope it helps :)
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The guy from BluishDot
Hello Steve, The sketch is extremely useful! It makes everything so much clearer. Thank you for the feedback! I highly appreciate it! 
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The guy from BluishDot
Hey everyone! I'm working on a scene for a short animation and I was hoping to get some feedback regarding its composition. The sketch of the scene is supposed to represent a table full of food, a grandma looking down at the grandson, and the grandson blindfolded sitting down at the table. The whole scene is going to be a quick joke about how usually grandmas expect their grandchildren to eat a huge amount of food when they visit. :D My only concern is the fact that the wall is not parallel to the edge of the table, which I found to be very uncommon in dining room references. This might make the scene look odd to the viewer. However, it could be that I'm totally overthinking this... Also, the items on the wall are not completely random since they contain a small easter egg for a future episode, so they do have some importance. This is one of the reasons why I wanted the items on the wall to be easy to understand and not distorted. I would highly appreciate your thoughts on this. Is the setting easy enough to understand and pleasant to look at? Or does the orientation of the wall throw everything completely off? Thank you!
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