Monday March 11, 2002

New drawings

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I'm really not as good an Ascii artist as I am an animator. I think that this is because art requires inspiration and a good eye for detail. Animation does as well, but more than this, it needs patience, attention to detail (this is different, I think), and some technical skills. Certainly, at least from what I have found on the Web (see Links page) there are only two other sites offering comparable (in the sense of being longer, narratives) works. But there are many great Ascii artists: I'm not trying to 'compete', as my talents don't lie in that direction, but I think it's valid to try to gain inspiration and see where I can make improvements in the quality of my drawings. So I've been trying some studies on just a slightly larger scale than Chickenman.

Given that this isn't my forte, I'd be a little ashamed to post these non-animated, non-Chickenman pictures here, but they are still clearly influenced/limited by the Chickenman style: it's interesting to see how moving to just a slightly larger scale raises the possibilities on one hand, but limits them on the other. I was surprised to find that I could still use the same facial characteristics - the difference seems to be that you can slightly space them apart, and you need to draw the hair and head in more detail.

And, with JavE's handy Export making of feature, you can see me in action, creating one of these characters. This reminds me of the classic videos of Picasso doing pen drawings, filmed from behind the canvas. (erm, in concept, not necessarily in talent). It's fascinating to see the continuous diddling (an Ascii art technical term - meaning, as far as I understand it, this process of improvement to an artwork) happening in real time (actually, faster... JavE doesn't remember how long you spent agonising over the next character ;-< ). I find these making-ofs fascinating to watch, I wish I'd exported them for earlier studies.

See the study and making-of here

Further diddles welcomed (with making-ofs if you are a JavE user... I may even post them here.)