The term "generic"

So on my last post, Trevor left a comment asking:

"What qualifies those girls in "Altruists" as 'super generic'?"

I planned on making a just a quick explanation as an extra on some bigger post with more drawings, but totally got caught up with the question and came up with a lot of ideas about "generic" drawings (specifically of girls). Here are the drawings he was asking about:


And here are some designs I did that I am much less embarrassed to show:


Also, I tried to explain more on my outlook of the word "generic" in some little drawings, which I'll post below (its more fun this way).


Now here is some less fun stuff...more theories on (dun dun DUNNN!!!)...

GENERIC!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: these are rambling thoughts written quite late at night.

1. What makes a drawing "generic"? There are two different ways to look at the word generic but I'll talk about that later. When cartoonists talk about a generic girl design, I believe it usually refers to the "cute" equation. A generic girl design generally has a big cranium, large eyes, a small upturned nose, and youthful feminine lips. Her face is rounded and nothing is too prominent. Disney princesses are pretty generic (don't get mad at me yet, I am a HUGE fan of Disney movies and can watch 'Sleeping Beauty' 6 times in a row). Snow White may have short hair and a rounder face than Cinderella, but logically you must admit that they are similar, and they seem to set the standard for "cartoon girl beauty." (On another note, Japan has it's own standard for cartoon girl beauty as anyone can see)

2. Where did this come from? My impression is that there are many advantages to using a generic girl design in cartoons. First of all, girl characters are often props rather than REAL characters. Someone for the dashing hero to rescue, someone to sing some cute songs, or the lovely prize who is being fought over by suitors. I personally don't have a problem with this, although I'd like to see more of a variety of girl designs just to spice it up. And I don't mean taking the generic girl design and making her nose slightly less upturned and tiny, or making her chin slightly longer, or giving her a "weird" hairdo.

3. Another reason that generic girls are common- they are pretty and appealing, and everyone likes that. One glance at the cherubic faces of Snow White or Cinderella or Ariel and you know that they are good and sweet. You instantly root for them. Boys AND girls like pretty girls, and the generic cartoon standard is based on what most people find pretty in real life (at least thats how it seems to me). By making girl characters less generic you may risk having to work harder to make the character likable (don't get me started on the now generic "cartoon girl personalities" that can be found everywhere). ANOTHER DISCLAIMER. I know someone is gonna misread this and think that I am against "pretty" or some silly thing. I'm certainly not, I wanted to be Briar Rose as a kid and still do. But I also think there is a place in cartoons for girls who's designs are more specific, just like the real girls in our lives that we know and love.

4. Another reason that generic girl designs are common- Animating is hard. Animating girls is really hard...and trying to animate a girl with specific features must be really REALLY hard.

5. One more idea...the word "generic" can be looked at the way I've described above, but some artists can be unique and "generic" at the same time. You could argue that Kiraz, Sokol, and Frazetta all have a "generic" girl type that they draw quite often....but the drawings are only generic because the artist draws a similar design repeatedly- compare any of their girls to the generic girl I have been talking about and there is nothing boring about them. Check out their gorgeous girls (I die happily inside when I look at these):

Kiraz

Sokol

Frazetta (his paintings break my heart...but in a good way)

I may sound like I have been trash talking anything generic, but in this case it's very different. Frazetta, Kiraz, and Sokol may have a preference for how they draw their girls, but they are each so monumentally amazing at drawing that it doesn't matter. The drawings are beautiful in so many ways that the design of the girl is practically inconsequential. It's drawings like these that make me realize that I DEPEND on trying to draw different kind of faces and bodies all the time...It's almost as though I haven't earned the right to even consider settling and having a basic girl design that I can fall back on. I hope someday I can have an ounce of the uniqueness and skill these artists have. Does any of this make sense??

Wow, if you got through all that, then you must be a true pal 'o mine. Thanks for sitting through "Uncle Katie's Theory Corner." I hope lots of people have their own ideas, and that no one thinks I'm being insulting or presumptuous.

AND DON'T FORGET!!!!
Find out what happens to Skadi and the hapless maiden on Dumm Comics!

Goodnight!

Sick girl huge cheater post

I'm sick as a dog, pity me please! (T___T)



So my flu turned into bronchitis. Yeah!!! Awesome loads of fun. Needless to say new drawings are not anything I wanna do right now. So you get OLD stuff! But don't despair...as there is a

NEW SKADI COMIC AT DUMM COMICS!
also a...
BUTT-LOAD OF LUKE CORMICAN DRAWINGS AT THE SKADI BLOG!

If you can't tell, I want you to click those links!! I'm sick, do me a favor! (whine, bitch, moan) Also, I have a question for people at the bottom...please read it and and tell me what you think!


First off is some layouts I did for "Ren and Stimpy, APC" from back in 2002 or so. These below are a scene from "Ren Seeks Help."

I need to add that these are off of John's amazing roughs, and also Fred Osmond (our layout supervisor) gave me lots of help on all my layouts. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if some of the lines on these are Fred's or John's and not mine.




Another "Ren Seeks Help" scene


This title card for "Firedogs 2" is based off of an amazing Eddie Fitzgerald storyboard drawing.


I wish I had Eddie's drawing, I'd love to post it here! Man, I have hardly anything from working on this show. Note that the famous Ralph signed my layout!!

Here are some super generic girls I did for "Altruists."

Girl with beaver-tail bikini.


Girl with buttless chinchilla coat (the author does NOT approve of chinchilla coats by the way!! See HERE).

These aren't from any specific project, just drawings I like that I did during and after APC.






Wow my stuff was different back then. These next ones might be from 2003?





I like some of my old drawings more than the ones I do now.


Wow, I really have hardly anything from any of the projects I've worked on. I tried digging up some stuff from the Weird Al video I worked on, but John has everything and I never got copies!



This drawing above is actually a mix of my drawing and John's.




OK!!!!!!!!!! This is where I need your guys' help!!! I need money right now so I was thinking of selling some crap. I recently dug up about 30 or so inks that I did from 2002-2004. Here are two questions:

1. Will people buy them even though they're just inks? They're not perfect- some have white-out, paper wrinkles, etc.

2. I have a whole bunch of them, so if I DO sell them, should I sell them in bunches? Like in packs of 5, or 10?

Here are some examples of the inks I want to part with.





What do you guys think?? Is it worth the hassle of doing the eBay thing? Does anyone want stuff like this? Sell them individually or in groups??

Please leave your opinions, and let me know what you think of my old stuff too!

Thanks guys!
*cough*

Unfinished projects and interview

Just a few years ago, my main reason for drawing was so that I could ink and color up my doodles all nice and pretty...I'd rush through the drawing and leave in all sorts of crappy mistakes figuring I'd just cover them up with a clean line and nice photoshop colors. Nowadays I make tons of plans for art projects, but I'm just too lazy to ever do anything with them. This is the closest I've come in a long while to a finished drawing.
A couple weeks ago I became overly excited about Rex Hackelbergs paintings, and decided I would try to be like him and start some new projects that I could be proud of. I drew a whole stack of hillbilly girls with the intent to paint them up all nice and pretty, but as it turns out I still can't paint, and these still aren't going anywhere.
Some more drawings that I planned on inking up all fancy-like. I was going to learn to use the brushes in photoshop to color them...but everytime I sit down in front of the computer I end up stalling or suddenly remembering something "extremely important" that I have to do and go running away.
On a happy note, here is something from a project that will actually get finished- and it's not girls! A couple layout poses from the Weird Al video:
So anyhow, where does this overwhelming feeling of obligation to finish drawings come from? I'll admit I love a beautiful painting or carefully rendered drawing, but often I enjoy looking at a rough and dirty sketch just as much, especially since so many finished drawings lose what makes the original drawing look interesting. It seems however that a lot of people greatly prefer a finished drawing. I have been told in more than one email that cleaning up my drawings would make me seem more legitimate. I suppose that's sort of true, but I'd rather think that I'll become legitimate when I learn how to draw as well as the people I look up to. Maybe I'm just making excuses because learning how to paint seems so time consuming, ha! I think this sort of thing isn't even an issue for people who are actually able to get the spontaneity and energy of a scribbly drawing into their finished artwork. There are people out there like this (you know who you are), and I curse you! Actually, I want to be just like you...anyhow, this is turning out to be longer than I intended. If you want some more to read though, you can find it here: http://www.readersvoice.com/interviews/2005/December/222/
It's really long though, so watch out!

Project for Weird Al

Hi again!

I've been really busy lately! A while back Weird Al Yankovic contacted my old boss John K., asking him if he'd be interested in doing an animated music video for one of his new songs. The song is really catchy and funny...and it's about girls! John asked me to help out, so for the past few weeks we've been designing, boarding, and laying out the cartoon.

Because the number of people working on it right now is so small, we've been using early Betty Boop cartoons as inspiration on how to make it simple, yet super silly and fun to look at. Hopefully it'll turn out that way! Here are some Grim Natwick inspired dance poses.
The layout system we're using has been really fun so far. I've had the honor of cleaning up John's rough scenes, and he's been nice enough to clean up mine. The dance poses above are mostly a combination of my roughs with John's clean up. I want to post some of John's original layouts soon, but perhaps I should ask him first!
Above is a funny picture of me pitching some of the gags in the cartoon to Mr. Yankovic himself! He was super nice, and even laughed despite my feeble pitching abilities. Hooray for Weird Al, he is nice!