Where can I learn to draw weird little creatures?

May 18, 2008 2:22 PM

Where can I find online resources to help me learn to draw like Andrew Bell of The Creatures in My Head?

I like to doodle every so often, and when I do I like to draw odd creatures, similar to Creatures in My Head. I also like to draw weird little robots, and strange looking people.

I like drawings that are simple, without too much shading or detail. I like interesting little characters with exaggerated features. Here's a quick drawing I did for my aborted participation in Thing-A-Day. I have drawings with more detail, but this is a decent example of what I like to do.

So my questions are:
Are there sites with lessons on how to draw in this style?
Can you point me towards artists who have similar styles that I can study?

Thanks a lot!

posted by mikeweeney to sports, hobbies, & recreation (4 comments total)

One artist you might like is Jesse Reklaw.
posted by kmennie at 3:17 PM on May 18, 2008

A lot of practice.

And, a scanner or drawing tablet :)
posted by delmoi at 3:41 PM on May 18, 2008

The first thing to do is to draw lines like he does. His vary in thickness, thinning towards the edges. Yours, at least in your link, are sketchier and more uniform. This is a small but very significant difference. If you draw on the computer, a pressure sensitive pen and a the proper drawing software will make this part easy.

The second element is the watercolor was for the shadows. Again, a computer program like Painter makes this trivial. Paint faintly behind your outline, with low opacity. Paint again to darken. Use a smaller brush than you think is necessary.

Then just be creative, develop the character of what you're doing, and practice practice practice.
posted by bloggboy at 10:00 PM on May 18, 2008

I've been trying to work out my own cartooning style for years. Like you, I was never really interested in developing a realistic or detailed style, but more and more I'm thinking I should have started with the basics: perspective, anatomy, composition. Cartoons may be simple, but cartooning isn't.

Looking at the sample you provide, I can see that you're still thinking in two dimensions. The arms of your creature are both drawn perpendicular to the field of vision: they're neither going towards nor away from the viewer. This is easier to draw, but if you want to have Bell's virtuosity, you need to see into the page. Bell converts a lot of his drawings into awesome sculptures, they're not just flat things. Some practice in drawing actual objects from the real world might help you a lot with this.

Another thing that might help is to do the little kid thing and flat out copy art you like. I don't mean to present as your own, or even to present at all. Just as a personal drawing exercise, trying to make a freehand copy of some of your favorite cartoonists' drawings can tell you a lot about where you need to improve.

Using a pen, brush, or stylus that gives you a varied line width can be very enlightening once you get the hang of it, but never get caught up in worrying about tools rather than working on the art. Andy Bell can draw better stuff with a broken-off pencil tip than I can with the finest sable brush or the biggest, newest Cintiq.

And yes, practice, practice, practice. You might get really good without worrying about anatomy or perspective, but you'll never get anywhere without putting drawing implement to drawing surface and making all your mistakes until you learn better.
posted by lore at 11:06 PM on May 18, 2008