It was the longest rainy season anyone could remember, even longer that’s the one in which the village pond turned into the village lake. Suki had to run some errands and brave the elements. Pulling on her trusty trench coat and Hunter boots, Suki set off down the road, although stream would have been a better description of it at that point.
Because of the sound of the driving rain, and her own splashing she didn’t hear the distinctive sound of the Gerble-Gerble fish until the school was upon her. They immediately overtook her, one even swimming between her feet and head upstream or rather uproad, bound for who knows where and continuing with their incessant gerbling.
A little background
Just like Suki, I’m currently experiencing the longest-running rainy season I can remember.
I drew this cartoon the other day, and upon completing it immediately starting thinking about migrating fish and how I could make another cartoon featuring them. In then also struck me that while I’ve created a variety of different animals, birds, and reptiles in the “Lesser-Known” series (basically where I create a new species) I had yet to come up with one featuring a fish. And thus the Purple-Finned Gerble-Gerald was hatched.
In this article I’m going to go through the steps of creating the cartoon at the top of the page.
Here’s what I’ve going to cover:
Recycling elements from different cartoons
Complementary colours
The background
I’ve already used this background for a couple of different cartoons and as I wanted one featuring a pavement, this fitted the bill.
As Suki is a semi-regular character, I’ve drawn her quite a few times. I decided to go for the pose featured in a recent cartoon featuring the Long-Legged Bulldog and then to modify it.
I coped the layers that featured Suki and then altered them to have her holding an umbrella. Rather than draw the umbrella from scratch, I copied one from the following cartoon:
This one I drew at the beginning of rainy season, which now seems a long time ago!
Outlining the Gerble-Gerble
I drew the bottom fish first and then copied and modified it to produce the upper two.
Colouring the Gerble-Gerbles
You can see the palette that I used to colour the fish. Purple and green are not actually complimentary colours but I think they work very well together, particularly also in combination with blue.
Positioning the characters
I’ve now put the characters into the position I want them be in for the completed cartoon. I’m going to alter Suki’s eyes later because at the moment it looks as though she’s looking past the fish.
Adding the water
I’ve started to add the water using a turpentine brush in ProCreate. There’s not real depth or colour to the water at the moment, so I’ll take care of that next.
Adding more colour to the water and the movement lines
The water looks a bit more dynamic now and I’ve also added movement lines to the fish. As well as that I added some rain.
The finished cartoon
Here’s the completed cartoon with the the sound effects and Suki’s eyes altered so that she’s now looking down at the fish.
What we covered:
Recycling elements from different cartoons
Complimentary colours (well, almost!)
What’s Next?
I drew this picture during ‘Cartoon Hour’.
What is Cartoon Hour?
Basically, it’s an hour where everyone meets on Zoom and draws at the same time (me too!). Folks can choose what they want to draw, and if they’re stuck for ideas, then I’m happy to help with some suggestions.
At the end of the hour we show each other what we’ve drawn. I’ll be imparting a few cartooning tips as well.
It’s a good way to get some cartooning done and also to share with fellow doodlers.
If you’d like to receive more details on Cartoon Hour, simply add your name, best email address, and type “Yes!” In the message below.
