Norbert Rhubarb coming across the Legged Snake.
Controversial zoologist Norbert Rhubarb reported a sighting of a legged snake while on expedition deep in the Amazon in 1983. Rhubarb is not taken seriously in the scientific community, mainly due to his previous discoveries of the gliding hedgehog, the marine kangaroo, and the rotating badger. Rhubarb maintains hopes of getting an article in the likes of Nature or Science magazine in the future, but for the meantime has to settle for Caravan Monthly and the Loft Insulation Quarterly.
I’m now going to break down how I came up with the above image.
This all started out as a result of a conversation with a friend about snakes and lizards. We ended up talking about slow worms, which are a legless lizard. Just out of silliness I mentioned species of snake that has in fact legs (I made this bit up).
Fast forward in time and this conversation popped back into my head, and so I thought it would be fun to base a cartoon on this idea.
The legged snake
Six legs are better than four…
Here we have the snake with three sets of legs added. I initially had two sets of legs like any other lizard, but I thought it more comical to add more legs.
Outlining the background and Norbert Rhubarb
Outling the cartoon.
I thought a jungle setting would work well with Norbert coming across the snake pausing on a fallen log, with the greenery all around it acting as a frame.
Adding the greens
Starting the colouring.
You can see the palette that I’m using for the colouring. I’m using a digital watercolour wash in ProCreate with the brush set at 30% and then building up density bit by bit.
Adding darker tones
Increasing tones.
I’ve now added darker tones to the greens and also coloured in Norbert.
Drawing attention to the snake
Adding a touch of red.
I felt that the snake was merging into the background too much, so I thought that I’d add red markings to it to help catch the eye. After doing so I feel that this helped, but not enough.
Making the snake stand out
A brighter serpent.
I decided to change to the snake to a brighter green. I’ve also added shadow and hatching.
What’s next?
I put out a Cartoon Newsletter containing a whole menagerie of characters as well as cartooning tips. Add your name and best email address to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.
