Three Points From A Calvin and Hobbes Panel

Three points from a panel

Today we’re going to look at three points from a single panel of Calvin and Hobbes. Bill Waterson is such a great cartoonist that you could study him for a year and still pick up useful ideas.

Here are the three points we’re going to cover:

1. Line of action

2. Great facial expressions

3. Showing speed

1. Line of Action

I’ve always loved the way Waterson draws Hobbes in motion. Look at the great line of action here - fantastic for a pouncing tiger! Look at how the line curves nicely from the tip of his tail to the end of his nose.

2. Great Facial Expressions

In the strip Hobbes’ facial expressions change depending on whether he’s in cuddly tiger mode, when he’s hanging out with Calvin, to natural wild state and ready to pounce - as is the case in this panel. I guess that it’s a classic examples of how you can take the tiger out of the jungle but you can’t take the jungle out of the tiger.

3. Sense of Speed

We know that Calvin is fleeing at great speed due to the two prompts provided by the flurry of squiggles showing his legs in motion, along with the trail of dust he’s leaving behind. Also, he’s moving so fast, his legs aren’t actually touching the ground!

The Leopard Ambushes Gerald!

I thought I’d have a go at recreating this scene using a couple of my own characters. Seeing as Hobbes is a big cat, it seemed only natural to swap him out for the leopard who occasionally escapes from the zoo to terrorize Gerald.

The leopard is a little less long and lithe as Hobbes and I also altered the pose a little.

For Gerald I decided to have him running at full stretch rather than have his legs whirling around in motion as with Calvin earlier.

Over To You

Why not have a go at creating your own version of the scene?

You don’t have to restrict yourself to big cats, or to land creatures either. Whatever you do, have fun with it.

Talking of having fun…

I’m currently working on the ‘Cartooning Canines - How To Draw Cartoon Dogs Course’. If you’d like to receive more details, click below, send me a mail and type “woof!” In the subject line.

Illustrated Podnotes - Is There A Loneliness Epidemic?

I follow the Modern Wisdom podcast put out every week by Chris Williamson.

I’ve found a lot of the content to be informative and useful, so I decided to start doing some Illustrated Podnotes to go with some of the episodes. Here is the intro to the podcast:

Noreena Hertz is an author and economist.

Even before social distancing was a word, loneliness was a huge crisis. More people than ever before feel detached in a world that's never been so connected.

Expect to learn the dramatic health impacts of loneliness, the extreme lengths some people are going to in an effort to feel connected with other humans, why 16-24 year olds are at highest risk and much more...

Illustrated Podnotes coming soon:

Joel Jamieson - An Expert Guide To Heart Rate Variability and How To Improve It

Richard Meadows - Optionality: How To Make Your Own Luck

Combining Ideas To Create Cartoon Gags

Idea for Dog + Cookie

A while ago I was involved in a cartoon idea generating challenge.

Myself and the other participant each at a topic that we wanted to produce ideas about. In my cases it was dogs; in his, houses.

We each used our topic as a base element to which we added a different element to every day.

Here is the list of daily elements.

1. Office
2. Rain
3. Glasses
4. Smartphone
5. Window
6. Umbrella
7. Water
8. Backpack
9. Surfing
10. Mountain
11. Jungle
12. Tornado
13. wood chipper
14. cookies
15. beach
16. Sea Urchin
17. Lady Bug
18. Cactus
19. Haircut
20. Ghost

Every day we had to combine the base and daily element and think of some ideas to go with that combination. So in the case of #1 above, it would be Dogs + Office.

Thanks to David Green for joining in the challenge.

Here are a few of the cartoons that I came up. The main point was to generate lots of ideas, rather than to produce many polished cartoons.

Dogs + Window

The two ideas for ‘Window’ here, along with most of the other ones below, were drawn with a 6b pencil in Procreate, and then the washes applied with the watercolour tool.

Dogs + Surfing

Living in Japan, it made feel that it was an ideal opportunity to include Hokusai’s Great Wave, along with a Japanese Shiba-Inu.

Dogs + Jungle

I could have come up with a load more ideas for jungle. It of course gave me a chance to draw a couple of anacondas, which are always fun to doodle.

Dogs + Sea Urchin

‘Sea Urchin’ at first glance was one of the more challenging ones to work with. Recently I’ve been watching some YouTube videos of pool dippers who wait for the tide to recede and then go exploring what creatures have been trapped in the rock pools by the retreating pool. That gave me the idea of having a Spaniel, usually my go-to breed when I want a dog doing something daft, inadvertently squatted on an urchin. Yowl!

I couldn’t resist doing a colour version.

Over to you:

Time for you to give this a try!

1. Choose a base element, something you regularly draw or a new topic you want to explore.

2. Now write a bunch of different topics, anything will do. Don’t stop to think about these for too long, just jot down whatever comes immedialtely to mind.

3. Everyday choose a new topic and add it to your base element. Doodle a couple of ideas. Remember that this isn’t about creating perfect or polished cartoons - it’s about generating lots of ideas for cartoons.

Have fun!

Interested In Drawing Cartoon Dogs?

Click the button below, send me a mail, and type “Woof!” In the subject line. I’ll send you details about the Cartooning Canines - How To Draw Cartoon Dogs Course.

Drawing ‘On The Trail of the Mountain Cat’

Absent-minded zoologist Lionel Peabody has enlisted the help of Bugsley the Bloodhound in an attempt to track down the elusive Pink-Spotted Mountain Cat. By far the rarest of rare cats, the Pink-Spotted has never actually been fully sighted, only occasional glimpses of a tail sticking out from behind a boulder or ears peaking out from above a bush. Using the scent from what was believed to be a recent kill, Buglsey got the faintest of scents from the remains of the bird and set off on the trail.

In this article I’m going to break down the steps in creating the above cartoon.

Sketching the background

I sketched out a mountain ridge for the background using the 6b pencil in Procreate.

Sketching the characters

Here is Lionel Peabody (the absent-minded zoologist) and Bugsley the Bloodhound.

Positioning the characters on the background

I wanted to have a them on the right-hand side so that it left some space free in case I wanted to add the cat. I wasn’t sure at this stage whether it would actually appear in the cartoon (it is elusive after all…)

Adding washes to the background

The used the watercolour tool set to 20% opacity to start to build up the tones.

Adding washes to the characters

Using the same watercolour tool, I now applied washes to the characters.

Adding shadow

Adding a little shadow to ground the characters.

Increasing the intensity of the tones

I double the layer containing the characters washes, and added more tones to the background. I also decided to add the cat peering up at the pair as they went past, and failed to find it as usual.

The finished cartoon

Here is the finished cartoon again. I say finished, however, I might add a little more detail. I was Laos thinking of doing a colour version, although I do like the atmosphere created by monochrome.

Woud you like to learn how to draw cartoon dogs?

To find out details of the Cartooning Canines - How To Draw Cartoon Dogs Course, click the button below, send me a mail and type ‘Woof!’ In the subject line.

Create A Frankenhund!

Can you spot the typo?

Is it a Poodle?…A Pomeranian? Some sort of terrier?

No, it’s a Frankenhund.

The good doctor figured out that the monster needed some company seeing as the villagers weren’t exactly taking a shine to him. Darkness gathered, great energy was harnessed, and much fringe science was carried out to create a canine.

I’ve drawn a lot of different dog breeds over the years, ranging from Labradors to Lhasa Apsos...and Dachshunds to Dobermans. However, many dogs are mutts or mongrels - not one specific breeds but of mixed-origins.

You’ve probably seen dog where you’ve thought “Hmm....is that a bit of collie in him...or is part spaniel?”

Time for a bit of fun!

Over to you!

Exercise: Create a mutt!

Look at some pictures of different dogs. Choose some different elements from the dogs and combine them together. You could choose the facial features of a Bulldog, the coat of an Afghan hound, the ears of a Pomeranian, it’s up to you!

Here are a few points to think about

• ears - long and droopy, alert, big, small etc

• Legs - long, short, powerful, skinny etc

• Coat - short, long-haired, wiry, etc

You could also think of the dogs character traits as well, such as

• The herding instincts of a collie

• The guarding instincts of a mastif

• The daftness of a spaniel

• The tenacity of a terrier

It’s up you! It’s a cartoon, so make sure you have some fun with it.

Like to learn how to draw cartoon dogs?

CLick below, send me a mail and type ‘Woof!’ in the subject line, and I’ll send you details about the Cartooning Canines - How To Draw Cartoon Dogs Course.

Lesser-Known Dog Breeds - The Norwegian Schnozhund

If you asked the average person on the street “What is the dog breed with the keenest sense of smell?” chances are they would instantly reply “Bloodhound”. There is however another breed with such a powerful sense of smell that it puts the Bloodhound to shame - The Norwegian Schnozhund.

Whereas the Bloodhound is capable of picking up a sent  that is several days old, only the powerful probiscus of the Schnozhund is able to detect scents of a week or more old.

Heavy Metal Hound?

The only trouble is that once a Schnozhund gets hold of a scent it absolutely will not let it go, come rain, wind or snow, or the pleading of its owner or handler. It truly is one of the most stubborn of all breeds. Even loud noises that would frighten almost any other dog fail to dislodge the Schnozhund once it’s on a scent trail.

A Great Nose For A Fine Vintage

One of the most notable owners was the vineyard owner and sommelier Pierre Le Pneau - the self styled greatest nose in France. Even he had to admit that he'd met his match in the formidable olfactory powers of his Schnozhund Remi. Not only could Remi correctly identify a wine from its bouquet, he didn't even have to be in the room to so.

Remi helped Pierre over several seasons, with Pierre even sometimes getting down onto all fours so that he could sniff in the same style as the dog.

A Dog Of Many Colours?

Schnozhund don’t come in much colour variations. Basically any colour is okay as long as it’s white.

Want to learn how to draw Cartoon Dogs?

Click the button below, send me a mail and type ‘Woof!’ I’ll send you details about the Cartooning Canines - How To Draw Cartoon Dogs Course.

Drawing Cartoon Bloodhounds

That’s one scent that our intrepid Bloodhound might not be too keen on following!

Today Suki has enlisted the help of Bugsley to look at drawing cartoon Bloodhounds

Although Bloodhounds have a very distinctive appearance, you may not have seen one very often, if at all, as they are not that common.

Before we go any further, What do you think have three features of Bloodhounds?

1.

2.

3.

Bloodhound Characteristics

Bloodhound Characteristics

Bloodhounds are a large breed,  biggest of all the hounds. They are famous for their fantastic sense of smell and ability to follow a scent for miles and miles.

Here are some other characteristics:

• droopy eyes

• large, floppy ears

• wrinkles

• body folds

• fantastic sense of smell

Bloodhound Colour Variations

There is also the incredibly rare purple coat…

Bloodhound or Basset Hound?

Here are a few points to look out for when drawing a Bloodhound.

• The Bloodhound is about twice as tall as a Basset hound.

• The legs are a lot longer on a Bloodhound

• The Basset hound’s ears look bigger in comparison to the rest of its body.

A Few More Points To Consider

Exaggeration

Remember that a cartoon gives you a license to exaggerate things a bit. In the case of a Bloodhound you could try:

• making the nose bigger

• making the ears longer

• making it more wrinkly

• thinking of what loud noises would fail to ruin it’s concentration on the scent

• what is the smelliest/least smelliest thing you can think of?

Some Bloodhound Poses

Nose to the ground following a scent trail is probably the one you’ll be most likely to draw.

Gags For Bloodhound Cartoons

This mind mind will give you a few ideas about situations or poses you could draw. Here are a few questions you could ask yourself.

• What strange or unusual scent could the dog be following?

• What strange or unusual person, animal, or thing could the dog be following?

• What happens if the dog catches a cold?

• How might it get along with other animals?

Below are a couple of cartoons I came up with by posing one of the above questions, I also came up with the skunk picture at the start of this article with this method.

This one was drawn for the Modern Wisdom Podcast. In this episode the host, Chris Williamson, talked with Harold McGee on The Science of How Smell Works.

This is another one from the same podcast episode.

Over To You

Why not try picking up a pen and doodling a quick Bloodhound?

Don’t forget the long ears, long legs, lots of wrinkles, and of course a really, really good nose!

Learning From Calvin and Hobbes - Part II

A while ago I put together an article ‘learning cartooning from ‘Calvin and Hobbes’, where I wrote that you can learn a lot while copying examples of great cartoons. As there’s a lot to learn from Bill Waterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, I thought it be fun to return to the strip and experiment by swapping out the characters for some of my own.

The Base Cartoon

I chose this one because it’s relatively simple (or so I thought at the time - more on that later) with no background and a limited range of poses.

Substituting Chloe for Calvin.

I thought I’d replace Calvin with a girl character. I’m not doing an exact copy this time around, so while the size of my character is about the same, and I’m suing the same pose as the original, I’m making the eyes a little more more complex than Calvin’s usual dots.

Substituting Dobbs for Hobbs.

For the sake of variety I decided to replace Hobbs with a dog - ‘Dobbs’. As he’s a dog he’s not quite as flexible in body as a tiger, and so I’ve adjusted the pose a little.

The two new characters together

I was originally intending to just swap out the characters and keep the words the same, however, I realised  that in this case they didn’t match at all.

It was at this point that I realised the cartoon was going to be a bit more complex than I’d first imagined.

Composing the haiku

In the first panel, Calvin is saying a haiku, so I started out by writing the 5..7..5.. syllable pattern of the form as a reminder.

D is for Dog

Just to make it a little more challenging, Calvin’s haiku is also alliterative - meaning that all the words start with the same letter.

So I started listening out as many words beginning with ‘D’ that could be applied to the situation of a sleeping dog.

Thesaurus to the rescue

Eventually I came up with the above.

Almost there…

Although the original is a line drawing, I decided to add some tones to finish it off.

The finished cartoon

It was a fun challenge to put that together, especially composing the alliterative haiku.

Over to you

Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose a cartoon that you like. I recommend choosing a relatively simple one to start with  - you can always choose something more complex later.

2. Swap out the characters with ones of your own.

3. While you’re drawing your characters, note the lines that the original cartoonist used. 

4. Try swapping out the original speech or caption for words of your own.

Enjoy!

Illustrated Podnotes - Modern Wisdom - The Science of How Smell Works

I follow the Modern Wisdom podcast put out every week by Chris Williamson.

I’ve found a lot of the content to be informative and useful, so I decided to start doing some Illustrated Podnotes to go with some of the episodes.

This one features Harold McGee talking about how the science of smell works.

Here is the intro that appeared with the podcast:

Harold McGee is an author and food expert.

Our sense of smell sits at the front of our daily experience and yet our understanding of what smells are and how they're processed is almost non existent.

Expect to learn why smell may be the oldest of our senses, how our brains combine what hits our nose to create sensations, whether smell will be the new frontier for the entertainment industry, what an opera singer smells like and much more...

Of course given the theme it gave me the perfect excuse to draw some Bloodhounds. They’re a very charismatic and naturally cartoony breed, so it was a lot of fun making them the recurring characters through the podnotes.

I enjoyed drawing the Bloodhounds so much that I’ll think I’ll put together a future article on how to draw them.

Illustrated Podnotes coming soon:

Joel Jamieson - An Expert Guide To Heart Rate Variability and How To Improve It

Noreena Hertz - Is There A Loneliness Epidemic?

Richard Meadows - Optionality: How To Make Your Own Luck

Drawing Squatting On The Sea Urchin

I’ve drawn a few cartoons recently set on a beach or a rock pool, in this article I want to break down the process of creating one of them.

Initial Sketch

I chose a Spaniel to feature, as that particular breed is my go-to when I want a dog getting up to something daft. I haven’t completed the facial expression of the owner at this point, as I wasn’t yet sure how she’d be reacting the dog leaping up.

This was sketched using a 6b pencil in Procreate.

Colouring the characters

I used the watercolour wash to colour the characters.

Adding a bolder outline

To help the characters stand out better, I added a bolder outline.

Colouring the background

To apply the background colour, I used the turpentine brush. I really like the texture you can produce for both the sea and rocks using this brush.

Doubling the intensity of the background

To increase the intensity of the background colour, I simply, doubled the colour layer. I also coloured the sea urchin.

The finished picture

To complete the cartoon, I added some more tones to the dog, and finally added movement lines.

Lesser-Known D0g Breeds - The Silver Sender

With Christmas now over and the New Year having begun,  there is a fair chance that you have been saddled with a present or two that you would really rather not keep.

With Aunt Beryl no longer in town,  now might be the time to dispose of that hideous jumper she gave you or the pair of 100% polyester socks (again) from cheapskate Uncle Norbert. No matter how ghastly the prezzie, there is often a reluctance to actually physically committing to throwing away the offending offering. It would be far easier to are someone to do the deed for you.

There is where one of the more truly obscure dog breeds comes in useful - the Silver Sender.

Golden Retrievers are of course known for their ability to fetch objects, whether birds when out hunting or more commonly balls thrown by anyone willing to play. However, this popular dog has a distant cousin.

It all started off as a cross between a Golden Retriever and a Weimaraner, which resulted in  a dog with the appearance of a retriever but the silver coat of the Weimaraner.

It was soon discovered that when playing fetch with the pups, the young dogs had an extreme reluctance to bring thrown objects bring back, and in fact tended to take them away and hide them. With subsequent generations, this trait strengthened considerably, and with careful training the dogs became very skilled at the ‘sending away’ of objects.

The Delivery Dogs

Sensing a unique business opportunity, the dog was adopted by the legendary Grimleys Department Store in New York. Eager to work, the dog was soon put to good use carrying out local deliveries to customers, and also as a means to promote the store as the dogs went about their work in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Very similar in appearance and build to a Labrador retriever, the delivery dog also shares the Labradors soft mouth tendency - the ability to pick up, hold, and carry quarry gently - although in the delivery dogs case it was shopping bags and packages rather than game.

The Cake Catastrophe

In 1969, the then owner of Grimleys, Max StiltonburgerJnr. III, came up with a publicity stunt whereby one of the dogs, would delivery a cake to the sister store in Boston to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The dog, Binkie the Second, garnered a lot of attention and press as hemade his way to the store.

Unfortunately, just outside of Boston the plan was thwarted when a sudden gust of wind distributed the cake all over the sidewalk. Before Binkie was able to salvage the cake, it was eaten by a pack of squirrels who approved of the cake, apart from the fact that it could have done it have had more nuts. Undeterred by this set back, Stiltonburger sent a replacement cake, this time consisting of two-tiers, by courier and accompanied by his very own personal assistant delivery dog, Beanie the Fourth. Upon rendezvousing the two dogs made a triumphant entrance to Boston in time for the anniversary celebrations. After the cake mishap, all future delivery hounds received a special week's training in Chicago - the Windy City - to help them be better prepared for unexpected gusts.

A Howl Of Protest

Silver Senders are one of the most reliable dog breeds out there. There is in fact only one recorded case where the dog counted be depended on to dispose of an unwanted gift. Yorkel B. Nesbitt of Delaware once received a birthday jumper from his Great Aunt Gertrudemina that was so frighteningly obnoxious that his dog, Dixie, refused to have anything to do with it.

Cartooning Sea Urchins and Other Unusual Creatures

Yuri thought Rex would appreciate her taking him on a spot of rock pool dipping, figuring that he would enjoy nosing around exploring what creatures has been left behind in the pools by the retreating tide. What he certainly didn’t enjoy was finding out that squatting on a sea urchin was not such a good idea…

I live in Japan,, so I’ve eaten sea urchin quite a few times. But until I came here, I’d never really heard of a sea urchin, let alone eaten one. And I certainly never imagined that they could become a topic for a cartoon.

I’m involved in a cartoon challenge where we have to come up with an idea for a cartoon by putting two elements together. One of the elements is a base - in my case dogs - and remains the same. The other elements changes everyday. Recently some of these elements have included ‘cookies’, ‘surfing’, ‘umbrella’, and ‘wood chipper’. Today it was the turn of sea urchin.
Now you may have no interest in sea urchins whatsoever. However, this article aims to help you to come up with some ideas for gags for equally unusual objects.

We’re going to explore some ideas by keeping in mind the following two points:

• Resemblance

• Exagerration

But first, let’s do a mindmap about sea urchins.

Resemblance

What does a sea urchin look like?

While you may not be familiar with the sea urchin it may remind you of some things that are more familiar.

List three things that it resembles.

1.
2.
3.

Here are mine:

1. Cactus
2. Nails
3. Hedgehog

Is there anything else you could exagerrate?

Over to you:

Try doodling a sea urchin appearing in a completely different situation, or substitute something the urchin for something that resembles it, as with the cartoon above.

Exaggeration

Remember that it’s a cartoon, so you’ve license to sketch and push things a bit. In fact, a cartoon often calls for it.

So let’s look at what we could exaggerate with the sea urchin.

One of the most obvious things you can exaggerate is the size.

What else could you exagerrate?

Over to you:

1. Pick an unusual object or creature.

2. Do a quick mindmap. You can mindmap whatever words come to mind, or pose questions as in the previous example.

3. What does the object/creature resemble?

4. What features can you exaggerate about the object/creature?

5. Doodle and have some fun!

Time for one more quick cartoon from an idea that came up in the mindmap.

Seeing as otters love playing, and sea otters love eating sea urchins, I thought I’d combine the two ideas together for the juggling otter above.

Summary

Here is what we covered:

• Use a mindmap to help generate ideas

• Resemblance

• Exaggeration

Drawing Kneeling Figures

What’s this posse of pool-peerers peeping at?

What’s lurking beneath the stream of bubbles, perhaps about to show itself to the onlookers?

All will be revealed later!

I drew this picture a couple of years ago, and when I looked back on it recently it didn’t quite seem right. The female character appeared to neither kneeling nor crawling, but instead adopting some kind of hybrid pose.

Recently a fellow cartoonist was working on some kneeling poses, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to rework this cartoon while at the same time putting together an article on kneeling poses.

Here’s what we’re going to cover

• Two points to look out for

• Don’t blow it out of proportion!

Let’s start with where you are now.

Before you read any further, grab a pen or pencil, and very quickly sketch a kneeling figure. Let’s see what your kneeling figures look like already.

Don’t worry if it doesn’t look quite right, the whole point of this article is getting them to look more a bit better.

Now look at the following example and try to spot anything that doesn’t look quite right to you.

What did you spot?

• There is a gap between the foot and the bottom.

• The lower leg is too long in comparison to the rest of the leg.

Two points to look out for

1. Usually there is no space between the floor and the bottom, unless the person is deliberately leaning forward. So make sure that the foot is touching the bottom.

2. Remember that the upper and lower legs should be roughly the same length as each other.

   The corrected version:

Don’t blow it out of proportion!

Now let’s have a quick reminder of human body proportions as applied to our pool-dipper, Yuki.

Let’s also apply this to a kneeling pose.

And here are the two side-by-side.

Return to the pool

Now let’s go back to the original picture and make a few adjustments.

As well altering the pose of the female character, I’m also going to reduce the size of the eyes on all the characters, as well as revealing what strange beastie was lurking beneath the surface.

Introducing the exceedingly rare Purple-Spotted Sea Dragon

No one knows much about the Purple-Spotted Sea Dragon, for as well as being vanishingly rare, and has a habit of vanishing rapidly when spotted, it has also so far eluded all attempts to capture a specimen. It occasionally pops up near coastlines around the world.

What we covered:

• Usually there is no space between the floor and the bottom, unless the person is deliberately leaning forward. So make sure that the foot is touching the bottom.

• The upper and lower legs should be roughly the same length as each other.

Making Practicing Drawing Fun

I used to play the piano and every day had to sit down and practice.

I was often accompanied by my cat, Jet, who would sit down in the immediate vicinity, often on the piano itself.

As the scales went up and down, and I battled with Beethoven and mangled Mozart, the cat would there through it all purring happily away.

I was often far from happy, as I found piano practice to be quite boring and monotonous, although I did enjoy playing the pieces once I’d reached a reasonable standard.

The trouble is that it takes a lot of practice of the nuts and bolts ,such as the scales and breaking the piece down into small sections, before you get good.

And this applies to anything we want to learn and not just musical instruments.

With cartoons characters it’s often a case of drawing the same poses over and over again until they begin to look right, and you start to develop muscle memory that same as you would for learning a physical exercise.

In fact a lot of popular cartoon characters are drawn in quite a limited number of poses. The side profile and three-quarter profile being two of the most common.

There’s no getting around the fact that it takes a lot of drawing the same thing again and again to master it, however, there are a few tricks you can try to make it less repetitive.

In this article we’re going to look at four different ways to make your cartooning practice more interesting.

We’re going to cover the following:

-Tracing

-Copying

-Changing colour

-Changing the eyes

Introducing Lionel Peabody

To help demonstrate these exercises, I’m going to enlist the help of Lionel Peabody - the absent-minded zoologist. Lionel is a character that I created a couple of years ago, but haven’t drawn recently. I’m currently working on a story about a very rare animal - the secretive Slush Leopard. I thought it was about time that Lionel made a return to investigate this most elusive of big cats. So to get him ready for his latest cartoon outing, it’s time to practice some of the poses he’ll be appearing in.

Today I’m going to keep it simple and stick to a three-quarter head profile. However, you can apply the following ideas to any pose you like.

Tracing

First, draw a row of poses.

Now choose one that you like and copy it.

Next, add a layer on top of this and copy it. Repeat a few times with different layers. When you’ve finished, line them up alongside each other. (Line up the Lionels!)

This is practice drawing the same thing again and again so you are starting to develop an instinctive feel for how the proportions should look.

Copying

Now we’re going to use the same reference pose to copy from.

Draw another line of poses, trying to copy the same one each.

Don’t worry if you get quite a variety, it takes a lot of consistent practice to draw the exact same pose each time

You could try using a grid to help you with the proportions.

Oops! I didn’t quite crop that image correctly. Just goes to show that nothing has to be perfect at this stage.

Changing Colour

Do you remember back in elementary school, or even younger, when you used to break open the crayolas, felt-tip pens etc. and go crazy with a variety of colours?

Little kids think nothing of changing colours at the drop of a hat, so give it a whirl yourself and try copying the same pose again, but changing colour each time.

Changing Eyes

Another trick you can try is to draw another row of poses, trying to keep all the features the same apart from one small element - in this case the eyeballs. This is sufficient to add a little variety to stop your brain from switching off, and yet enabling you to keep practicing the same pose over and over.

Summary

Here’s what we covered:

• Tracing

• Copying

• Changing Colours

• Changing the eyes (or another small detail)

So give it a go and see if it helps you to get through a few more reps along your way to drawing a more consistent pose.

Meanwhile on Safari…

Here’s pic of Lionel, accompanied by his faithful companion, Reggie the Honey Badger, taking a quick breather.

Finally, back to the cat…

I thought that it was the case that the reason that Jet sat on top of the piano purring away was simply due to her unquavering devotion to me, you know - the unconditional love that pets give. I later on went to take up the trumpet, and she would do exactly the same thing, purr away, while our other cat, Jo-Jo, would flee for dear life. Eventually it turned out that Jet was rather deaf…

Illustrated Podnotes - Modern Wisdom - Ali Abdaal

I follow the Modern Wisdom podcast put out every week by Chris Williamson.

I’ve found a lot of the content to be informative and useful, so I decided to start doing some Illustrated Podnotes to go with some of the episodes.

This one features Ali Abdaal.

Here is the intro that appeared with the podcast:

Ali Abdaal is a Doctor and a YouTuber.

The ability to consume and retain information quickly is one of the most important skills of the 21st century and yet very few of us actually understand the way our brains learn & remember.

Expect to learn how to design your perfect study schedule, why discomfort is a good sign when studying, the golden rule of memory, Ali's best tools & apps to augment your learning, how to automate spaced repetition and much more.

Illustrated Podnotes - Modern Wisdom - Eric Jorgenson

I follow the Modern Wisdom podcast put out every week by Chris Williamson.

I’ve found a lot of the content to be informative and useful, so I decided to start doing some Illustrated Podnotes to go with some of the episodes.

This one features Eric Jorgenson.

Here is the intro that appeared with the podcast:

Eric Jorgenson is a growth marketer and product strategist.

Naval Ravikant has risen to wisdom-stardom over the last 10 years but is far more aloof than most of us would like. Eric has spent 3 years compiling the best of Naval's insights into a single book, and today we get to fanboy about it.

Expect to learn the most impactful quotes from Eric's research on Naval, the fundamentals of how wealth is created, how to productise yourself, why happiness is a skill not a state, why desires are a weakness, how you can get more lucky and much more...

Priming A Notepad

Previously I wrote about the joys of blank note books or notepads

It’s always useful to have a notepad on you in case an idea strikes and you need to jot it down.

Of course many folks now use their phone for the exact same purpose.

But what if you’ve got a notebook or phone to hand and no ideas come?

Instead you’ve got the dreaded blank page or screen of doom....

Here’s a little trick you can do to prime your notepad and jumpstart some idea generation.

On a couple of the blank pages write down a random idea for something you could doodle.

Here are a few ideas:

• angry cats

• drinking coffee

• walking a dog

What you’re doing is removing the part of the process that often stumps people right at the very beginning - coming up with something to draw.

You’ve now got some topics, so all you have to do is to start doodling on the topic. It doesn’t really matter what ou doodle, the main thing is to get started.

You could also take this one step further and doodle a situation for you to complete later.

In this case, what is the cat staring at in it’s bowl?

Most importantly of all, make sure you remember to have a notepad on your in the first place. Having a dedicated notepad that you only use for doodling is perhaps more powerful than using a phone or tablet. The physicality of the notepad itself acts as a reminder to doodle.

So don’t forget to keep a notepad on you.

Top Hat Henry

Over the years several fashion designers have become household names, and like many folks you’ve probably got your favourite.

However, you would be hard pressed to name one hat designer, although in the 20th century there was one who briefly came to public consciousness - Henry Higglebottom, better known as Top Hat Henry.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel - engineer and top hat afficiondo.

Henry first fell in love with top hats at an early age while studying about the engineer Isanbard Kingdom Brunel, who sported the most impressive of top hats.

Top hats were traditionally a symbol of the upper class, however, as Henry was from more humble roots, he set his mind upon the democratisation of hat wearing.

Otto Von Trilby working on his famous ‘Octopus’ hat.

Before he could do that, he had to learn the milliners trade, and so it was that upon leaving school at age sixteen, he moved to Vienna to study hat making with the legendary Otto Von Trilby.

After apprenticing with Von Trilby for seven intensive years, Henry set up shop in his own right as a milliner.

Here are a few of the notable top hats that Henry produced.

Matching hats for actress Sandra Spatula and her dog Splash

Popular actress Sandra Spatula never went anywhere without her dog Splash. So it was only natural that when deciding to commission a top hat, that she specified matching hats.

Unfortunately both hats were lost while driving along the Pacific coast highway. Top hats are not the best thing to wear while driving a open-top sports car at high speed, and were soon dislodged and carried off in the slipstream, only to be eventually eaten by a hungry goat.

The perfect perch for sugar gliders

Australian naturalist, Enid Nettle had to produce a documentary about the sugar glider - a type of flying marsupial similar in appearance to a flying squirrel. Her extra-tall hat made the perfect perch for sugar gliders to launch themselves off during the show.

The Trick Hat

Not content with putting rabbits from a hat, the Mesmerising Zuki developed a new trick involving a giraffe, which required the commissioning of a special hat for a prop.

Perhaps the biggest innovation that Henry brought to the milliner’s art, was the use of Dachshunds to apply finishing touches to the inside of hats.

The Smooth Dentist

An ode to my dentist.

Dr. Taira is a master.

He tantalises teeth, caresses crowns, and finesses fillings.

I first went to him about fifteen years ago. At that time, I was teaching a private English lesson to a student who happened to be a dentist. The guy was well-off, he had a chain of clinics and a fancy car collection.

However, he had never wanted to be a dentist, he wanted to study architecture - but his father was a dentist…

And so it was that thirty years later that he had ticked all the external marker boxes of success, but probably very few of the internal ones. Needless to say, he wasn’t the world’s happiest dentist…

He invited me to have a free check-up and clean, which was good timing as I felt I had a problem with a tooth on the left of my mouth. The guy did the check and some cleaning, after which I asked him about the tooth I was concerned about. He said it was fine, but there was a tooth on the other side of my mouth that needed work. I was skeptical and decided to get a second opinion.

And so it was that two after that I found myself at Dr. Taira’s clinic. The contrast between the two and like night and day, or ceramic and amalgam - to use dental terminology. Whereas the previous guy spent more time pondering bridges over river rather than those in mouths, Dr. Taira was clearly a man who very much enjoyed life and his work - and was exceedingly good at it. I got my second opinion, and it turned out that I was right about the tooth on the left afterall, and so I promptly had it fixed.

Since then I’ve been returning there for check-ups and occasional work ever since. I even started on the process of having my own amalgam fillings removed and replaced with ceramics. It was during one such sessi0n that I actually fell asleep will waiting in the chair. Did I mention that Dr. Taira usually has smooth jazz playing? Well maybe it was smoother than usual that way, but regardless of the music I regarded as a sign of someone who was very good at making their patients feel relaxed.

In the reception area there is a small picture of Rolling Stone Keith Richards. I haven’t been able to track down the exact picture, but this one is close enough.

Along with the picture is the following printed out on a card:

Keith Richards has an almost Buddhist detachment to the Legend he helped to create. But he is not, he would like you to know, an idiot. He was here.

So if Dr. Taira is good enough for Keith Richards, he’s good enough for just about anyone.

One of these days I’ll get around to asking Dr. Taira about Keith Richards.

The Joy of Blank Notebooks

I love blank notebooks.

I had some unexpected time off school this morning, so I decided to head off to Cafe Lexcel in the Tokyo International Forum to do some drawing.

I didn’t bring my recharger with me, and seeing as the battery on my iPad Pro was running low, decided to go old-school and put pen to paper.

I always keep at least one notebook in my bag/jacket, usually both, however the one I had on me was almost out of sheets. In search of paper replenishment, I swung by Bic Camera to peruse their stationery store. Bic Camera is an electronics megastore chain, which also stocks numerous other good as well. The Gods of Cartoonists were smiling on me today as I discovered these beauties:

Look at all that endless possibility!

Cartoons to be drawn…doodles to be, well, doodles…notes to be scribbled…such fun!

I get almost as much pleasure cracking open a blank notebook as I do filling up the pages.

It reminds me of a friend of mine to whom the highlight of buying a new book is sniffing it before reading it. But that’s another story…probably for another notebook…

What have you filled a notebook with recently?

Let me know, I’d love to hear.