In Case you're wondering "Exactly, What's happening on this blog?"

A friend of mine complained that he didn't understand what is it, exactly, that I'm trying to achieve on this blog. To that purpose, I'm posting here excerpts from a letter by John Kricfalusi to, then-14yr-old fan Amir Avni (now he's done with Masters) where he's giving him tips to be an animator. He has extended a lot of over that in his blog... What I am doing is the assignments given on it.

Egghead

From Left to Right: Basic Egg, Egghead(1-5)

Egghead 1

Egghead 2

Egghead 3

Egghead 4

Egghead-Final (I think this is as close i can get without tracing)

Page 1 - The Bear (that resembles Mickey Mouse but isn't...)

Step 1: Construction Lines

Step 2: Putting Shapes in (with scans) 

Step 3: Some Unsuccessful(but interesting) attempts with  scans and self -critique. The one on Top right was the one I thought I could closest to original without tracing.

Step 4: Inking
First two are interesting-but-unsuccessful attempts
Third one is the one I think I've come closest to original without tracing
Fourth is an experiment with a different inking brush

The Process I follow

The first beast to tame is... Construction.

It's been quite a task for me to get the construction lines right. A little here & there results in drawing that was completely different than what was intended, look at my own previous drawings they were intended to be a bear, and every single time i'm ending with Goddamn Mickey Mouse... the expression is watered down, maybe the features look floaty... you get the point - Start right.

Materials: Right now, I'm using iBall stylus-tablet with Adobe Illustrator X and Corel Painter X to make drawings and using a scanned ebook for self-critique...

Advantages:

Thanks to grids, I can get very accurate proportions (one step close to a good copy)

• Proportions - As shown in the pic, i can use grids to get proportions... here height to width ratio is 11:7, I remember it as a little more than 3:2, which means when drawing freehand I draw height of the egg a little more than 3 units and width exactly 2 units.
• I can use many mediums at a time
• Work in layers (often you begin right but screw up somewhere later... layers let you avoid that... just do the work you're unsure of  in a separate layer)
• Once I get it right, I can easily repeat same shapes all over.

Construction in Adobe Illustrator:

I find drawing precise construction lines very hard, so till I get that right I've devised this temporary method to get the construction lines right.[... in four easy steps ;)]

Step 1: 

• Draw a circle and Press Ctrl C+ Ctrl F(Copy+Paste in place). Now you've got two circles.
• Click on the circle and while pressing Alt. transform that circle along it's width. Voila! you've got it's cross section in perspective (approximately).

Step 2:

• Break the segment of the cross section that represents hind part of the head. (Shown in pic.)

Step 3:

• Click on the dashes in Brushes palette... and in an instant, you get a dashed segment. Giving a neat guideline, showing front and hind part of the head.
  [This way we can do very precise inking too... I'll cover that part later]

Step 4:

• Repeat step 2-3, this time along height to get vertical cross section. With variation in width of ellipses we can get head tilting in every angle imaginable.
  

Now that I've demonstrated the construction lines, I'll continue to first drawing exercise in Preston Blair....

Back after one whole year...

I was disheartened that I couldn't make any significant progress in copying Preston Blair. But now, After one whole year... I'M BACK at it, trying to tame the Preston Blair demon. I hope I'll succeed...

Good thing is, meanwhile I've learned some basic inking... So this time I'll try to publish the inked images too...

Working on basic shape and proportions first. So here I have only oval ears, snout and circle for head.

No uploads for some more time

I'm doing my drawings, but misplaced my camera. So, there'd be few more days of no uploads. [Also that I'm studying some stories out there]