Character Design, Weeks 1-3

As I had mentioned previously, this semester I am taking a Character Design class, taught by Michael Buffington.  He's a long-winded fellow, but he does have some good points.  And though I don't particularly care for his drawing style, I do appreciate his mentality when it comes to drawing.  I mean, anyone who sets out to draw 1,001 heads (and accomplishes it, then decides to draw 1,000 more) clearly must love what he does.

Anyway, for this class--at least to start with--we have a weekly artist whose style we must emulate.  Week one was Phil Bourassa:

Week two was Sean "Cheeks" Galloway:

I will admit that, as Michael pointed out to me, I'm letting my own style interfere with replicating the artist's style.  The above three were the drawings he said he liked, even though they aren't exactly in the style of the artist.  Something to work on in the coming weeks.

During class time, there's a live model who puts together cool outfits and does 2-3 minute poses for us to draw from.  That's been fun.  It's been a challenge to figure out drawing from the model in pencil (as opposed to charcoal) on 8.5x14" paper (as opposed to 18x24" newsprint) while altering the model's look and pose to make a better animation drawing.  A new way of thinking, for sure.  Here's a sampling of my progress on that front from this past week:

This week's artist is Bruce Timm, which I believe means that I legally have to watch the 90's Batman cartoons as I draw.  This is clearly a tough career path I have chosen...