Sketchbook: Building with Bluelines

Non-photo blue pencil on paper

Although essential, model sheets are not the most stimulating kind of cartooning prep work. I've done two model sheets so far, for Jadinn and Ferkus, but having rendered all the drawings fully in Sketch N' Wash pencil, I had no reference for the underlying shapes. I knew how the characters looked when finished, but I didn't have a guide for building them. To draw characters consistently and effectively, you've got to know how to construct them from basic spheres and cylinders.

I recently reached an impasse where Castle Whatsitsname wasn't exciting me that much, because I felt like I had to wade through a mountain of model sheets before I could actually draw any comics. Last Sunday, I took a bus into the mountains and spent a whole day in a remote coffee shop making these sketches. By the end of the day, I felt a lot more comfortable with the poses and motions used by Dzeriel, Cheshire, and Narumi, and I returned to the formal model sheets with newfound enthusiasm.

The bottom half of the page shows Cheshire compared to one of his pure-blooded relatives. Since Cheshire is half dog, I wanted her werewolf form to not only be smaller and less imposing, but more human. Drawing the larger werewolf's arms angled out away from the body helped a lot in that regard - they resemble an ape's. Cheshire's arms angle inward, as do a human's in classical anatomy books. It's all coming together!

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