Character Development _ Body built from circular and rounded forms

I got animation book by mail yesterday. I mean I got it today, because lazy post office worker couldn't bring his ass upstairs. Instead I got message in the mail that he/she missed me (I WAS HOME!) and I needed to drive to post office to take this package. My husband's package came in a same day, but it was smaller and it fit into the mail box :) Well, I get angry and upset easily, but can't really do any harm to people, so I cooled down in a couple of hours and brought myself to the post office today morning.
Here are my new pictures and notes. I started from the begining of the book and really like it so far! Also, as ususal, I added one picture of my own, trying to draw it with new concepts that I've learned.
Character development:
- think what type (ex. goofy, cute, screwball) you want to draw
- rough sketches (idea)
- add features and details
1. Cartoon construction:
- proportion is important! (use head measurement o.o)
- keep reference drawing of the character when animating
2. Body built from circular and rounded forms:
- circular, rounded form - general parts of the body, rest is around this parts.
- better on screen, easier to animate

Lesson #3 Body

This is the third lesson by Preston Blair's book. WEll, really it's number four, because I skiped one where I needed to redraw and correct the first one.... I hate to perfect my work doing it over and over again. It's so boring! Except, of course, if it's not my job when people pay me for pictures (I wish I have this kind of job though!). I really think that perfection comes with practice, and practice should be different and interesting every day. I draw couple body examples from the book today, and after that I draw my own character. That way I'm not just copying Preston's great pictures but trying to understand concepts on my own experience.

How to embed swf files into your blog

First what you need to do is upload your swf file to the internet. I used free hosting like www.hotlinkfiles.com . Then after upload, you will see the html link to your file It will look like: http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/name.swf
Second, use this code in your post:
<object height="340" width="150"><param name="movie" value="your file's name.swf"><embed width="150" heigh="340" src="paste your link here"></embed></object>
Done!
Example you can see in my previous post.

test swf embed

Lesson #2 Stretch and squash on heads

Drawing stretched and squashed circles first will help to understand how the head should look like. Also I catched myself on making faces while drawing. Probably, it helps me to feel the emotion better, I was trying to respond to the picture. If the dog is angry, I was making angry faces...
Another note on today's lesson: do not afraid to stretch or squash more then you want to. My mistake was that I didn't see difference on my pictures. Stretch and squash were almost the same. One of the cool design principles is to make different objects REALLY different. Smth extra small with extra big together. It brings attention and contrast.
And one more thing: I found helpful to draw the arrows to show the movement of the head. First, I was drawing construction, then arrows, after that I was checking and redrawing if needed my construction and then I draw the elements of the head.

Lesson #1 Construction - The Head (end)

Last page of the lesson 1. Searched for people who are doing same lessons. Seems like they all stoped working on it after the first one. Will see how it goes with me. Also I looked through other lessons on the site and don't like the idea of copying Preston Blair's picture with exactly every detail. I think the most important thing to learn here: principles and a lot of practice. Even if I'm drawing circles and lines - I must draw it every day. Just don't let your pencil be dull (although I use mechanical pencil hehe ).

Lesson #1 Construction - The Head (cont)

I feel very lazy today, but did the lesson anyway. It is probably not as accurate as I wanted it to be. Also, I ordered animation book by Preston Blair today.