Research 4

I have been struggling with drawing facial expressions and this skill will be key for the subject of the book. I normally draw cartoon like images and think although it is possible to tackle difficult, serious or emotional subjects using this way of drawing I think you have to be very careful. I have been sketching facial expressions and looking at artists that I have been inspired by to see how they put together their images.

I looked at some artwork by Brett parson who works on Tank Girl as well as lots of other projects. The way he draws and uses digital media really appeals to me and is close to the way I try to draw so i was interested to see if he managed to show a range of emotion throughout his work. Most of his work is based around monsters and pin up style women so it was hard to find anything to get inspiration from for this project.

I really like his style of drawing and the classic page layout he uses in a lot of his work made to look like old comic covers and film posters. Looking through his work gave me some ideas for page layouts and how to make my books composition more interesting but in terms of illustrating emotion his work isn't much help for this project. 

  

The next illustrator i looked at was Tracy Tubera who makes vector based illustrations. He makes a lot of work based on well known comic and film characters and they are generally used as t shirts and posters. This was the artist I was lest optimistic about as hes work isn't used for narrative based artwork. it might then seem like a strange choice but i wanted to see if even with the least likely illustration I could find some inspiration for my work or any tips on how to draw facial expressions.

I have drawn some characters based on my grandad and pictures of my um as a child to try out the drawing styles of these artists while still adding my own individual style and methods.

I like the face on this drawing, I think it is quite subtle but conveys the emotion i want it to. I think it doesn't work with the body, the shape of the body doesn't seem to match and i think could seem unsuitable for certtain serious and emotional subject matter in the book. I might be looking too much into each element of my drawing and what I think it conveys. I have had a tough time drawing anything i like recently and it is making it hard to judge what works and what doesn't. 

 The only thing I like about this drawing are the eyes, the pupils to be more precise. I think they could work well if used for one of the characters crying.

I like this drawing as a one off image bit it is heavily stylized and would mean I would have to draw all other characters in the book in the same way. this could be a problem with some of the sad sections of the book. I need to look more at artists that deal with emotion using cartoon.