Welcome to the Zoo!**Mucha**May 26th**

[Teigrob]

The following is some concept work I've done with quadrupeds with hooves in the last year and a half. First up is Pinstripe, a Texan zebra raised by mustangs.


The snake and the chicken tend to fight all the time like siblings.

These are the initial drawings of Pinstripe..





It was brought to my attention that the socks on his legs looked like nylons with garter belts (!) So I changed that, and made his face blockier, more like a male's.



Some expression sheets - in case you were wondering, these concepts are for an animated children's video.





One of his mustang pals in this one...

A fun one of him in an environment - I really need to draw environments more, they add a lot.


These are a variety of horses I've done, and some are just horse studies, not any particular character.

This is Thistle, a young, prickly foal...


...and Woodrow, a clydesdale. He started out mean because he was beaten, but his character evovled into one who was proud because of his great size.



After being taught a lesson, Woodrow is rewarded with wings (imagine, a clydesdale with wings...yikes)


Some random drawings of horses - they're just plain fun to draw!









yes, even horse skeletons

Some harness studies for Woodrow.


And finally, some drawings of deer I've done. No character development really, but I like to draw them even more than horses for some reason. I think because they're so flexible and can do these amazing things with their bodies.

[oomgawa]

Sweeeeeet! So cool to find you posting here!

I have always loved your work, you could turn a stump into an appealing character. Hope the children's video is going well, and I heard you are working on a side project with a Koala. Someone who saw it said it was as good as any pencil test they had seen from Disney. whoa. Now that is a compliment.

Have you gotten that script from Marvel yet?

I will keep an eye on this post for sure, and welcome!

[tagHeuer]

Hey these are cool. I was just animating a Clydesdale type horse running and a few of these poses served as a good source of inspiration.

This environment looks really good.



Keep it up!

[oomgawa]

Hey, forgot to say I hope that you will also put up some of your non-quad characters as well, someday when you get time.

and tagheuer, you have to pay a royalty for that inspiration!

[USER777]

are you working on bambi 2?

[Teigrob]

A pose inspired by Miyazaki that I did this morning. About 30 minutes, I think.



oomgawa - "You could turn a stump into an appealing character." Is that a challenge? The koala piece is turning out well, actually. You can visit it at my website if you want, but I warn you that until next week the download will be really slow.
As for Marvel, they did ask if I wanted to try something out with them, but after serious consideration, and trying my own strip, I decided that I don't like doing comics! Animation, on the other hand...sigh.
Oh yeah, and non-quads...I should get around to those in a week or so.

TagHeuer - Thanks! Anything to help.

Lim - No, but thank you for the compliment!

[TheMagnetic]

lim, your i dont know if you intend this but you sound rather snide, if thats the case you should post on some one elses thread because thats not welcome here. give a crit of some respectful sort.
Oomgawa, this is really gorgeous stuff, it has quite a bit of movement in it and expresses life. these are drawing that a lesser animator would fight for. I think that the character studies are great and respect that you practice the principles that you teach, unlike "cough" other people that I wont mention(CHRIS LILES), I grateful for your support and will never forget the small thing that you did for my during my struggle to get where I am now! THANK YOU.. see you saturday!

[oomgawa]

Oomgawa, this is really gorgeous stuff,

Now I'm confused. You know this is not MY work, right?!

[oomgawa]

You can visit it at my website if you want, but I warn you that until next week the download will be really slow.

Speaking of slow, I was wondering why this thread was taking so long to download and checked the image sizes in Photoshop. Seems they are 100 ppi instead of 72. You might want to go back and drop the resolution so folks will be more willing to take the time to look at all of the images.

[Teigrob]

Will do! Sorry about that.

[Teigrob]

TheMagnetic - thank you for your kind comments, I hope to keep improving!

Some more deer - whee!


I must say Phuzion, your women are very well drawn, and I especially enjoyed studying how you do costumes. This is my pitiful attempt...

[dorian]

haha, awesome!
i looove the expression sheets, great work!

[Phuzion]

This is some really nice stuff, I must say. The last page isn't nearly as strong as the others, but that's the purpose of a sketchbook, so it's all good

I think the Zebra is the weakest of the three, but it's still well done. Perhaps it's just the technique that isn't quite working out. The anatomy seems to be getting away from you a bit more than in the others. I think the changes you made to it were deffinately the right ones, but be careful still with silhouetting the hooves. Without showing even just a little overlap in the contour, they'll flatten out a little too much. Still, it's going in a really good direction.

The horses are going along pretty well. Some of them are falling short, but the exploration is great! And there are some really nice character drawings in there.

I like the Deer the most. That one is just stellar. There's a lot of character, in both the expressions and the posing. Also, it's a little more unusual in that you don't see many people drawing Deer characters. Horses are done all the time, and after Racing Stripes I'm just jaded on the whole zebra thing, and no, I didn't actually SEE the movie I really like the little warrior guy on the buck. Very Mononoke. The anatomy isn't too solid in that one, on the buck, but I love the concept.

Overall, these are really nicely executed. Not a whole lot of crits, other than to keep an eye on the anatomy. Also, stay a little more loose and try and capture a liiiittle more flow in the drawings. The ones where they're actually moving a fine, but the standing ones look a little too stiff. Stagger the legs a bit to avoid having all four in the same position, that will help to make them a bit more interesting. Also, another minor note is on the front legs of all the species, they are actually a little knock-kneed in reality. The legs aren't totally straight... they should taper in from the shoulder to the knee, and then taper back out from the knee to the hoof. If look at some of your reference, you'll see what I'm talking about. It's minor, but it makes all the difference, and also allows for more character choices. Anyway! Carry on! You're doing fiiiiiiine. Peace

-Daniel

[Teigrob]

dorian - Thanks mucho, and your sketchbook thread is pretty nice too - keep it up!
Phuzion - Wow! Great crit, I really appreciate it. I don't know why I find standing poses more difficult than action. But since it's the weaker, I'll focus on it a bit more for a while.

In honor of Phuzion's critique, a little humor... Standing for inspection!

I whipped these out, so the proportion's a little off, but hopefully the stances are a liiitle more interesting. It's back to the anatomy for me - it has been awhile, and obviously one starts forgetting!

[Phuzion]

LOL!

ah, classic... no crits here

-Daniel

[Teigrob]

Phuzion - glad you like it!

Pinstripe you know, but Kemper (the otter) and Dee Dee you don't! They are two other characters in the video. Oomgawa wished to see some 'non-quads', so here some of them are...

[Phuzion]

Yeah! These are great. I love Kemper being carried. Those hooves look a lot better too. Still simple, which is good, but more descriptive.

Can I possibley correct one thing? And it may be that I'm wrong anyway, but I think when zebras and horses walk, the legs alternated, so that when the right front one moves forward, the left rear one does too. right now you have both the right legs moving forward, and it doesn't quite read properly. To my knowledge the tule elk is the only one that moves both right legs, then both left legs... or is the caribou? I'm not sure. But it makes for a strange, enchanting walk. Just thought I'd point it out, but really, it's pretty minor in that most people won't even notice! Just for animation purposes do I point it out.

Shit, now you make me want to go do cartoony stuff again! Thank you!

-Daniel

[Teigrob]

Phuzion - actually, horses when they walk, move only one foot at a time, and the left hind moves first, then left front and so on. But I'll go outside and check out the horses just to make sure. I believe it's only when they trot that it's right front, left hind moving at the same time. Zebras I'm not sure - I'd have to watch Discovery channel or something.
BTW, Pinstripe was developed before "Racing Stripes", so they stole from us! Just kidding.

Some new Pinstripe stuff.

[tatiana]

To my knowledge the tule elk is the only one that moves both right legs, then both left legs... or is the caribou? I'm not sure. But it makes for a strange, enchanting walk.

Isn't it camels that do more of that kind of walk? Where both right legs and then both left legs move almost the same time...one of the reasons they have the name "ships of the desert" because of the rolling walk they have.

BTW, there's some nice video reference on Getty Images (click on film) which shows various quadropeds in motion, if you don't have a live animal on hand to watch moving.

Nice sketches, Teigrob!

t

[Teigrob]

tatiana - I believe you're right - I remember from "Jonah, a Veggietales movie" (great reference choice, I know!) how 'Reginald' the camel walked. How on earth do they keep their balance?? I'll be sure to check out that site,
thanks!

Anyway, something different today - a landscape study from photoref.

[concept_death]

Wow, no crits at all. Great work. Keep posting

[Teigrob]

Thanks concept_death! I'll do my best.
Running a bit behind today...reworking one's website sucks.

Thistle again...

[Teigrob]

Corgis today for fun. Love those cute little legs!

[Teigrob]

These are for a proposal I'm doing for a children's book. Some research, and then some character fiddling around.

[Teigrob]

Goats and trolls! What could be more fun than that?

[Fellah.]

Oh man really really good stuff! More please

[Mogura]

Hey Rach,
This is Bryan. Here's the crit as I promised to you. As usual all the sketches here are great and organized as usual. As for the zebra drawings, I would like to see variation of line weight and shapes for the strips. They're are too organized for my taste. I feel that with variation of lines and shapes will give it a more organic look. Other than that, great line of action.
I must agree with Phuzion about the anatomy. I really like it how you did the sketches of the horse skeletons. It could be just me, but I rarely see you do this kind of study. Perhaps master copies can help you on anatomy as well. It always helped my work.
You may disagree with me on this one. I do like the drawing the female warrior and horse. I don't think it's a pitiful attempt. It show variety and artistic experimenting. I love variety in sketches. I normally see mostly cartooning on your sketchbook. Then again it's been a while since I've seen your sketchbook. With that drawing, it shows your serious side.
Would love to see more studies and sketches of people would be cool. Your quadraped has always been your forteit, which is something that I'm chico at. Like I said, it'll be cool to see variety of drawings with other studies. I was surprise to see the Mononoke like drawing from you. That was impressive.
As mentioned, you have great drawing skills and well organized with character names and subject arrangement. As a fellow animator, I love sequentual thumbnails. The deer drawings is your strongest work. Anyways, keep up the good work ethic and study. Do not be shy with your work and mistakes. Mistakes are there to challenge us. Keep up the good work. Now, I want to go out and draw some animals...

[Teigrob]

Fellah - Thank you! I do try to post at least a page every day.

Mogura - Hey Bryan, thanks for the crit! In order of observations... I feel that Pinstripe has to be pretty organized, after all, he's supposed to be animatable...hmm. I'll look into it. The idea was to have the least number of stripes and still have him be recognizable as a zebra. Hm! I'll definitely do some experimenting.
What's wrong with my anatomy? ~sniff!~ No, do please be specific. I've been so close to my own work I can't see it.
I'll try and do more people ~sigh~ - Actually, today features a somewhat human!

[Mogura]

Rach,
I didn't realize that they're for animation purposes. Can't imagine animating that much detail. The anatomy is for the zebra. Your other stuff is great when it comes to anatomy. I've always looked at zebras as more of a donkey than a horse. It's a very handsome zebra. I can tell that's your intention. Hmm. Maybe I was being too realistic about. Most people wouldn't know the difference. Once people will see the stripes, they see a zebra. After all, it is stylized for cartooning.
I love the harpe. Again this is what I like to see people draw mythical creatures by using their vast knowledge of animals and humans. Once you mixed them together, it makes great work. Anyways, love the thumbnails of the movement.

[Teigrob]

Here's something to give ya'll an idea of how I think out larger pages...It looks like a complicated mess, but really it's not!


And for all you (Bryan) who wish to see some humans, here you go! Personally, I vastly prefer animals. Also, this proves it is possible to draw during church and pay attention (he was talking about taking life a bit more easy!), but the selection is somewhat limited if you don't want to look like you're not paying attention.