Here are a few captured warm up sketches looking at simple shapes and gestures and a few faces. Quick studies to loosen up your thoughts and get the juices going. I used to doodle like this more often. I kept a sketch pad by my desk at the office at all times. Now I tend to do these during meetings or anytime I have a few spare moments. These were all done before I went into to work in the morning. Just let the pencil strokes take you where they may. Something always comes from this if you give it a good 30 min. of play time.
Drawing faces with simple shapes
When visiting classrooms I like to focus on simple shapes. Drawing faces and expressions using variations of circles or ellipses. Students in K-5 classes like to see how quickly and effectively they can capture emotion and expression. Start off with some quick warm up exercises like drawing circles or parallel lines. The shape of the head can vary from circles to boxes to boxes with a pointy edge. Eyes are easy as circles with a simple addition of eyebrows. The mouth can be a minimal curved line, or a big open mouth smile. Lastly, the hair can give a great deal of character and diversity. I like to encourage experimentation with the class, showing a number of different ways to experiment. Most importantly they need to relax and draw with their shoulder for loose flowing lines...(the mouse sketches below are from a previous handout used in class)
Faces
Trying out new pens in Manga Studio 5. These are done with a variation of the calligraphy pen. I really like the thick and thin aspect, it adds a little energy to the sketch lines.
Post-it sketches
Sketches while waiting for my computer to finish processing animations...
