VIGNALI STUDIO

Mean Sketches...

Yesterday I was having a conversation about caricatures with my friend Glenn Harmon , and I had mentioned to him that Marlo Meekins has some of the most vicious/hilarious caricatures out there right now.

Glenn suggested we give that a shot -- you know, meanness -- during our Friday Sketchclub get-together. Although no one comes close to Marlo's talent, it was fun to step on the gas pedal and see what viciousness we could come up with on our own.

I typically try to design my characters with appeal and an overall simple shape. I still kept my simple overall shape goal, but some of that meanness seeped into the drawing. This drawing was one among the drawings I did in my sketchbook.

Three Minute Figure Drawing

Here's a three minute figure drawing drawn on newsprint with a magic marker. It is untouched, just as I scanned it. The scanner copied the image really rich, and I liked the way it turned out.

Sorry for the watermark/huge signature, but with the recent copyright problems, I gotta paste these on the images to protect myself. Hopefully, you all can look past that legality.

Inspiration for Latest Post

On the last post there was some question to the inspiration to these sketches, I thought I would go ahead and clear things up a bit. The Muppets were the inspiration for these sketches, not Ronald Searle.

I love Searle’s work, but I believe Searle’s work relies heavily on the 2D medium. Nothing wrong with that if you are doing illustrations, but if you’re doing CG animation it can become a stumbling block into a 3D translation.

Having started my career in 2D animation, and now working in CG animation, I've witnessed a learning curve that is taking place with this industry -- and within my own commercial work. I’ve really been learning to appreciate the simplicity of the Muppets for that reason.

There’s another general question regarding “inspiration” versus “copying.” Although I think there is much value in copying when you’re starting out, at this point in my career I think it’s better to learn a lesson and apply the understanding, rather than copy a technique.