Once a year I do a pretty thorough guide on certain types of plastic surgery, its gender or ethnic ramifications, and its affects on the world of illustration and animation. How are artists influenced by popular body modifications to create what many of them refer to as “ideals”? My first article was on breast augmentation – how it suddenly redefined the shape of breasts in comic books. The second article dealt with female rhinoplasty and how femininity is often defined by a small nose. This article is going to hopefully settle a long standing argument in the animation community that has both plastic surgery and ethic implications – the use of large, round eyes by Japanese artists to depict Japanese characters in Manga and Anime. More »

Just finished these two run cycles for the show opening for Angry Joe’s XBox review show. They are both animated frame by frame on ones at 15fps – no tweens used. I’m particularly proud of the cape on the top character.

A year ago I did a pretty well received article on rendering the human female’s mammary glands, or “tatas calientes” in the vernacular. Today I want to talk about another part of the female body that is equally the subject of controversy both in the operating room and on the printed page: The Nose.

Yes folks, more than the breasts even, the Hollywood Starlet, the hip Brazilian dancer, and even the Jewish girl next door is getting her nose done. In my home town of Miami I’d say more than half of all Hispanic women overthe age of 16 have had the “bump” cut off the top of their noses. A lot of white girls have their’s done too, shaving their Bill Clinton-esque bulbs into deadly sharp tips, not unlike the Folsom Point. More »

As seen in Lesson 01 we’ve drawn something. In Quick Tutorial 01 we saw the mechanical process by which we color in the something. In this lesson, which could be the most complex, philosophical, and important in the series (and only three lessons in!) we’ll see how to determine what colors you’ll use to fill in your drawings. This ain’t paint by numbers, kids. This is art. This lesson will save you $2000 in credits at a university and $30,000 at a technical art school (at which they probably don’t even have a true color theory course, so fuck ‘em). With this big a topic I’m sure I’m going to miss something important so please feel free to add to the comments. More »

Sometimes one of you guys need help and you need it right now! If I have a lesson in the works that will help you I’ll try to push it up on the timeline to get you back on track. Lesson 02 was to be on color theory, but reader “Amazing Robie” has a movie that’s playing back extremely slow:

I created a pattern, made it into a symbol and used the symbol sprayer tool in Illustrator to make the top of the tree. More »

Here is part one in what hopefully will be a long running series of lessons for cartoon animators working in Flash. Its not so much a series of tutorials as a series of tips on how to add extra punch and refinement to your work. A lot of this stuff will seem like a no brainers to a seasoned pro, but for those starting out I think these lessons will be invaluable. And perhaps there will be something a few pros can use too. I’m going to assume you have the basic equipment: A computer, a scanner, a copy of Flash 6 or higher, and a pressure sensitive graphics tablet (preferably a Wacom). More »

Women’s breast are a big deal among male artists. You’d be hard pressed to find a heterosexual one that hasn’t drawn a pair or two for his own amusement. I don’t think you could name a subject better covered in the visual medium, actually. My fascination lately has been the way breasts have been portrayed in cartoons for the past century. One thing that strikes me is the overly obvious influence of breast implants.

Excessive female nudity after the jump. Don’t tell your parents! More »