Making your cut-out

Doodle it!

If you have drawn a pupil…

• Put your tracing paper over your cartoon face, or go get your photocopy. We will call this your duplicate.
• Find a 2p coin and position on the middle of your guideline on your duplicate.
• Check your eyes are not too big for your cartoon face.
• If your eyes are stupidly big, and you don’t like it, then draw around the 2p anyway, just make a smaller circle that you think is right inside the circle you have drawn around.
• You will be left with a circle within a circle. These are called concentric circles.
• If you find the 2p coin is just the right size, then there is no need to draw another circle, just draw around it in pencil on your duplicate.
• The circle you have drawn will be your imaginary eyeball.
• Finally, roughly around your imaginary eyeball, stick the shape on to a piece of card and trim around the edges so you have a nice, neat, smooth shape.

If you have drawn an eyeball…

• Put your tracing paper over your cartoon face, or go get your photocopy. We will call this your duplicate.
• Draw the eyeball shape you have chosen on to your duplicate in pencil. Take care to get it right and don’t be afraid to rub it out or have a few tries at it.
• Try drawing on the widest point around the middle line, so your eyes are nice and big. We can always move them up or down afterward.
• When you are happy with the shape, go over it in felt tip so you have a smooth shape and know which line to follow.
• Roughly cut out the shape on your duplicate and stick onto a piece of card.
• Trim round the edges, following your felt tip line, so your shape is nice and smooth.
• While you still remember which way around your eye goes, label each side.
• So if you drew on the right side initially draw an ‘R‘ on the side that is facing upwards (the side you can see when your eye is on the right side of your page)
• Then flip the shape over and put an ‘L‘ for left on the other side.
• Now you will always know what you are doing!
• Obviously if your are left handed and drew on the left side first then you will need to put an ‘L’ on the side of your eyeball that is facing upwards.

Well Done!

You have drawn your first set of cut out eyes! Now your cartoon man will begin to take shape. But before you do anything else…

Paperclip your eye to your other drawings so you don’t loose it. You may need to start a file or folder about now so you can keep all your rough sketches and draft copies with your final shapes and images.

Once we have made your cartoon man (or lady) we will be coming back to him again and again for various things. You might decide at a later date that you want to give him a family, or make him a pet.

You will be able to use the same material again and again and you will find you can vary it endlessly as long as you keep all of your bits and bobs safe. As we go on towards the end of the month you will find there is plenty to think about in drawing, cartoons and animation without having to start from scratch each time.

Duplicate it!

From now on we will be making duplicates at every stage of our animation. This is:

1. So we can come back to our drawings at any point we decide and not have to do all the planning and preparation again
2. As back up, just encase anything goes wrong.

Backing up is an important habit to get into whether you use the computer to make art, or if you prefer to make it by hand.

So, before you do anything else, make a few duplicates (photocopies) of your face with the guidelines on so we can see what looks good with your eyes and draw them in and move them around (you will find it really makes a difference to the look of your cartoon man and you will want to get it just right).

The duplicates will be drafts of our final image.

Well done!

That’s brilliant, I will see you here tomorrow to talk about drawing on our eyes…

Talk about it!

I made two cartoon face shapes and I lost one but once I have decided where my eyes should go I will try and post them up. Sorry!