At its most basic, saying that I draw cartoons for a living is enough for people to imagine what I do, which is make marks in an arrangement that look like things - even if what they imagine isn’t accurate in the details of the mechanics.
In recent years, compared with earlier years, I’ve accumulated ever fewer examples of projects where I’ve produced finished drawings. With most of the illustration projects at work handled in an assembly line process, much of my involvement is a type of quality control (a.k.a. Q.C.). Basically, I make sure other people’s drawings of Ben Tennyson, Humungousaur, and Rex of “Generator Rex” all look like Ben, Humungousaur and Rex compared to the studio’s character models.
Cannonbolt (Ben 10): This alien transformation of Ben’s can roll himself into a big ball and bowl things over. As with nearly all the “Ben 10” character models, Cannonbolt is drawn in a standing position, meaning there aren’t up front examples of how a character’s anatomy is supposed to work. Many artists new to Cannonbolt seem stumped by how his arms are connected effectively to where his ears should be on a giant head.
From left to right: 1) artist A takes a stab at Cannonbolt; 2) in red I rough out correction notes; 3) artist B does a new drawing.
Ditto (Ben 10): This alien hero can split off copies of himself. I don’t have any theories on what would make this little guy tricky to draw. But to my eye, I almost instinctively internally said, “not like that.” This not being the time or place for a “how to draw” the “Ben 10” heroes, I’ve presented these two examples with the assumption that the latter drawing are better and more on-model.
From left to right: 1) artist A; 2) my Q.C.; 3) artist B.
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