shembolstudio

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Danny Duck responds to critical voices in his head. Never let the demons rule with fear!

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Happy Pie Day!

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I know this is a bit late, but I drew this for Mario Day. Enjoy!

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Happy Easter, from the Easter Basset! #patchesthebasset

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Happy Mario Day! (Mar10). What better way can you celebrate Mario Day than wearing the right socks? #Mar10day #mariosocks https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu2D79ZHXsW1v-I0uJYYU3WKHcvM2R9RGq8rfc0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=y5m1i54feqa5

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My daughter was making art with gemstones and I decided to join her. What better way to do it than a blinged out Bob-omb? #daddydaughtertime #bobomb #nathanwadamsart https://www.instagram.com/p/BrbUdFMAiA473VdUaQ5mVXii-K96lAijoOtyao0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1izh4pdkgeyzd

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Enjoy a nice Thanksgiving greeting from Danny Duck. https://www.instagram.com/p/BqfAFxWnOVA6McwyVERCAssg3uKftMCUXKPZuM0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ewbv6ejnmwa0

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Just because I don’t care doesn’t mean I wouldn’t understand.

Homer Simpson

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Hi everyone! Check out this episode of 'Blender for All' to learn how to organize a project in Blender. http://www.shembol.com/2017/07/project-organization-in-blender.html

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This is Creepy Cupcake, my experimental animation. I did the animation in OpenToonz, which I'm really enjoying.

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This looks like a fun contest to get into.

DECEMBER “PENCIL TEST” ANIMATION CONTEST

http://www.traditionalanimation.com

Here’s your chance to win a bunch of Animation GOODIES!! We have been wanting to start some contests to get more of you out there animating! What better way than a contest! All entries must be submitted by Dec 31st, 2016.

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Hey all! I found this tutorial very useful. If you're like me, hands are difficult, and I seem to draw my hands very stiffly if I draw them at all. This has always been the hardest part of drawing for me, and this is a great place for reference.

Hands Hands Hands!

“I hate drawing hands!” “Hands are so hard to draw!” “I can’t draw hands!” This sort of thing is probably the #1 comment I hear from aspiring artists.

I love drawing hands. They’re probably my favorite part of the human body to draw (other than butts, of course). And while I’m certainly no Da Vinci:

…I do think I’ve figured out a decent cartooning shorthand for drawing them. Here are some basic tips!

First, here’s a quick doodle with the basic shapes and joints marked off:

Notice that the fingers, joints, and knuckles all form an arc- they don’t go in a straight line. For men, the ring finger is usually longer than the index finger. For women, the index finger is usually longer than the ring finger (thanks to amywhipple for reminding me about this!). The little finger is always shorter than the index finger, and the middle finger is always slightly longer than the ring finger. On my hands, my thumb is about as long as my little finger, so I use that as a reference.

The shape of the palm often throws people off, because it SEEMS like it’s just a rounded box, when it’s actually more of a pentagon (or a rounded box with a triangle sticking out of it, like I show here). When fully extended, the thumb sticks out separate from the rest of the hand.

That’s the quick and dirty way I draw the back of the hand, and I’ve found the simplest way to differentiate the palm from the back is to add a few lines that evoke the creases on the palm:

So that’s the basic structure of a cartoony hand! The next thing to tackle is LOOSENESS.

One of the most common mistakes cartoonists make (and I’m certainly guilty of it myself) is to draw all of their hands super stiff, with no relaxation or bend in any of the joints.

In real life, people’s hands are almost always more relaxed than this! Which means you gotta start thinking about where the fingers bend, how the hand bends at the wrist, and where that goddamn thumb is.

Fingers have three joints counting the knuckle, and the thumb has two:

While it’s generally a good idea to draw all three joints of each finger, sometimes for the sake of simplicity you can get away with only two:

This can be a bad habit to fall into, so I recommend avoiding it whenever possible!

On to the thumb, the peskiest of digits. The thumb is weird and difficult sometimes because it can move in a totally different plane than the rest of the fingers:

It will often overlap the palm and fingers from some angles, and it likes to “hide” in others:

When hands are relaxed, the little finger tends to have more of a “bend” in it than the other fingers. In fact, that’s generally a good rule of thumb (hah) for most hand positions, unless the ring and middle fingers are specifically being extended for some reason.

The most complicated part of drawing hands is figuring out how all the digits overlap in a given position. I’ve found it’s best to try and get as tight a sketch as you can, drawing each digit where it should be, and don’t worry about the overlap until you actually ink the drawing:

The BEST PART of drawing hands is that you probably have two right on the ends of your arms, and you can rotate them to almost any position you would ever need to draw! It’s even better than photo reference.

Anyway, I think that’s enough for now. We’ve just barely scratched the surface when it comes to drawing hands- things like anatomy, musculature, foreshortening, shading, and detail are beyond the scope of this post but DEFINITELY things you should study if you want to improve. But if you’re just getting started and find the entire prospect intimidating, I think this is a pretty decent place to start!

Hopefully you’ve found this useful- like I said, I’m not the greatest artist in the world, but I have gotten to the point where I’m confident I can draw hands in just about any position I need to. And it’s really fun!

DON’T BE AFRAID TO DRAW HANDS, HANDS RULE

[shembolstudio]

Character concept: Devil Sam. Because of his desire to do good, he was fired by Satan and kicked out of hell. Now he's living on earth trying to live like everyone else. Due to who he is and what he is, Sam has a much harder time living than many do. He has a sincere desire to help people and to live honestly, and he has great advice, but sadly, people just aren't willing to listen to what he has to say. People are just too hung up on his appearance, and sadly, it's beyond his control. In many ways, he is the complete opposite of Punicus.

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Character concept: Bertha 'the bird lady' Wingstein. She is a worker at an aviary, a job which she thoroughly enjoys. She is a very kind and caring person, and these traits, along with the birds that she loves and which love her back, make her another perfect nemesis for Punicus, one of my previous characters who hates happiness. He'll find any reason he can to give this nice lady a hard time.

[shembolstudio]

Character concept: Mick 'the mechanic' MacKinnack. This is the nemesis of Punicus, my previous concept character. This guy cuts corners, upcharges for basic services, and adds unnecessary labor if the customer is gullible, or rather, trusting, enough to accept the racket.

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This is Peter Algernon Punicus III, a character concept recently cooked up here in the insidious character development department of Shembol Studio. Who is he? He is a busybody whose main concern is to overprotect society. He is easily offended by anything and everything, and he fears consequences that physically hurt him. To this end, he will stop at nothing to promote causes large and small to prevent catastrophes (mostly the ones he's dealt with), even at the price of everyone's happiness. So, what are some causes he will promote? Reply to this post with your thoughts as to some ridiculous causes that this guy could undertake. It could be as silly or as serious as you want it to be.

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Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2016! May you all have a spectacular year as it comes upon you!