#I rly like cartoony art

[treeegrl]

different types of cartoon eye styles <3

[luck-of-the-drawings]

so REVENGE, HUH? or justice, if that makes you feel better. it tastes the same when cooked just right. 'I REALLY WANTED A BROTHER.' such a shame to burn a bridge you so desperately wanted to keep, especially when it wasnt even you who started the fire. especially when you hope that not a single fragment of that bridge ever washes ashore.[MAY IT ROT FAR FROM MY SIGHTS] an unfortunate loss! atleast he has his friends.

[ninawolv3rina]

When you get loot so iconic you learn how to draw glass about it-

[wispscribbles]

I want to say your style is soft and whimsical? If that's the word. Its a nice variation to a lot of the others I've seen. Sorry if my words are not wording. I love your style is just so fluffy and sweet between Ghost and Soap.

daww thank you! That's so sweet!! Drawing big buff military men has been a challenge for me, it's very different from my usual stuff - but it's fun to love a piece of media so much that it forces you to leave your creative comfort zone. I used to only draw animals when I started out, so that's definitely shaped my style into what it is. But Ghost and Soap deserve a little softness, as a treat, so it’s ok that my style is sorta mismatched with the source material

[wolfietheangel]

sometimes u just need to draw geara. sometimes it doesnt even need to be finished

[dandyshucks]

why did i follow such a nice spiral path tonight with the order i did my doodle studies tonight wtf fsdjkl

[enbiart]

duality of dwarf (and artist)

[ja-khajay]

hiii! In regards to the "Guillermo del Toro Says “We Have to Rescue” Studio Animation From “Emoji-Style Behavior”" article/statement, do u have examples of animation that specifically is & is not this type of expression/animation? Bc it's rly hard for me to actually picture this and like I need examples ahaha

Disclaimer - I was not at this specific talk, so I don't have the full context and I know from reliable sources - friends of mine that DID attend it - that it's not all he said there, so that article is pretty much only relying spicy chosen bits. That being said, I will focus on this paragraph.

Getting more specific, he went on to detail what he despises about certain lazy proclivities in commercial animation, notably how characters and emotions are “codified into a sort of teenage rom-com, almost emoji-style behavior.” He added, “[If] I see a character raising his fucking eyebrow, or crossing his arms, having a sassy pose — oh, I hate that shit. [Why] does everything act as if they’re in a sitcom? I think it is emotional pornography. All the families are happy and sassy and quick, everyone has a one-liner. Well, my dad was boring. I was boring. Everybody in my family was boring. We had no one-liners. We’re all fucked up. That’s what I want to see animated. I would love to see real life in animation. I actually think it’s urgent. think it’s urgent to see real life in animation.”

What he talks about here is something I find omnipresent in modern American animation, or from studios that are funded by and/or trying to sell to americans (ex: Illumination McGuff). Here del Toro specifically mentions characters and emotions and how they are codified, which would include how characters are written, how animated their emotions and body language are, how they interact... He also mentions studio animation, an important distinction - this does not include indie animators!

A few things, adding * to those he's specifically calling out here, and more of my own that are not stated but I feel match the style

*one liners

*the "dreamworks face"

*sassy attitude

*quick banter

*taking poses

looking into the camera

overtly smooth, cartoony body language

characters explaining their emotions, plot resolutions around this

I will now get to examples, starting by a comparison between two animated films. Both of these films are contemporary, family-audience, french animated films. They share similarities in setting, being medieval fantasy fairytales about female heroes. One of these films was made with an american audience in mind (Pil), and the other caters to a french audience (Dragon Princess). You can compare how the characters act in both trailers:

Try and only focus on dialog, body language and expressions, barring art style and story!

Feature films that, in my opinion, also fit that "emoji style behaviour" (* for those I have not fully watched) any why:

Turning Red: the sass, the one liners, body language, camera looking, quick banter, plot resolution with characters explaining their emotions. The whole film fits

Puss in Boots: The last wish: sass, one liners, body language, banter, characters explaining their emotions. Scenes like Puss meeting his past lives and the dog's dialog are strong offenders

The emperor's new groove: sass, one liners, posing, banter

Encanto: sass, posing, banter; the explaining their emotions to drive the plot is ridiculously present to the point where I'd say del Toro was vagueing that one with the family example

Klaus: posing, banter, body language, explaining their emotions

*Nimona: sass, posing, banter, expressions...I only watched the trailer so can't say much but it leans HARD into the rapid fire quip territory with emotional resolution

*Trolls: sass, posing, banter, body language, camera looking...

Regarding films that do not do this, the quick answer would be...watch foreign (=not american) and/or older films. Nowadays with internet a massive catalogue is available, although the USA has such a monopoly on animation via its advertising budget other countries don't have that those films can be harder to find especially if you only use english-speaking internet.

As most studio animation is for a young or family audience and my entire example list above is, I will give some recommendations of films that are also for such an audience, but with older and worldwide picks. Some of these films are fully available on YouTube (although not in english always), so I'll be linking that when possible!

Mom is pouring rain (France, 2020s) (trailer): A shorter film about a little girl sent to live with her grandmother while her mom heals from depression. Has emotions front and center but expressed and animated in a way typical of modern french animation, with cartoony designs but subtler, more "boring" acting

The little prince and the eight headed dragon (Japan, 1960s): Beautifully animated in a style distinct from anime, this is a simple folktale adaptation. Fully on YouTube, albeit in its original english dub who's quality is frankly not great.

Next! (UK, 1990s): Stop motion short by an animator who specifically explores subtler, harder to animate expressions, as well as the art of theater, represented here by a Shakespear puppet playing out his works as a one-man show.

Ramayana (India, 1990s): Animated version of the legend of the same name, coupling a Ghibli art style with your ancient legend's large scale battles and polite heroes.

Ne Zha (China, 2010s)(trailer): that trailer is dead serious, it's actually a pretty damn silly movie! Including this one because as a big CGI animated film it's interesting to compare to what Pixar/Dreamworks/etc is doing.

...I'm realizing that I included a whole lot of animated folk tales so for modern chinese animation I'll also name Legend of Hei (2020s)(trailer), an original fantasy film with indie origins and a whole lot of over the top action.

As for films from the US that do NOT match that style? As a country the US has a rich history of animation asides of Disney! I personally grew up on Tex Avery and Looney Tunes cartoons who (pre-90s) are great examples of this.

For more adult films, I'll link my list of mature animation recommendations!

My ask remains opens for any clarifications :) have a nice day!

[randosky33]

hello! apologies for the lack of posts but i have nothing to post and my art has been looking like butt recently but it’s okay! here’s a redraw of fem danny fenton!! (original art is by @amethystocean-adr their art is amazing xD)

it’s not that good but i rly like cartoony styles so i wanted to redraw it!

[thejacketscloset]

ITS TIME FOR SUM OLD ART!!!

Old ass drawings from uhh 3 years ago? One was on whiteboard fox LMFOA

I actually still really like them, esp the first one :3 prob bc it was intentionally a cartoony style and I think it worked out rly well

[luck-of-the-drawings]

HOW DO YA LIKE THAT DARK DOG??

BEEN REAL ENAMORED BY THE 'SORRY' BOYS AND THEIR ODD ESCAPADES LATELY. I THINK THEY COULD DO A LOT OF GOOD THINGS WITH THREE GALLONS OF 'FAKE' BLOOD.

[repliiku]

Not a question but ur genuinely my favorite artist evarrrrr... ur work is always so interesting to look at coz u clearly know ur way around perspective and interesting posing and stuff .like that and it rly inspires me :OOO it looks so lively the little interactions the characters have the expressions the scenarios and everything like u can feel like they all have a soul almost ^_^ so good...I wish I could draw like u one day fr

AWWWHHHH THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!!!!!!! that means the world too know !! i believe in you ! your art is super neat i really adore the cartoony expressiveness its so admirable :))) not a lot of of people can capture that well. but again thank you so much, hope to continue to show art online that inspires you and others :))) <3333

[ink-the-artist]

Could i ask for advice? How do you personally start drawing something you never had before? I'm finally able to draw again and unfortunately, i have a hard time making my art lifelike and not rigid. I admire how alive your pices are, and the colors are always so beautiful. I Hope you have a wonderful day!

For me its been a really useful skill to develop to learn how to sort of "copy" what you see into a drawing, whether from life or from an image. you can even start out by using simpler cartoony art as a reference if drawing from life is intimidating, just to get in the swing of the process bc its the same process whether youre drawing from life or a cartoon or from your head. everything you draw is just an object, animals and people and landscapes are all objects. I start by simplifying the thing im drawing into shapes, you can break down even super complicated images into basic shapes. this is where the proportions should be figured out so you arent erasing and redrawing really detailed stuff down the line. from there im just adding more shape and detail as I go, going gradually from simple to complex kind of like you’re molding with clay.

I think bob ross videos are rly good examples of this sort of thing lol. his paintings look detailed and complex by the end but when you watch him actually paint he's just doing a bunch of really simple things, starting out very basic and continuously adding more detail (or the illusion of detail).

for not making things rigid this is something I struggle with too lol I think its a fairly common thing to struggle with. I naturally draw pretty messily which helps, drawing fast expressive lines at the beginning can help create a sense of motion in the drawing down the line

[tariah23]

Omgggg

Sksjsks I went onto my insta and saw that someone liked this… old Jolynes from like, 2015-17 or so that I never got to finish (they’re all on my old laptop… I will rescue my files one day… this was my old cartoony style. I’ve revamped it a LOT. It used to be so much more loose… I kind of wish that it still was because it made the style look more simplistic and free? I’ve always been a huge fan of simple art styles!) I remember making an attempt at drawing every canon Jolyne outfit that I could find (at least the official colored drawings, not the ones from the manga since that would’ve been too much for me. I have the Jojoveller (I bought the Jojoveller back when it first came out from Japan and paid like, almost $200 for it orz….. should’ve waited for the price drop lol. I have every JJBA artbook tbh. But that helped me track down most of the official Jolyne stuff. Not all but a lot of it!) I’d drawn up at least 20 outfits at this point. At least I think so? These were just some of them. Hopefully, I’ll be able to retrieve my drawings again… the faces that I used to draw on my old style used to be so ugly, sorry.

Here’s an example of this same style but revamped to now lol…

(Yuki wip…. The bodies have more standard anatomy but the hands are still blocky like??? The faces are prettier tho…. Has it lost a bit of personality? Maybe… I do like my new style tho… But could I still even call it a cartoony style, especially since it looks more anime than before :/…. Uh, I’m thinking too hard on this :(….)

Another example is this Rengoku… it’s a little diff from the Yuki one despite being the same cartoon like style? (Barely cartoon anymore…) I don’t usually draw the nostril slit for this style but I did so for Yuki since it just looked better… idk if I’m gonna start doing that or not, I’ve literally been driving myself insane over deciding if I want to start drawing nostrils or not… for this Rengoku, it’s definitely more accurate to the style that I was pushing for but hm….. Similar to these Makima’s…. I didn’t draw the nostril…

I like to keep the ears very simple in this style as well and again, look at Makima’s hands. They’re supposed to be blocky like this hehe. The Yuki wip is more of an improvement of this same style but I’ve been so all over the place with it… I feel so bad, omg. The most polished example that I could find immediately of the original cartoon style was of these Shinobu’s… see how round and free everything is!?

Don’t even get my started on the chibi styles…. I have a handful… because I’m indecisive. The Sukuna wips are from a new chibi style that I’ve been thinking about and I rly like it… The Kak/Oc chibi was for a commission that I had sm fun drawing for. I still like the style! I’ve always loved when artists left the pupils white for some reason? I wanted to do that, too! I forgot to color the lineart in the girls skirt lol….

This style with Sanemi and Uzui is rly cute to me as well… I will not be retiring it. I kind of hate the old chibi style with Josuyasu tho. Hideous to me. And overly complicated. I don’t really like chibi styles that have TOO much going on, especially if they’re not as cute since chibi’s are supposed to be cute. I said ugly but beauty in art is subjective sjsjs… if they’re pretty and cute than idc. So I technically have three chibi styles that I like.

Ohh actually, I have two other chibi styles….. fuck, I just don’t have any pics of them that I’ve uploaded, only saved as files. One isn’t really a serious style at all tho, they were for fun (experimental) and the chibi that you can see hanging in the corner of Yuki in the wip above is of another simpler style as well…

[northernfireart]

out of curiosity, you seem to switch between digital and traditional art :D which, the art itself, absolutely insanely stunning and gorgeous, however maintaining such a strong style is SOOO hard, I rly struggle, any tips? x

woah thank you so much!!!😭 to be honest I mostly switch between traditional and digital because I'm not at home 90% of the time and I am very inspiration driven so I always bring a sketchbook with me everywhere (so a lot of style stability is really just muscle memory), but what's really helped me was getting a brushpen that felt like my digital lineart brush. and same goes for styles with thin lines: getting a nice, thin black pen.

also you will feel less unsure with traditional/digital (whichever is not your main medium) if you just... keep switching to it. And I even got a life proof that it works: my friend was a digital-only artist most of her life and whenever I handed her a piece of paper to sketch something she would get incredibly stressed. however, we've been getting out to a coffee shop to draw our silly ocs together for a lot of years now, and even though she didn't switch to traditional fully, she feels much more comfortable with it and even insists we draw instead of doing something else sometimes.

and, after all, I think my last tip would be to not worry about your style so much. a few years back I fell into a hole of struggling with a style that was too cartoony for what I wanted out of it. and I kept pushing, it being not very fun to stylize things and just mostly stressful to draw. my best decision was changing it up, honestly. whenever I'm not satisfied with my art style - I change it. why stick to it if it's no fun? and how will you find out if you like to draw something in some style if you don't try it?

[c-kiddo]

No but like literally tho, the lack of body diversity in the official cr art always makes me so sad. They even described jester as being pretty damn muscular since she has such a high strength but like??? Those stick arms look like they can barely lift a feather😭 and yasha… oh yasha.

(/lighthearted, and also a ramble) yea :'/ its rly a shame. . it'd be so easy to have diverse body shapes. usually the most diversity is height (especially for halfling/gnome characters of course). like veth's the only canonically fat woman character (i do rly like how thats the body she loves and wants to be in tho, when part of her story is about hating her body its not the one she was born in but the one she was put in. . interesting body dysmorphia and trans narratives can be taken from that, its neat) anyway, ,ramble. yea.. i wish they'd push different body shapes more. doesn't even have to cartoony because for cr2 and cr3 thats clearly not the style theyre going for, for the official art - its painterly semi realism adjacent. but people irl are more diverse than that. i dont want to be rude to th artist/s but, so many of th gals look like they have th same skeletal proportions exactly. and also for yasha its strange to me because in the show she's often described as jus Huge, yknow? big and buff and imposing (and then soft underneath).. but then the art she's small and thin.. it conflicts with her character, i guess. thats why it feels off to me at least (i had a big infodump abt yasha's character being portrayed thru her designs n how it got lost to my friends last night aksjnf)

(also yea.. where's buff jester T_T shes literally stronger than fjord by 3 points and he's drawn as a beefy big lad)