I’m creating a model sheet for Mary Rae and Kerkel, in anticipation of the next batch of strips (Coming Soonish™). I’ve started with the all-important height comparison. Looking back at the first 11 strips, I realize I did something sort of clever without even trying: never once did I draw them explicitly standing on the same plane. In other words, even when Kerkel seemed a little too tall, their feet were out of frame, so you couldn’t prove in a court of law that anybody was out of proportion.

These model sheets will be mostly about achieving consistency, rather than a complete overhaul of the characters. However, I’ve decided to make a slight modification to Mary Rae’s hair; that pulled-back look was a pain to draw in the comic strip, let alone animation. Now I can indicate her hair in just a few strokes.

I went out and bought some plasticine modeling clay, to help me design characters that work in 3 dimensions. This Kerkel head is a little rough around the edges, but it’s enough to assist me in drawing him from any angle.

I couldn’t resist sketching 1950s Groucho as I died laughing at these outtakes from “You Bet Your Life” on YouTube.

Well golly, this is still in a sloppy state, in so many ways, but I really need to move on to my next bit of practice (or maybe the 11-second contest if the April sound file appeals to me). I think I was fairly happy with the movement early on, but for me the hard part was keeping Mary looking consistent from frame to frame. I didn’t design her for animation, and if I really wanted to use her, I should have drawn a model sheet in advance, and really nailed down how she’s supposed to look from different angles.

Here’s an example of a model sheet, of that fish-lady from the Little Mermaid:

Obviously, as I get better at drawing, and better at planning, I’ll be better at animating relatively complicated characters like Mary Rae, but whatever I do next will definitely be more along the lines of Elmer Fudd, as I mentioned before.

I don’t usually think about my age, but when I do, I picture myself as…a cheerful prospector?

Seriously, someone asked me today how old I’d be at my next birthday, and when “35” came out, it sounded really, really weird to me.

(Commence Aunts telling me how young I am.)