I'm starting a new daily routine to improve my drawing skills.  Every day I'm going to draw a few images from some great cartoons of the past.  All cartoons up until the U.P.A. period were drawn to look like they had dimension.  To achieve this, the animators would draw using construction, meaning they would draw out the building blocks of a character (spheres, cylinders, egg shapes, etc) then wrap the surface detail around these forms to help give the illusion of depth.  Its an essential concept to master if you want to draw your own cartoon characters.  You can find more information about construction drawing here:

http://www.adammcmahon.com/blog/2007/11/10/construction-drawing-methods/

So, while I'm practicing construction drawing with my own characters, I'll also be learning from the masters by copying their work and analysing the structure and line as I draw.  Each week I'll post up some screen captures from a particular animated short and throughout the week I'll draw a few images per day.  Then I'll post the results here on my blog at the end of the week.  I encourage anybody else who wishes to improve their drawing skills to participate as well.  You can post the images on your own site/blog and then put a link in the comments section to share with everybody else.  This way we can leave feedback for each other and help one another improve their drawing skills.

I created a section on my blog called "drawing exercises" where you can find the weekly updated images.  The link is just under the title of my blog, or you can find it here:

http://www.adammcmahon.com/blog/drawing-exercises/

I hope to see all your great drawings soon!