Construction Drawing Methods

Here is a list of great resources for those of you interested in learning how to properly draw, well, anything!  These resouces all demonstrate how to draw cartoon characters using a construction technique.  However, once you understand this concept, it can really be applied to just about anything you wish to draw.

Animation by Preston Blair

Part one
http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/05/media-preston-blairs-animation-first.html

Part two
http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/05/media-preston-blairs-animation-first.html

Stephen Worth over at the Animation Archive has posted probably the best resource given to us to learn the techniques of construction, and it's free!  This brilliant work was made by the great cartoon draftsman, Preston Blair, and explains in detail everything you need to know about properly constructing a cartoon character.  This is hands down the best resource for learning how to draw cartoons.  If you use it, please show your gratitude by making a donation to the animation archive, the paypal link can be found on their page.

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John Kricfalusi

John has posted many articles on his blog further explaining the use of construction in drawings.  He shows many examples of how cartoons from the golden age used this technique, and explains why learning this skill is so important.  You can find many of his posts regarding construction using the following link:

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/construction

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Brian Lemay

If after reading Preston Blair's book, you just can't get enough of this construction drawing lessons, you can find more information on it with two books by Brian Lemay.  While Brian's draftmanship isn't up to par with Preston Blair's, he still does a great job of explaining the techniques and also shows how you can use the ideas to create characters of your own.

Designing Cartoon Characters for Animation, vol. 1
http://www.brianlemay.com/Books/design.html

Designing Cartoon Characters for Animation, vol. 2
http://www.brianlemay.com/Books/design2.html

Designing Cartoon Characters for Animation, vol. 2 DVD
http://www.brianlemay.com/Books/designingvideo.html

If you know of other resources, post them in the comments section and I'll add them to the post here.

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About Me

Hello, and welcome to my sketchblog. My name is Adam McMahon. I am a 3d modeler working on animated films for Blue Sky Studios in New York. Here I will post any little doodles, paintings, animations, etc.. that I create in my spare time.