Snowy Toronto Day

Here in Canada, during the winter, it is not unusual to see some snow... except, that here in Toronto,

we haven't experienced a really snowy winter in years.

This Christmas season, 2017 into 2018, has been a throwback and serves as a reminder, of what a white Christmas actually looks like.

Luckily, since the city has taken to clearing the residential sidewalks, with mini-snowploughs, my snow shovelling has been reserved, mainly, for keeping our driveway and paths clear.

It has left a lot of time, what with the minus twenty degrees C, plus the windchill, outside, to pursue my interest in cartooning and comic books.

Here is a photograph, originally posted by Deon de Lange, a comic book artist, of him using an artist's mannequin for anatomy reference.

The only three dimensional aid that I have, in my drawing room, is a life-sized, human skull, in plastic.

These muscle and skeleton mannequins, look to be very useful and the one he is using, appears to be the 11-inch figure, made by a company named 3dtotal and available from Amazon.

For some reason, in the good old USA, it would cost $100 but through Amazon.ca, here in Canada, it would cost $200 Canadian!

And then I wonder why I don't have one...

In keeping with my last posting, here is another page, of fairly basic advice, about drawing cartoons.

I am constantly surprised, when looking back through all of the How-To volumes that line the shelves in my room, how much time I wasted, in looking for the, "magic formula", that would miraculously turn me into a GOOD cartoonist.

When all I had to do, was actually grasp the importance of the basic advice being proffered, on pages like the one above.

When I think about how well the young Ty Templeton and Rob Walton, could draw cartoons, way back in the early 1980s 

they obviously GOT IT and a whole lot younger than I did. 

Here is a fairly recent example of Ty Templeton's work

and below, an example of Rob Walton's style from his relaunched Ragmop series.

They knew what they were about, when pushing a pencil across a page, all those years ago and I can only hope, that I have improved my abilities, since then.

I may not be a better cartoonist today but I would like to believe that I do have a better understanding of how to draw cartoons... if that makes any sense.