Weirdly, one of the hardest things I have tried to learn is to draw things happening in my pictures. For years, I would fill sketchbooks with scores of people and creatures just standing around in non-specific locations not really doing anything. It is a terrible habit to get into because as soon as you want to tell a story with them all that practice counts for next to nowt...
In an effort to get over this problem I have taken to outsourcing my roughs to my left hand. That way, if nothing is going on in the picture it becomes very obvious. There is a big difference between a well-rendered drawing of someone standing around doing nothing and a wibbly lined scrawl of same. There is just no hiding the lack of action!
Here are some of the preliminary drawings for Jim's Lion done this way. I really like them! Stuff is most definitely going on!
Wibbly lined scrawls, eh? I need to upgrade my wibbles ;-) Loving the action, but also the texture and pattern there. Great stuff.
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