FAA Cartoon portraits

[Kail]

As some of you know, through my Startrekanimated website, I make TAS portraits. Earlier this week I got an urgent order for 8 portraits, everyone in this office wanted portraits, but they had to be done by Fri. so they could be in the Oct. newsletter. It was a tight schedule, but I made it with a day to spare, I cheated and did some at work. Anyway, I found out later it was for a branch of the Federal Aviatin Administration in Washington DC. Pretty cool. I not only made the portraits I created the FAA Star Trek logo that I used for wallpaper.

I thought they came out nice, and thought I'd share.

I also found out that the newsletter has a circulation of 44,000. Maybe I'll get a few new orders out of it.

 

[Kaiser]

Now thats some awesome art

 

[BolianAuthor]

This is way cool! Great job!

 

[Maurice]

Neat work. I do have a question, though. On some of the faces you have the line defining the nose on the near side of the nose when the face is not seen squarely dead-on, which is a little unconventional. Any reason for that choice?

 

[Kail]

Neat work. I do have a question, though. On some of the faces you have the line defining the nose on the near side of the nose when the face is not seen squarely dead-on, which is a little unconventional. Any reason for that choice?

Many times the photo I am provided for the portraits do not show the line of the nose, and I have to kind of make them up. The results you see are the results of trial and error. It's just what I thought looked best.

Sometimes I just leave the bottom of the nose, with no line up to the brow, but that just looks kinda blank.

 

[Maurice]

Ok...but that doesn't answer my question as to why you sometimes choose to put the line on the near side, which is fairly unconventional for cartoon drawings.

 

[Kail]

How about individual style?
Perhaps I'm not understanding the question. Can you show an example to demonstrate the difference between what I'm doing and what is conventional?

 

[Kail]

I don't get it, can someone explain what he's talking about?

 

[Ziz]

I think he's referring to the woman in the red dress on the left vs the three men in the back.

 

[Michael]

I could be wrong, but I think what he's trying to say is, that it's rather unconventional to do this ...

... instead of this ...

 

[Kail]

I could be wrong, but I think what he's trying to say is, that it's rather unconventional to do this ...

... instead of this ...

Ahhh, I understand what he means now, but still don't see what difference it makes. Does anyone else feel it looks better this new way? I'm open to constructive criticism.

 

[Ziz]

Well, yeah, it does look better the new way because it follows the logic of the rest of the face. His left cheek and ear (on our right looking at the picture) is more exposed, so logically the nose should be drawn the same way. Your way makes it look like he broke his nose and it's twisted off center.

 

[Kail]

Well, yeah, it does look better the new way because it follows the logic of the rest of the face. His left cheek and ear (on our right looking at the picture) is more exposed, so logically the nose should be drawn the same way. Your way makes it look like he broke his nose and it's twisted off center.

Actually, for this particular guy, you are absolutely correct, and I'm going to change it. I will also watch out for this in the future, when faces are not dead on center.

Thanks!

 

[Ziz]

The single guy in the second picture should have the same change made. Even though the face is more straight on, his body is turned to one side, so the noseline should follow the same logic.

 

[Kail]

Ok, I fixed him too, thanks.

 

[Maurice]

Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about!

It's not only a cartooning convention but it makes logical sense if you think about it. When drawing figures you tend to draw the most defining lines, and the edge of the nose against the rest of the face is about as defined a line as you can get. It's really only optional when you'd looking at a character head-on. The moment the head turns even a degree left or right, you go with the edge of the nose that's turned away.

A la TAS

The single guy in the second picture should have the same change made. Even though the face is more straight on, his body is turned to one side, so the noseline should follow the same logic.

Actually, look at the ears. If one is showing slightly less than the other, that's the direction the head is turned. The "logic" is based on the head position, not the body.

 

[Ziz]

Yeah, but try it my way anyway...you'll see what I mean.