This one took a little longer then planned mainly due to other things keeping me busy but it is one I have wanted to do for a while (since the movie came out). Click here to see the original scene it is based on.
In other news: I’ve been accepted into the Big Blogger House.
It’s time to get out the party hats, bake a cake and hire a clown. One year ago on the 14th of March I first put fingers to keyboard and created this blog. When I started there were no cartoons and I had no idea what direction I was going to take it in. It has been a lot of fun developing a style over the last 12 months and it is very rewarding to know I have made a few people laugh along the way. Thank you everyone who has followed my mad ramblings and given their support. Welcome to any new readers as well.
Here are a few highlights from the blogs first year:
An Unexpected Beginning
The first ever post and the story of how I accidentally ended up living in The Netherlands.
Sex Sells
The first ever post with a cartoon and some details about the stranger side of Amsterdam.
Holland Reality Show
The truth about Holland’s biggest secret.
Don’t Fear the Mime
There are many strange sites to see when walking around Amsterdam and you don’t have to have visited a coffee shop first.
The Lift of Terror
The story of my evening trapped in a lift in an empty office.
The Long Way Home
Proof of how accident prone I can be; eight hours walking around lost with a broken ankle.
Undercover Englishman
The language barrier might only be small but it does not make it any easier to hide your identity as an expat.
What better way to launch the new site then with something a bit new. This one is a slight experiment. I hope to make the comics a semi-regular appearance during my on going writing. How often that will be I don’t know yet.
It took a little while to finish the site but Invading Holland has finally grown up and moved away from home and into its own domain. Along with the new domain are a few other improvements. There are now additional pages (Profile and Gallery) which can be accessed via the tabs along the top of this window. Plus there are a few other new additions here and there in the side bars. If you see any errors or mistakes I might have missed please let me know.
I would like to say a word of thanks to:
Hopefully I won’t get writers block now.
I first drew the cartoons I use for this blog about three years ago. The look of the characters has not changed much but the way I draw them has evolved a lot as I’ve learnt more about PhotoShop. I’ve always enjoyed playing with the program and it has been fun drawing the cartoons again. The complements I have received from different people have made both myself and my ego very happy. I’ve started giving serous thoughts to doing something more with the cartoons (as some of you have suggested) but no promises yet. However, since I’ve had a few requests to divulge how I draw them I thought it might be fun to make this post and show how I put them together.
I have a few tricks I use now for making the cartoons quicker but I’ll start at the beginning and come back to those tricks later.
I start by scanning the original hand drawn cartoon into the computer and tracing over it with the Pen Tool. It’s a great tool for drawing smooth curved lines by placing Anchor Points were curves should begin and end. After the Anchor Points have been placed the line between them can be adjusted with the handles to create a curve. Once I have a curve I am happy with I use the Stroke option to draw the line. Each body parts is created on a separate layer. I’ll come back to the reason for that later.
Then I create new layers behind each body part and use them to colour the image. I colour in behind the lines so I can get right up to the edge. Eventually I merge the lines and colour together but keep each body part on a different layer.
Next comes the shadows. This is also done on another layer (for each body part) but this time on top of all the other layers. I colour the areas where I want shadows with black and then set the opacity of the layer to 20%. This lets the colour and lines underneath shows through creating the look of shadows. The layers are then merged again per body part. This creates the finished character.
Now I’ll go back to those tricks I mentioned and the reason why I create each body part on a different layer. If you have a weak stomach and do not wish to see a cartoon character pulled limb from limb look away now.
Having each body part separate makes it possible to create new images quickly by moving the parts around or re-drawing just one part. Each time I create a new part for a cartoon I add it to my library of parts in case it can be adapted for use again later.
I’ve put together a video to show how this all works. The first part is a quick demonstration of how I can use this process to make facial expressions. The second part shows how I turned my template image in to the cartoon used for today’s post.
Click here to veiw the video and enjoy.
It’s amazing what you can find when you are moving house. There always seems to be lots of objects you either forgot you had or thought you had lost. Then there are also the objects you know you should throw away but just can’t quite do it. At least this was my experience of moving. Since I’ve only moved once I can’t clame to be any authority on the subject.
One of the things I did find again (and did not throw away) was all my early sketches of the cartoon characters I used on this blog. Since a few people have complemented my sketches I thought it would be interesting to share these early scribbles.
It might sound strange but I started drawing these characters because of the South Park Character Creation Tool. At first I was just messing around making South Park versions of myself and my college friends. Then I started arranging them together in comic reconstructions of things that happened to us during our three years of study. Considering we once voted for a toy frog to be our student representative (No, I really am not joking) there were quite a few funny stories so I got the idea of making an on-line comic from them. The frog won the vote by the way but another student had to act as his voice.
I started making a few comic but sadly did not really have enough time to keep it up (I only just have enough time for this Blog at the moment). Maybe one day I will be able to start again. I still enjoy drawing them and its been fun making new images for this blog. For now here are the few I did get around to finishing (Click for more).
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