Developing New Poses For Characters

I draw Gerald the Goat more than any other character, and I always have fun penning his latest escapades. However, it struck my that I’ve been drawing him in a limited number of poses, so I thought it would be good to introduce a little more variety to his character.

To do so I came up with the following plan:

• Trace goat poses
• Copy goat poses
• Cartoonify the poses
• Think up some gags using the poses.

Trace goat poses

I first found a bunch of goat silhouettesand traced them. Tracing images helps me to get used to how the actual proportions should look.

Copy goat poses

I then split the tracings onto two different layers, and left space beside each images so that I could coop them.

Cartoonify the poses

I now created a transparent layer on top of the copies and drew them again, making them more cartoony and to look like Gerald.

I found this surprisingly tricky to do. It felt a bit awkward trying to match Gerald’s proportionswith the actual goat proportions. He sometimes came out looking a bit odd, and so I had to do some of them a few times.

It highlighted the following points to me:

• I’ve drawn Gerald in a limited range of poses before. Drawing those poses feels comfortable, so trying some new will feel a bit awkward at first.
• A cartoon doesn’t have to exactly look like the real thing, although it should echo it and contain the basic essence of it.
• I need a lot more practice drawing Gerald in different poses!

Think up some gags

No gags as yet, however, one of the poses was ideal to show Gerlad peering around a corner…possibly looking out for the leopard…

From Goats to Gorillas…and Gerbils to Goanas…You name it – I can draw it from you!