Tuesday 22 December 2015

Drawing a cartoon alien

Today Shiela and I had an idea for an alien based comic to point out the absurdities of modern life, hopefully in a humorous way.

First step is to try and draw some aliens,.. I even roped the kids in to help. It's more difficult than you think.


First set of ideas


Here's a few more
I haven't focused too much on the body yet, but I would like a simple cartoon style, with perhaps 2 or 3 different types of look.

In addition to that I need some UFO ideas because I have some ideas about parodies based on car driving.

2 comments :

  1. Wow, you've really run with this - excellent stuff. I don't tend to doodle many ideas, but one very clear idea tends to develop in my mind, which is the case here. I may follow your lead and have a doodling session now and try to come up with more ideas!

    One good question is the appropriate level of anthropomorphism. It's human nature to do this (my Mum observed years ago that aliens in sci-fi are so often just human-like with different coloured skin. The old phrase 'little green men' says it all.) I've always felt that if and when we encounter alien life, it's not very likely to have a head, body, arms and legs.

    But then cartoons rely on anthropomorphism. And does a cartoon about an alien have to be a stereotypical thing in order for us to immediately recognise it as an alien? Probably. (ie drawing a bucket of slime isn't going to work....) Probably over-thinking this - I'm off to doodle!

    Of yours, my favourites are the ones with eyes on stalks, or a cyclops eye. There's a danger that anything too animal-like or monster-like will look like an animal or a monster rather than an alien.

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  2. Those two were the first ones I drew. They are the simplest to draw being more of a flat style.

    I guess they look the most friendly too.

    I also like those & the bottom right from the second set.

    Yes, have a go, I could have gone on for hours but then you realise you have to mess about scanning them in. And would the scanner work in El Capitan - Of Course NOT!!!!

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