Working Daze by John Zakour and Scott Roberts for August 30, 2014

I had Walter Lantz’ book as a kid, but that’s probably not available anymore. He created Woody Woodpecker, and it was all the tricks of classic cartooning, as in the theatrical cartoons.

I’ve never seen the Chapman book, so I can’t say much about it. If the information seems thorough and clearly presented, that’s a plus.

I taught an after-school cartooning course to 3rd and 4th graders. I showed them how to build characters out of basic shapes- how to suggest movement: weight and volume. Then we got into storytelling techniques. We finished by having each of them produce a comic story. The ones who had to do the least explaining to me did the best, because their work succeeded at explaining itself.

I’ve done the first part of that course in other settings, including a panel at San Diego comic con. But these are all key things for students to learn.

One of the most important lessons, as with so many other things, is learning from mistakes. Don’t give up when the first attempt doesn’t succeed. Figure out why it didn’t, and do better each time! Also vital to learn: don’t compare yourself to those sitting next to you. We all learn at different rates, and we develop different skills. WORKING DAZE has been drawn by three different artists, and we each brought a different approach to it. Each must have worked, since the strip is still running.

But I would strongly recommend concentrating on the pencil and paper basics first. Even today’s CGI features begin on paper, designed the old fashioned way. Many of the characters are sculpted in traditional forms, then scanned into the computer. The greatest misunderstanding about CGI is that there’s some switch the animators hit, so they can sit back and let the computer to all the work. The cartoonists still have to be able to do it themselves first; the computer and the software are only tools.

Hope some of that long-winded reply helps!