Built for Speed (Flashback)
Article Description. Should include author, brief description, issue number and page number(s).
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| Author | Ted Tucker |
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| Genre | |
| Published | EF Issue 2018.4 |
Publication date | Fall 2018.4 |
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| Pages | 23- |
| Website |
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Article Transcript
Editor’s Note: This article originally ran in the Fall 2002 issue of Exaggerated Features. Thanks to Ted Tucker for revisiting the article and updating the illustrations in glorious color!
Ah, my first article for Exaggerated Features, and I’ve been asked by our illustrious Vice-Prez, Keelan, to talk about speed. My name is Ted Tucker, and Keelan has worked alongside me for nearly a decade now. He and I have constantly pushed each other to get better, and in the arena of live caricature, faster. Along the way, I’ve picked up a few things from other artists, and have come up with plenty of things on my own to help myself get faster. Don’t worry I’ll make it quick....OK, that was a bad pun, but hey, we all have a strange sense of humor, or we wouldn’t draw cartoons of people for a living, right?
Now you may be asking yourself who I am, and what my credentials are for talking about speed. At this year’s competition I placed 2nd in the Speed Competition (behind defending champion Al Rod). I was always hyperactive as a child (sorry Mom), so now I have that hyperactivity channeled into my hand, and praise God I’ve turned it into a career.
Before I begin, let me just add that I was excited at the hope of seeing “Huf" in action at the con, but he did not compete in the speed competition this year. I had heard of his prowess and hoped to pick up a few pointers. So even though I am by no means the end all and be all on speed, I feel we can all continually learn to be better and faster. And I think I may have some valuable pointers for you. Let’s face it, time is money (in retail locations especially)!
One
One thing I must stress here before I begin is that in concentrating on speed, you don’t HAVE to sacrifice quality. If you take shortcuts and leave things out of the picture (i.e. name, background, etc.) when you are working to be quick, this only hurts your drawing and cheats your customer. Putting less in your drawing doesn’t make you faster—you are just drawing less. When you condition yourself to draw everything you would normally draw, just faster, your pictures will be better for it. That is something I have prided myself on over the years. I am able to get a better likeness and much better looking picture in half the time it used to take me when I first started. I’m just going to let you know the techniques I have used that make and keep me fast.
Two
This is going to sound simple, but the most successful thing I’ve found to get faster is to time yourself. Glance at your watch or set it somewhere you can see it when you are working ... just somewhere your subjects or the crowd can’t see, so they don’t know what you are doing. I find myself getting further and further into what I call “Speed Mode” when I check my time after each part of the picture I draw, i.e.: after I draw the eyes, then again after the nose, then the hair ... you get the idea. The more you do this consistently, the less time you will find yourself taking on a drawing.
When you’ve timed yourself for a while, you start to get a feel for how fast you are going. Many times after I have been in speed mode, I felt like I was moving slowly. But when I checked my time, I was as fast or faster than my previous record. It starts to become instinct after a while. I’ve found when drawing the face in speed mode, that I get an even better likeness. I think it is because the first impression sticks with me more and I’m not giving myself time to think about it too much, or to second-guess myself. Because of that, I really like living in “Speed Mode.”
Three
Something else that is quite helpful is using the same sequence when you draw. If you start on each face the same place every time, you will get better and better at it, and quicker and quicker.
Using the same sequence each time also applies to how you draw the body and especially when you color. When coloring/shading, make sure to use all you need of each color before you set it down. The worst thing you could do (to lose speed) is pick back up a color after you’ve set it down. All those little extra steps will begin to add up. Think of it kind of like an automotive assembly line—if they have to stop the process and back up the whole thing because something was only partially put on, not many cars would get made, would they? I know it’s hard. I’ve often used different colors instead just so I wouldn’t pick one back up that I’d already laid down. Forced creativity, is what I call it.
Four
Something else I have to touch on is economy of drawing. What I mean by this is only drawing what is absolutely necessary. On the eyes (especially girls) you can just draw the lashes as a big shape instead of several small ones. (Quicker and less tedious.) In hair, you can draw the main shapes, and just the outline. If it’s a color picture, then use the color to actually create the lines. indicating the way the hair flows. It’s just fewer lines you have to draw (which means less drawing time).
Five
The next part I want to go over is one of my favorite parts of caricaturing—the gag body!! Many people are intimidated by gag bodies, but really, in my mind, they solidify the caricature. They bring it all together and inject that extra laughter we all enjoy. The best way to approach bodies if you want to do them quick, is like everything else—practice. I have large sketchbooks from my first couple of years when I started where I practiced my gag hands, arms, legs, character co-stars, etc. Pages and pages and pages of them! Something that helped me when I was learning bodies, arms, etc., was that I developed a caricature “body style.” I had been studying and learning comic book style illustration ever since I can remember, and because of that my bodies were more “realistic.” But let’s face it, a big head and little body is the furthest thing from being realistic! So I took away a finger, rubberized the arms, took out some details like clothing folds, and went from there ... Practice, practice, and more practice. I used to draw blank heads with gag bodies and time myself while I did it.
I also did quite a bit of planning, sketching different situations that I thought I might one day be asked for.
When I design a gag situation, I think about it in terms of efficiency and quickness of execution. How can I design it, fill the picture and do it quickly? For one thing, I will draw the picture with little or no overlap of objects. I’ve found then when objects do not over lap, they instead “frame” the person and their action, making them more the center of attention. An added advantage is it makes coloring quicker and neater. When your colors run into each other, it’s not always pretty— usually it’s a very brown equation. Less overlap also spreads out the objects in the picture to fill it up more.
This leads me to my next part of the gag body, which is what I call “ the character co-star.” The co-star is the other cartoony dude, dudette, animal, or object hanging out with our “star” of the picture. His/her/its placement in the picture helps take up empty space, and when they also say or think something, it takes up even more space. When I use word or thought balloons, I use them to my full advantage. I will size the balloon and words according to how much space I have to fill. Speaking of words (oh, another pun!) let’s hear it for sound effects! They are another great thing to take up space.
So there you have it from the brief Ted Tucker School of Speed. As I was writing this article, I found myself practicing and thinking even more and more on my craft, and next time we meet there might be more fast tales to tell. Till then, keep those pens and pencils smokin’!!
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