Heath Robinson’s Contraptions

"The Professor's invention for peeling potatoes." by William Heath Robinson

William Heath Robinson (31 May 1872 – 13 September 1944) was an English cartoonist and illustrator best known for drawings of ridiculously complicated machines for achieving simple objectives.

In the UK, the term "Heath Robinson" entered the language during WWI as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contrivance, much as "Rube Goldberg machines" came to be used in the U.S. for similar absurdities. "Heath Robinson contraption" is perhaps more often used in relation to temporary fixes using ingenuity and whatever is to hand, often string and tape, or unlikely cannibalizations. 

"An Early Attempt To Split The Atom," by William Heath Robinson

When we horsepeople talk about fixing things with spit and bailing twine, we are speaking of the same thing, a temporary fix using ingenuity to “make it work.”

There is something endlessly fascinating about creating impossible machines. Here is one of my own “Heath Robinson” contraptions for the comic “Horse Life.”

"Horse Life" comic, by Sara Light-Waller

Horse Life 21

I recently happened upon a very old copy of The Ladies Home Journal in a used bookstore I know. It seems that in 1913 there was still a rather heated debate going on about whether or not it was healthful and proper for women to ride astride in “men’s” saddles.

This debate made me consider the changes in riding apparel over the subsequent years – from side-saddle “habits” to the baggy-thighed breeches of the 1920’s, all the way up to the modern paraphernalia we’ve developed for riders today.

It’s to this long progression of equestrienne fashions that I dedicate Horse Life 21– we’ve come a long way baby!

Click here to see Horse Life 21 on my website.

In Praise of Black Prismacolor Pencils

In an experimental phase, I decided to take a page from manga artist Mark Crilley’s sketchbook and try using a black Prismacolor pencil instead of ink for some preliminary manga sketches. I keep a jar of black and white Prismacolor pencil stubs in my closet for just such experiments. I brought them out tonight to try a quick sketch of a well-known actor I saw on the web. (I would tell you who it was but I changed enough of him to make him look quite different.)  Here’s the result…

Manga boy (black Prismacolor pencil)

This was the second drawing I’ve done using a black Prismacolor pencil instead of ink and I must say that I was quite pleased with the result. Faster and easier than ink, the wax-based Prismacolor pencils should also resist watercolor pencils and markers, giving me an easy way to color the sketches. Of course, ink is still my preferred medium for more finished pieces, but the pencil seemed to work well for something both fast and easy. It also gave me pretty good depth of color. More on this to follow…

Which are my favorite sketching tools right now?

Hands on hips, this was the question I asked myself the other day as I took stock of the many types of pencils, paints, markers, etc. that I saw lined up before me. For outdoor sketching adventures, I’ve created several small kits that I rotate through depending on what I’m feeling like that day. My three favorite sketch kits are 1. a small pen & ink and watercolor kit, 2. a small fast-sketch kit with various stumps and graphite pencils, and 3. a watercolor pencil/Neocolor II kit (my most recent favorite.)

I thought I might further refine my sketch kits further based on what tools I’m having fun using right now. But how best to check on the fun level for each tool? I decided to create a test of sorts for myself. I started by drawing a new coloring book page that I would then color with different tools. That would show me which tools would best fit my current needs. This also would also help me organize a new palette of colors for the kinds of outdoor places where I tend to sketch (horse farms, local NW scenes.)

It was a fun exercise.

Here is the line drawing I used. I photocopied the image several times onto heavy, white cover stock pages for my test.

A new pen & ink image to color.

Coloring page #1 - Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Pitt Design Pens (magic markers). I liked the look of this colored image. I thought it was very cute. I think that markers might give my sketching scenes something of an illustrative quality.

This image was colored with Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Pitt Design Pens.

Coloring page #2 - Neocolor II watersoluble crayons. I liked the look of this page too but there’s a problem with using crayons in the Summer…they melt in hot cars! Frequently, my sketch kit sits in the trunk of the car for hours until I get a moment to sketch.

This image was colored with Neocolor II crayons.

Coloring page #3 - Inktense watersoluble pencils. Inktense pencils are really cool for several reasons. The first is that their pencil leads are made of watersoluble ink. After the ink has been wet once it will never be watersoluble again. So you can build up your image without moving or changing the underlying layers. I find that the transparency of the Inktense colors also works especially well with pen & ink drawings. As another fun feature, the colors are extra bright.

This image was colored with Inktense watersoluble pencils.

Coloring page #4 - watercolor pencils (Cretacolor and Supracolor). These are the pencils that I have been using in one of current sketch kits. They are very user friendly, travel well, and lay down good color either dry or when wet with a waterbrush. Although the look isn’t as bright as with the Inktense pencils they are more versatile for many subjects.

This image was colored with Cretacolor and Supracolor watercolor pencils.

So which ones where the most FUN to use?

The results were an essential tie! I have to give the nod to both the Tombow/Pitt markers and the Cretacolor/Supracolor watercolor pencils. I think both will serve my needs very well and are very fun to use.

Evening update!

I have since created two new sketch kits – one with the markers and one with the colored pencils and I’ve bundled them together into the same little carry bag. Now I feel ready for all sorts of new adventures! Tally ho!

Horse Life 18

Horse Life 18 is here! Finally. Yay!

This cartoon is part of an on-going series I’m calling “Rules of the Road,”  the full title of which is “Rules of the Road: A Standard Guide to Riding.”  I’m having a lot of fun with these. The text is all traditional, straight out of riding manuals from the 1970’s and before. The advice given is all good and proper BUT making it work for you as a rider is another thing entirely. It all looks good on paper but when you’re out there with your pony or horse, all bets are usually off! After more than 40 years as a rider, I know what I’m talking about. Believe me! All the same, the fun is in the joke of it. We all want to be Velvet Brown from “National Velvet” and we all end up being characters from Thelwell cartoons instead. Although it wasn’t always true, at this point I’ve learned to see the humor in it and appreciate the not-so-subtle joke. ;-)

Click HERE to see Horse Life 18 on my website.

Seattle University & the St. Ignatius Chapel

Back in my “Privateer Princess” days, I had to draw a Ciodali chapel and needed some photo reference for the location. After a web search I decided to use the ultra-modern St. Ignatius chapel at Seattle University as my model.

Privateer Princess page 71, Ciodali Chapel

St Ignatius is a beautiful place, very airy with wonderfully flowing lines. Last weekend Matt and I decided to go there and take a look in person. (A few years late, but it's never too late I say!) We found the chapel to be quite lovely and architecturally stunning.

Seattle University's St. Ignatius Chapel

While wandering around the Seattle University campus we were also enchanted by the beautiful landscaping. (Apparently Ciscoe Morris, of “Gardening with Ciscoe,” designed the gardens.) As we strolled around I took a lot a photos so that I could do some sketching from the pictures later on.

"Seattle University Garden"
Mixed media in a Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook.

Here’s the sketch I did today. I am slowly realizing that I quite enjoy showing the wildness of growth in gardens. How the plants vie for your attention as their growth spreads out, almost stacking on top of one another visually. It’s orderly chaos and I love it!

Why comics?

For many years I have been a realistic artist, specializing in animal portraits and scientific subjects. For those of you who regularly follow my blog and Facebook pages, you might not even know that fact based on all the cartoon artwork that I have done recently.

So, why the big change?

For me, the answer goes back to my childhood. It’s a not-so-secret fact that I have always been a storyteller. Whether it’s writing or illustrating them, storytelling is very near and dear to my heart.

Right now, I am preparing to move into a new phase of my life where I plunge ahead into the world of storytelling head-first. When you dive into the deep end of a pool for the first time, you put all your swimming skills together in a new way. You get ready and just leap. That’s what I feel like I am preparing to do right now in my life. It’s important to me. It’s just plain important.

Creating characters that can adequately play their roles in a story is of tremendous value in storytelling, especially if you plan on doing an illustrated book. Thus my recent interest in studying masterful cartoonists.

Tasuki sketches

In that on-going exploration, here is my most recent page of character studies, also from “Fushigi Yugi,” by Yu Watase. This character is named “Tasuki.” (Pronounced “Taski” with the “a” sounding like the “o” in “Oscar.”) He was much easier for me to draw than the hero, Tamahome. Tasuki’s a secondary character and he’s a hot-head. Apparently, I “get” this guy pretty well. He was quite fun to draw. ;-)

Equestrienne Portrait of Mistress Cynthia de La Matchstick

Equestrienne Portrait of Mistress Cynthia de La Matchstick

When I sat down to draw yesterday I was contemplating my next Horse Life comic. When I put down my pens, I found that I’d drawn a rather wonderful cartoon version of a Diego Velazquez equestrian portrait. What a magical surprise! Proving once again that Art comes from the higher powers manifesting through the heart and hands of the artist. Had I had plans to draw this, I’m sure I would have botched it up. :-P

I’m thinking of selling prints of this one in my long, lost Etsy shop in case it strikes anyone’s fancy.

Ciao for today!

Story Fragments

I created this character tonight while sketching. I don’t know too much about him except that his name is Finn and he’s talking to a girl named Eva. He has purple hair, blue eyes, and seems both intense and sincere.

I feel like he’s auditioning for me. Like he wants to become someone important later on.

I don’t know whether he will. He may just end up as one of those drawings that stays in my sketchbook and never appears again. Or, he might become a character in a new story.

One never knows…

But for tonight he gets the spotlight.

Besides, I like what he’s saying to Eva.

Going Chibi

"Chibi" Tamahome (the character I was drawing yesterday) and Miaka from "Fushigi Yugi"

When talking about manga comics, one must gain an understanding of the super-deformed or “chibi” character. This is not as bad as it sounds. As cartoon characters are typically pretty plastic anyway, in humorous situations (in manga) they can be extra-exaggerated for additional humorous effect. The other reason to deform a character is to make them more cute. One does this by reducing their basic proportions to that of a child.

When drawing a realistic figure you typically draw the character in a 1:7 or 1:8 head: body ratio. In manga this proportion is played with all the time. In my experience, a typical young, teenage, girl heroine is drawn in a 1:5 proportional ratio while her male counterpart in usually 1:6. These proportions seem pretty normal to us. To super-deform a character is to make them into a 1:2.5 or 1:3 head to body ratio. They are not drawn as infants however, but instead, completely dressed as normal, but with simplified versions of clothes, accessories, weapons, etc. Their gestures are also drawn broader with teary eyes becoming running rivers of water or with their anger setting off bolts of lightning from their eyes.

While I am still having some trouble drawing the eyes of a soulful hero, I find chibi extremely easy to draw. I have always had a knack for it. Perhaps it’s because I can channel cute really easily. Last night, I was complaining to my husband, Matt, that I loved drawing handsome manga heroes and troublesome Shetland ponies and how in the world could those two things ever even exist in the same version of reality? He seemed non-plussed and certain that I could make it all work, somehow. Bless him! At least he has confidence in me. But then again, perhaps he’s right…Hmmm. I'll need to keep thinking on it.

Manga Day

“Manga” is the name used for comics in Japan and they are quite fascinating to study. Manga art is highly symbolic and there exists a standard lexicon of common expressions, character marks, and gestures (of the face and body). This conceptual lexicon is a wonderful thing because if you learn it you can create cartoon images that will be as understood in the west as in the east (dialog aside). There are many books in print whose titles begin, “How to Draw Manga…” and many of them are quite instructive. But studying popular Mangaka (manga artists) can also be quite helpful. Although there is much standard (and substandard) manga (art and story) out there, there are also excellent manga artists with very recognizable styles.

One of my favorite manga storytellers is Yuu Watase. She has drawn and written many series going back nearly 20 years. Quite a few of her popular series have been made into anime (abbreviated from “animation”) cartoons, live-action TV shows, and plays.

Although I am familiar with other Mangaka whose artistic styles are more consistent and perhaps stylish, I would argue that Ms. Watase is quite masterful with the subtleties of the form. I decided to test my theory by doing some studies of two of her characters, a hero named Tamahome and his reincarnated self, Taka.

Tamahome sketches with notes

I didn’t do all that well with it. It seems easy enough to reproduce her characters’ extreme emotions like rage, fear, etc. But, as I suspected, she is doing something really subtle to get the thoughtful, peaceful, loving, and other quiet emotional glances. These latter expressions are critical in a romantic hero and she really does have them down.

Mostly sketches of Taka with one Tamahome on the top right

One piece of this is her characters’ eyes, which are not standard in any way. They change in each drawing! *sigh* But there more to it. The eyebrows are very graceful and have a relatively short range of expression (unless the character is doing something excitable.) Eye size is tricky too, too large and he’s too young, too small and he’s not to be completely trusted. I still have yet to figure out how to make these characters look thoughtful. It’s not a lack of expression, it’s definitely something she’s doing in her drawings.

I did discover one thing that seemed to work for me however. If I thought about the personality of the character as I was drawing him, I could modify what I thought I saw in my copy to make the character look more like “him.” Isn’t that strange? I certainly thought so! But it did work.

Fushigi Yugi manga cover (there's Tamahome on the left.)

Ironically, Ms. Watase didn’t think she was very good at drawing this particular character either. “…If you think I’m obsessed with Tamahome, you’re wrong…I’m not very good at drawing either of them [Tamahome or Hotohori].” (From an interview in the “Fushigi Yugi” manga Chapter 80: The Lost Heart.) She herself was most impressed by how Studio Pierrot drew him for the anime version. Go figure…

So that’s it for me today. I’m all drawn out… *lol* Time to put down for the day my pen and brush and go make a nice cup of tea.

If you are interested in more about the expressions used in manga click here to see a previous post about it.

Horse Life 17 and the Triple Crown

Crushing news came this morning that I’ll Have Another, the chestnut colt who ran to victory in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes was retired today after a tendon injury in his left front leg. I'll Have Another was truly a distance horse and the longer Belmont Stakes was made for him. Scuttlebutt on the track was that this colt had a really good shot at winning the Triple Crown. If he’d been able to do it he would have been the first horse in 34 years to win it! (The last Triple Crown winner was Affirmed in 1978.) It’s a huge shame really. I think the American people could really use something like this right now. Something to get excited about.

For myself, I was so inspired by the thought of a new Triple Crown winner that this week’s “Horse Life” is dedicated to it.

I’d like to say, “I hope you enjoy the comic,” but just like my little heroine Cynthia, I can’t help but being pretty sad over the whole thing. :-(

Click here to read this week's Horse Life. 

Learning to Draw Cartoons

Although I have been a cartoonist since I was a little girl, I have always been a “shy” cartoonist, keeping most of my cartoons to myself. That is until recently when I decided to risk showing off my cartooning skills in an arena that I knew pretty darn well – horses and ponies. Thus “Horse Life” was born.

Today, I thought I’d give you a backstage look at the development of some of my “Horse Life” characters. My sketchbooks are full of drawings like these, although many are less finished. Some characters seem quite chatty as sketches and always have something to say to me (usually in the margins!) When I was drawing “Privateer Princess” I had dialogs with my characters all the time, with various chatty characters frequently complaining about how I was drawing their hair, or about their lack of stage time, etc.. 

I think a lot of illustrators do this. It’s a great way of developing your ideas while staying in your characters' heads. It’s also pretty darn fun! 

The following sketches are from my most current sketchbook.

Horse and rider sizes and shapes.
Image copyright Sara Light-Waller, 2012

Horse and rider sizes and shapes.
Image copyright Sara Light-Waller, 2012.

Bucking sketches.
Image copyright Sara Light-Waller, 2012

Artists never stop drawing. Our fingers get too itchy if we try. It's a great thing when you can draw something near and dear to your heart, which is how I feel about drawing horses and riders. Perhaps one day I'll be famous for my cartoons, one never knows...but in the meantime, I can happily report that I improve with every sketch and am totally thrilled with the journey!

Horse Life 16

Horse Life 16 is now up on my website!

This one was fun. Who knows what horses dream about after a long day at the horse show. Do they wonder what might have been? Do they relive their classes and/or their previous successes?

I guess only they know…

Click here to go to the comic on my website.