How To Cheat At Drawing and a new One-Panel Challenge!
Hey all! Gotta say, restarting this newsletter has given me a ton of new motivation and and I’m drawing more than ever. So thank you for subscribing! Let’s...hope I didn’t jinx it just now.
The next comic isn’t here yet because I’m debuting the new and improved “Oops! All Cicadas!” comic to the rest of the world, along with the new Neat Hobby! merch shop, which gives me extreme anxiety. You're already a few new comics ahead of everyone else, so stick around for a new comic soon.
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The One-Panel Challenge!
I am really enjoying making these. I like the constraint of a single panel, New Yorker-style. As I've said before, one-panel comics only go out to subscribers for now. (I swear it’s a coincidence that the first two of these have been, uh, "hell-adjacent.")
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How To Cheat At Drawing
Since there's no new comic this week, I'm going to reveal a secret about my drawing process. I actually cheat quite a bit when I draw.
My character designs have evolved quite a bit since the comic launched in 2014, and I struggle to maintain consistency and speed. I've spent a lot of time redrawing (and redrawing, and redrawing) those heads and hands.
But computers are supposed to be time savers, right? So a few years back, I made this:
These are some of my best pre-drawn heads made into clip art. When I'm frustrated and want to get on with it, I'll drag some of these onto the page. This lets me spend more time on drawing better facial expressions and poses and less on drawing "perfect" head circles over and over.
The bald heads are for "supporting cast" and I improvise their face, hair, and clothing pretty much on the spot. I call them "whatnots," after the Muppets of the same name and concept!
I try not to rely on pre-drawn stuff because it discourages me from drawing by hand, and my art style won't evolve if I keep falling back on these, so I try to change it up. For example, I drew "Looking Out” entirely by hand, but "Natural Resources" uses a lot of pre-drawn heads because, well, there's a lot more heads in there.
So: now you know. See you next time!
best,
Scott Andrew
Department of Artistic Cheating, Neat Hobby!
https://neathobby.com
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