ANTOINE DODSON CARTOONS by SUBWAYSURFER

When Fame came knocking on the door of  Alabama  resident, Antoine Dodson he 
didn't just answer the knock, he flung the door wide open, and broke off the 
hinges. Huntsville Alabama  native, Antoine Dodson, has become a member of an 
elite group  of unlikely hometown celebrities whose fame and notoriety 
skyrocketed thanks to the phenomenon of YouTube.

Antoine'sqq fame is the result of what could have been a tragic episode for his 
sister, Kelly Dodson, had Antoine not scared off a  rapist who gained access  to 
the 2nd floor bedroom if their  Webster Drive apartment. Kelly's screams alerted 
her brother, Antoine, who managed to chase the intruder off, and had a few 
choice words to say to the intruder once the news reporters arrived on the scene 
with the cameras.

 Antoine's, angry yet animated demeanor caught the attention of a legion of fans 
who after seeing the broadcast on YouTube literally skyrocketed him to Internet 
stardom.  

I personally admire Dodson for coming to his sisters rescue like he did That 
took guts, and he obviously loves her.

 For me, as an artist, I found Antoine to be a perfect animated character. 
Clearly he has the personality! LOL! He's, vivacious, flamboyant, and "in your 
face", even though he was angry, you could still see that sense of humor peeking 
through. The first thing I noticed about Antoine was his eyes and mouth. Both 
very expressive, and very animated. He's a character that definitely calls for a 
lot of dialogue, and it's would be hard to conceive of him NOT getting the last 
word in any conversation he finds himself in. The next thing was his neck, which 
was unusually long.Again, visually, this is  something, once animated than can 
add to his characters "in your face vibe" and make his  dialogues even more 
entertaining. Finally, I love his "costume" if you're doing any type of 
sustained cartoon, whether it be comics, or animation, it helps if your 
character has a " signature look" that doesn't change.   Imagine Charlie Brown 
minus his Yellow shirt  with the jagged stripe.  Antoine's red bandana with the 
pokadots combined with his Afro and black wife beater tee shirt are as 
recognizable as the late Steve Job's black turtleneck was. In an interview on 
the George Lopez show,  I was a little disappointed to find out that he 
had......changed his look considerably, which I feel  was a mistake. In order to 
"milk his celebrity status" Antoine would do better to appear in the attire "we 
first met him". Could you imagine seeing Mr. T in public without his trademark 
Mohawk, gold chains and feathered earrings? It's all about public branding. At 
the very least, he could've sold a line of tank tops or head scarfs! But I'll 
leave the marketing up to his agent.

I hope if he somehow sees these cartoons that they will bring a smile to his 
face and adds another 15 minutes to his fame! 

Rachel Grant Coaching: It's Just My Personality - Part 3: Being An Introvert

Rachel Grant Coaching: It's Just My Personality - Part 3: Being An Introvert

my 6th grade drawings

I got a really unexpected email the other day. It was from my 6th grade teacher 
who had found me due to the magic of this great Internet driven, social 
networking , find anyone at the click of a mouse, age we live in! 

I asked her how she remembered me after all these centuries and she recalled 
that I always liked to draw, and that I had an unusual name. I gotta admit, 
there ain't too many kids with the name. "Elgin" running around.

She informed me that she was retiring from teaching, and was cleaning out some 
of her papers from her cases she'd accumulated over the years. She was delighted 
to find some pages from a class magazine I had illustrated, and asked me if I 
wanted them. Before I could the out a es, the pictures were sitting in my email 
box waiting to be downloaded,

You gotta love this electronic age.

The drawings I got were very revealing. It's a weird feeling going back in time 
and seeing yourself, and what impressed me the mst was that I had remained 
consistent to my dream of becoming an illustrator. Looking at this pictures, I 
can tell that objectively I wasn't the greatest artist. The figures are horribly 
dsproportioned, the anatomy isvmisaligned, the line quality is terrible, and the 
perspective is awful.  And yet none of that mattered to e. Judging how I kept up 
with it obviously, it shows thst I had a commitment to improve, and I 
objectively did. I also see that even back in six grade I had a love for comics 
and story telling, and an interest in drawing faces and capturing personality. 
Today I'm still drawing comics and doing caricature.

These drawings are inspiring and demonstrates that even the most talented 
artist, starts from humble beginnings. It's all about practice  and not giving 
up folks.

drawing live on the subway

here i am drawing e live on the train. i look at live drawing as just my way of communicating to the world. it puts people at ease, and makes an otherwise boring ride more exciting. its important not to treat this as anything special or else youll get too self concious and mess everything up.  learn to be in the moment and just draw.

CARICATURE TUTORIALS FEATURING AJ TOONHEADZ JENSEN

AJ TOONHEADZ JENSEN CARICATURES

exaggerated couples

There are some couples who stand in front of me that make me tremble with fear because once they mate, they're going to unleash something visually horri8fying !