Some studies from Brother Bear and also John Nevarez. Stylistically, Brother Bear leans pretty heavily into realism. Thus I can understand why audience reception of the film noted that the animation was “weak”— it doesn’t push the medium and feel snappy in the way that great animation can feel. It is, however, nice to take a look at how they drew bears 2D.
I spent the most time just focusing on the face today. Basically, I try to break it down into the simplest shapes and put them together like puzzle pieces. So far what I have is a sphere/circle to ground the skull to start. Then build a snout on top of that, and lastly add in volume from behind and around to bulk it up.
There’s some nice expressions I got down too:
Although what’s interesting to note is how small the eyes are designed on these bears. Typically with children’s cartoons, I feel the eyes are enlarged to be more expressive (esp. in Japanese animation). The eyes in Brother Bear are very small; I’m wondering if this is a design choice to balance out the big element of the snout so there’s contrast. Otherwise the face can start to balloon in an unappealing way.
After a solid page of reps, it started to click a bit more. I think I’ll need one more session to really get it in, and maybe some more freehand on my own on paper. These drawings are more detailed than what I’ll need for storyboarding, but I’m trying to push myself to be more precise so that I’m not hiding my weaknesses behind loose drawings. I still struggle with eye alignment. It takes a few tries, which isn’t good enough for me.
Here’s one of John Nevarez’s bear drawings. Just look at the pencilwork!! His lines are so expressive. It’s the kind of sketch you can spend a long time looking at, it just has such appeal. He storyboarded on Brother Bear 2, and I believe this is a beatboard from a sequence he did. From what I could see in the faint construction lines, he also does a circle to ground the head first. It’s much smaller than mine though. I think it’s literally to just help with the eyes? Interesting, as I was a doing a copy, it felt easier to go eyes first, then build out the snout. He also stretches the anatomy more than the actual animated frames, and it results in a more impassioned drawing.
More studies from John’s boards. Gosh, they’re just so charming…his drawings. Even the simplest ones have clear shapes and translate movement so well. Hope I can keep some of the looseness he has in these for my future boards.