The tracings have been going well so last night I decided to try to do a cartoon character from scratch. I call him Hick. I tried to layer this one up much like Steve showed me. I started off with a skeletal movement structure, then drew some block shapes over it on another layer, and then went in to start to refine it....and proceded to pretty much ignore everything that I had done up to that point and just doodle loosely over the top.
I am not completely unhappy with my results. While this drawing doesn't hold a candle to the refinement of the other cartoons that I have been tracing, I can see some improvements to what I would have done before I started doing the traces. Things like the lines representing the bunching of material at upper arms and elbows, simple lines to represent the shape of the hat, small lines in his hand, etc. I can also see that if I were to take this same drawing to another level of refinement, I could smooth out some of those rough sketch marks that make up his legs, and maybe make his head a bit more symetrical. I found it worthwile to stop the sketc here, add color and make that analysis of, 'OK you've come this far, how do you make it better?' While I have come up with my own answers, I would appreciate any suggestions that the fine people here have for me.
Here he is and as an afterthought, the block shapes to show how I started. The hat and head went pretty much as planned but I deviated from there.
Eric