Does this cow work?

[MOO]

I was trying hard to break the rules and make this cow coming straight at me work for my book but, I am having a hard time so I decided to just have the cow running . Does this work? The idea is that Uncle Carl has all tehse chidkens that keep landing on him until all of teh chickens on the farm are on him. He thinks it's over but then...the cow starts running toward him! I wanted it to be huge and almost upon him which is why I did the huge head , etc ......maybe I'll try again with a mre side view but it is very challenging.

The first two are my attempts at making the cow coming at me. The last oen is my new try.

Thanks.

[tombarrettillo]

The top cow works best for a head on, but he/she needs more emotion as well as a bit of variance in its anatomy. In other words, everything is too symmetrical. Maybe vary the position of the earsAlso, the tongue hanging out does not seem to fit.

for the side view, you have a jumping cow, not a running cow. And if the cow is running at the farmer, he needs to be looking in that direction. Here are some images of cows running. Note the difference, especially in the legs.

[MOO]

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen

Here is another attempt. I'm not too worried about the anatomy being pefect. I knwo that cows don't run with their legs straight out, etc. but I eant to get a certain feel. The tongue hanging out I suppose insn't necessary.

[MOO]

@tombarrettillo Thanks. The top one can't work because it is head on and that is not okay design wise according to the teachers at svslearn. Maybe I can change the legs and make them more extreme......ugh! I'll be so glad when I get this cow right!

[MOO]

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen

[NoWayMe]

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen This last one is MUCH better!

I have noticed something unrelated to the cow that I wanted to comment on. Looking at your drawings, I have the feeling that you press really hard on your pencil... is it possible? And then you have a hard time erasing and reworking your sketches and you end up starting all over. If this is the case, I would definitely try to learn to sketch lighter and "looser" (meaning the lines you put in first are just place holders, to give you an idea of what your drawing, but not set in stone - or in this case, digged in paper)

For example in this sketch by Stephen Silver, see how his initial drawing is loose and rough ? Maybe working with a red or blue pencil would help you with that, and then you can "clean-up" your sketch using a black pencil.

Anyway, I hope this helps! This last cow is really good! I think using reference helps a lot too.

[MOO]

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen

[MOO]

@nowayme I actually, normally, sketch very lightly when I draw and then build on it. Today I am using a darker pencil and drawing over things so that when i erase it still shows. I understand what you mean On these cows, I'm scribbling a lot to try and find what works and then really hard to try and bring out what I like so it will stand out more. Since it's all experimental at this point, I don't worry about the eraser marks, etc. Thanks.