💼 Careercow Andrew Dobson (aka Tom Preston)

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Y'know, as an artist myself I can tell you that quite a bit about Dobson comes out in his art style. Artists often have visual fingerprints in their work, and a lot of time you can gleam something about them from how they draw. Not to say I could give some kind of forensic analysis of every Marvel and DC comic to tell you what's in each artist's brain, but people can leave varying traces of themselves in their work. For example, people with a foot fetish are more likely to add excessive wrinkles on bare feet, that's an obvious one. Or people with more face-to-face social skills are often better at drawing expressive faces. You can also tell how comfortable someone is with drawing by how "natural" a drawing feels. For instance I look at Dresden Codak and get the feeling that, while Aaron Diaz is very skilled in several areas, he doesn't seem to enjoy what he's doing based on how rigid much of his camera angles are, how many of his action scenes lack dynamic camera angles or illusion of motion, and how much he adheres to formulaic methods (you can just tell by his characters' faces he draws on autopilot).

With Dobson I can immediately see quite a few tells in his work. Especially since he refuses to improve any of his fundamentals (because he obviously feels that if he does anything his critics have ever recommended, they win. And he has to win). Professional artists usually show less of themselves in their work because any of these "tells" are covered up by basic fundamentals a professional artist has to adhere to.

(On a personal note, this is part of why I detest this new wave of noodle-armed, geometric shape characters that seem to be prevalent in cartoons and tumblr art these days. It's lifeless and lacks any personality).

Because Dobson refuses to follow the rules, so to speak, but because he is making some attempt to improve, he's unknowingly revealing a lot about himself in his work. Rather than learning from anyone, he's trying to figure it all out himself, which, fascinatingly, causes him to develop his work based on aspects of himself (if that makes sense). For instance...

- He's drawing cartoony characters that should be expressive, but his eyes frequently stay small for something like this. Compare his teddy bear persona to any classic Warner Bros. or Disney character. Specifically the eyes. In cartoons, eyes are often large to show not only expressiveness, but openness. This is why, in anime, pretty, young, and innocent characters have the big eyes while villains, more distant characters, and more shady characters will have smaller eyes. Also his sclera-iris ratio skews heavily toward the sclera. It's the iris/pupils we look at when we look someone in the eyes, and when eyes are sclera-heavy it usually shows some expression of anger, shock, etc. Big eyes with prominent pupils/irises not only show openness, but even vulnerability. Dobson can't show any of this. Especially in his representation of himself. I almost wanna play psychiatrist and say this shows how guarded and introverted he is. I guess I am, though, so there you go.

- He has no real confidence in his work. He's going for a free-flowing, animation style (since he was trained in animation, after all), but he uses thick lines, rigid poses, and his characters can't seem to adhere to the animation convention of stretch-and-squish. There's no "freedom" to his lines, or fluidity to his movement. Now this is fine if your art style is either more realistic, or more structured. But if you're going for a loose, animated look and your characters essentially look like they're tightened up and unable to stretch or squish, this shows you're focusing too hard and being too careful in your work. This is usually a sign that the artist doesn't feel comfortable in their own artistic skin. They're actively trying to do something instead of just doing it. It reminds me of an artist on deviantArt I saw awhile back, I think his name was "EnterPraiz". He drew this wacky cartoony style, and he had a good thing going with it, but you could see how rigid his lines were and it was holding him back. On his larger pictures you could see his lines wobble from his unsteady hand. I think he does porn and sexual cheesecake stuff, now, which shows how much he's taking the easy way out for attention.

- He's angry and miserable and it's affecting his work. Notice the expressions his characters make. When Dobson goes for a big facial expression, it's often warped, and even unsettling. When his characters smile the edge of the mouth pressing at the cheek curves upward more in the manner of a scowl than a smile. Especially when he has his bear character smirk. With a smile, the wrinkles at the edges of your mouth make more of a V-shape, because the mouth is pulling your skin outward and along the contour of your cheek and your jaw. Dobson's smiles curl upward and inward more, more following the way cheeks appear to move upward and outward during a scowl. Also a smiling face is often wider in appearance, not pursed and still closer to the center of the face. That's the appearance of a scowl, or a frown. Furthermore, you'll notice he doesn't draw people looking believably happy. He can't seem to draw a positive facial expression that's not cartoonish (and as I said earlier, looks more angry than happy), or appearing forced. His smiling characters look unnatural, like faking a smile for a family photo. But you know what he does draw convincingly? Frowns, scowls, and screaming faces. His bear persona's smiles always look off, but his unpleasant expressions are often right on the money.

Anyway that's what I've noticed looking at Dobson's work. I could be talking out of my ass, but that's what I see.
 
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Y'know, as an artist myself I can tell you that quite a bit about Dobson comes out in his art style. Artists often have visual fingerprints in their work, and a lot of time you can gleam something about them from how they draw. Not to say I could give some kind of forensic analysis of every Marvel and DC comic to tell you what's in each artist's brain, but people can leave varying traces of themselves in their work. For example, people with a foot fetish are more likely to add excessive wrinkles on bare feet, that's an obvious one. Or people with more face-to-face social skills are often better at drawing expressive faces. You can also tell how comfortable someone is with drawing by how "natural" a drawing feels. For instance I look at Dresden Codak and get the feeling that, while Aaron Diaz is very skilled in several areas, he doesn't seem to enjoy what he's doing based on how rigid much of his camera angles are, how many of his action scenes lack dynamic camera angles or illusion of motion, and how much he adheres to formulaic methods (you can just tell by his characters' faces he draws on autopilot).

You can tell he also is desperate for control, tight lines even from the most basic form. That comes down to the lack of confidence, the tighter you start on a work the tighter and more lifeless it ends up, which is why many professional artists skip right over all unnecessary steps in the work such as going from roughs to inks without touching the sketch anymore than is absolutely needed.

Starting tight guarantees the work looks lifeless by the end no matter how much dressing up with color or line variation. The fact that he starts tight and does not seem to revise much along the way shows his inflexibility and all around discomfort at trying something new in a bold way. The use of color is generally smudged to blend, and that does not mesh well with what is meant to be cartooning. He literally could improve so much by just switching to a brush to ink, being more liberal with black fills and sticking to flat colors. But he won't because that feeds a lack of control in line with his lack of confidence.

Dobs could get better, he honestly could, but he'd have to take a big step out of the comfort box he's in and he's unwilling to do to his own neurosis.
 
Lol Dobby understands creative decisions. He is so far up his own ass that he'll never see light again.
 
- He's angry and miserable and it's affecting his work. Notice the expressions his characters make. When Dobson goes for a big facial expression, it's often warped, and even unsettling. When his characters smile the edge of the mouth pressing at the cheek curves upward more in the manner of a scowl than a smile. Especially when he has his bear character smirk. With a smile, the wrinkles at the edges of your mouth make more of a V-shape, because the mouth is pulling your skin outward and along the contour of your cheek and your jaw. Dobson's smiles curl upward and inward more, more following the way cheeks appear to move upward and outward during a scowl. Also a smiling face is often wider in appearance, not pursed and still closer to the center of the face. That's the appearance of a scowl, or a frown. Furthermore, you'll notice he doesn't draw people looking believably happy. He can't seem to draw a positive facial expression that's not cartoonish (and as I said earlier, looks more angry than happy), or appearing forced. His smiling characters look unnatural, like faking a smile for a family photo. But you know what he does draw convincingly? Frowns, scowls, and screaming faces. His bear persona's smiles always look off, but his unpleasant expressions are often right on the money.
I sometimes have to wonder if that's his only range of emotion. Either he's angry or smug as fuck. I got to wonder though, was he ever like this as a child?

First 3 P.J movies are really something.
I wonder how Dobbo (or SJW in general) will react to Meet the Feebles :lol::lol:
I don't think they'd get the fact that it's satire of the highest form and call out either the characters (or Jackson) out on their actions.
 
From what Dobby has revealed of himself, he was like this long before the trolls. He was shitty to his Jewish girlfriend and her family, he was banned from his school bus, he still holds a grudge against his high school bully and in art school he thought he knew better than his professors and routinely ignored classes. Would his life be any different without the trolls? No. He might still try to sell his shit at cons, but he would have given up by now since the cost would exceed the profit.
 
From what Dobby has revealed of himself, he was like this long before the trolls. He was shitty to his Jewish girlfriend and her family, he was banned from his school bus, he still holds a grudge against his high school bully and in art school he thought he knew better than his professors and routinely ignored classes. Would his life be any different without the trolls? No. He might still try to sell his shit at cons, but he would have given up by now since the cost would exceed the profit.
I wonder if he ever acted like this towards his parents, seeing as I never see him mention them or anything.
 
The third hobbit film
[MEDIA=twitter]612185221656506368[/MEDIA]

Good to see Dobson is comfortable in parlaying his career in inflation porn and Twitter obsessing in to credentials that allow him to speak with some expertise on the matter of Peter Jackson's artistic decisions. I relate to him. As someone who has burned a few sausages on the grill I have an above-average understanding of the logistics of providing in-flight meals for major airlines.
 
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An there I though people empasize with characters through their behaviour or the situations they are in. But Dibdob, what about characters without eyes? Friggin' ableist shitlord...
Well, we are talking about a guy who exclusively empasizes with characters via their hair color...

Andrew Dobson is his real name.
Tom Preston is his DeviantArt name, I forget where Tom comes from, but Preston is the last name of a very minor character in Star Trek II (a cadet that dies, he's supposed to be Scotty's nephew, but it's not established in the theatrical version).
Basically CattyN/Tom Preston was how he existed before his identity was revealed and since Tom Preston was the name he gathered DA followers with, it hangs around so they can find him.

Edit: Twitter

More:
Dobby shows his true colors again:

What a whiny loser. "Baaaaawwww don't tag me!"
Did you point out to him that a) it's your choice if you want to tag him or not b) that it isn't rude just cause he dislikes it and c) tweet this image at him?
edit: The image above is something Dobson is fond to throw around on Twitter every once in a while...
Ahh.

Everyone knows Peter Jackson's best film was Bad Taste anyway.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vZExny-Bhck
Well, Braindead has this gem:

So I'd say it's a close call.
 
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