Comments on: Life Drawing: an Essential or an Extra?

By: Sky David

Sky David — Sun, 10 May 2009 03:40:57 +0000

One more note: When I was an animation student at Cal Arts, 1972-74, the great to be master at Disney, Glen Keane’s animation drawing station was just behind mine. He excelled beyond the program even then. I treasure having seen him work and develop and watching those masterful hands move the pencil.

By: Sky David

Sky David — Sun, 10 May 2009 03:35:07 +0000

Here I am at 62 with a commercial animation production house and still taking figure drawing classes at the Watts Atelier in Encinitas. The challenge of drawing with acuity from observation translates into acuity from conception of dramatic action and character “body language”. That kinesthetic awareness that the animator brings to the direction of the action, the staging of that and even the “lensing” or way the viewer sees the scene is the “art” and no amount of CG can ever or will ever do that! This is never an issue of “hand drawn” over “CG”. It is always the issue of communicating feeling, drama, human presence from the screen. Then the “screen” is alive, we are drawn in and the “tech” of just how that is done is a none issue.

By: Emmett Goodman

Emmett Goodman — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:59:27 +0000

For me, life drawing is a fearful requirement. It shouldn’t be like that for everyone, but needing to know how to draw is an absolute. This is not just for hand-drawn animation, but for stuff like stop-motion, CG, and experimental forms. If I were to give someone advice on just being an animator, it would be to draw, to be open to different styles, different mediums, different art forms, and really paying attention to what it is you love about animation in the first place. And observation is something very important to remember, but shouldn’t necessarily mean just looking, but also thinking outside the box.

By: stephen

stephen — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:28:46 +0000

To me what seems most important is a keen eye for observation. Being able to recognize actions, poses, facial cues, compositions, and forms. If you can’t read these specific visuals, there’s little hope that you’re ever going to be able to put them in your own work. Even if you can’t draw them, you should be able to utilize them in some other way. put them in a 3d character, or a flash puppet, for example.

Ideally you learn these things so well that they become second nature, and you don’t need to think about them any more. Other things like timing are still really hard to learn, and always will be. these things require observation too.

so it’s no surprise that someone who excels at figure drawing will excel at these other things. But correlation doesn’t necessarily imply causation. being able to internally recognize and imitate people’s habits and speaking mannerisms is another good exercise (just don’t be a jerk about it).

breaking all the rules is ok too.

By: Tim Rauch

Tim Rauch — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:24:34 +0000

Hey Bob, you know I’m not always 100% sure what “cartoon” would even be. Animation drawing for me is distinctly different from figure drawing because it is less “observational” and more “constructed”. When I got back into doing animation, studying Owen Jones’ “Grammar of Ornament” was indispensable to me. That book takes a pretty thorough look at how to arrange a distinct pattern of line and shape in such a way that it is immediately attractive and has visual strength. When I do character animation, it feels like some kind of middle point between observed figure work and repetition of organized patterns.

Okay, enough academic bullshit, everyone go out and make some drawings already!

By: Bob Flynn

Bob Flynn — Sat, 09 May 2009 20:48:35 +0000

Being able to draw never hurt anyone. That’s for sure. I don’t spend a lot time studying the figure now, but I know it would make me a better artist…you can’t argue against that. I tend to study cartoon form more these days because its more direct to what I’m doing. And it’s pretty abstracted from reality. But I do think it limits how I think about the figure, and drawing as a whole.

By: Tim Rauch

Tim Rauch — Sat, 09 May 2009 19:57:59 +0000

I think learning figure drawing is absolutely essential if you are going to do character animation. Even though you may work with a puppet, created inside or outside a computer, figure drawing will enhance your ability to understand the motion/emotions of the human body.

That being said, I can think of a lot of great work by a lot of great animators that contradicts the idea of figure drawing as a necessity. Much of Norman McClaren’s abstract work makes no use of the human body. Caroline Leaf created an emotionally moving world rich in character in “The Street” and did not exactly demonstrate “mastery” of the human form or it’s movement.

Ultimately, animation is a choreographed dance put on by the artist who creates it. I happen to do this in a way that relies heavily on close observation of the human form, but the field is much more wide open than that. It’s the art of creating images and forms in motion and for that their is an almost endless universe of disciplines to call upon.

Boiling it down to the most essential things, I would say animation students would benefit most from these things: having a breadth of knowledge in many fields, strong image-making skills, an understanding of the function of time as an artistic element, and the discipline to execute their work. That’s it!