When I first began life drawing I hadn’t had much experience with drawing figures, and never realized how important the skill was to animation. My first life drawing class with the model was interesting as it had been a year since my last class and it was like starting from scratch. I’ve always been taught to just draw, not really focusing on much, but just drawing what you see. However, since these classes, I’ve learnt a new approach of beginning with a line of action to give an overall gesture and feel for the pose. This is supposed to be a quick line which is a basis to start working out placement of the hips and body. I also found that getting the placement of the feet first was also very helpful with getting the perspective and angle of the pose.
I also learned not to use straight lines when drawing the figure as it can make the drawing stiff, whereas they should be full of life and show movement which is why I’ve learnt to use quick curved lines which are drawn more freely using my whole arm and not just my wrist.
Visualizing everything as spheres and boxes is something which I never did as I didn’t understand it, but since learning I have found it to be very useful. Visualizing cubes and boxes around everything has made understanding the perspective much easier. It allowed me to draw what I saw in perspective not how I imagined it. For homework we were to practice drawing spheres and shade them based on a chosen light source to create form
For homework and practice we were to draw Madam Mim and Dirk the Daring, a full body rotation showing their form and structure. I needed to understand their basic shapes and proportions before being able to fully understand the detail and where everything would sit. I enjoyed drawing Madam Mim as I liked working with her round shape and crazy hair. However, I originally struggled with how Dirk was proportion, but I kept drawing him and practicing to get used to his shape. When it came to the class and drawing the life models, I found drawing Robert as Dirk originally challenging as I’d never tried anything like this, but it eventually got a little easier to visualize however I still have a lot to learn. As for drawing Jackie as Mim, I struggled a little more as Mim’s proportions were drastically different to hers. Despite initially having difficulty, I found the exercise to be extremely helpful as it was good practice for drawing a character in whatever pose you wish and not just from a front view or side view.
From reading ‘Perspective A Guide for Artists, Architects, and Designers’ by Glen White, I learnt more about vanishing points and that lines in perspective in the distance are nearer before eventually disappearing. I found this helpful when it came to drawing boxes and then the life models within them
I was looking forward to the character design as it’s something I really enjoy. I love designing smaller more blob-like characters which proved effective as we were to design characters while focusing on their form and shape. My character was three and a third of its own head tall. And his body was somewhat pear shaped. However, once I’d spoke to Mike, I found several flaws in my character’s design. My character who I’ve named ‘X’ wears a long shin-length cloak, and I never actually thought about how his joints would work and what way his legs were shaped under the cloak. I realized that I had focuses more on his appeal rather than his function as functionality is more important and that he is able to function in his environment. I then edited my characters design and worked out his shape and form before then deciding to add his cloak and clothes. I found it a lot easier to work out how his cloak would move if he turned as I now know where his weight is and how the fabric would lay if he were to sit on a chair.
At this point in the semester we were to draw hands and feet, which I have never focused on before, usually if I were drawing a character in a pose I would often have their hands behind their back or in pockets. I realized that by doing this I would never learn, but at the time I found it easier. I initially found it very difficult to draw the hands and feet. But, after being shown the shapes that make up hands and feet it made the task a little easier. I found it to be challenging but also very interesting as they are something I have been avoiding drawing for a while, so being forced to draw them was a good push that I needed
I have noticed my improvement from the beginning of the year. I am a little more confident in my lines and I’m not as afraid to make mistakes when drawing. I also have learned to draw lighter so that mistakes can be easily adjusted. I want to keep improving so I’ll be practicing as often as I can in order to become more comfortable with my ability to draw and also to be more free with my lines and not as stiff or rigid.
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