Friday, April 22, 2005

Mall Rat Gestures

Here are some quick gestures done when I took my animation figure
drawing class to the mall Wednesday.


I wasn't able to do much, and my concentration was a bit scattered as I
had to do the rounds and keep up with the students, coach, teach etc. So
these were done in spare moments or to show examples. Everyone did much
better this time, the same class did this last fall and they could see
themselves the improvement in their drawings. Doing this often is one of
the best things a cartoonist can do.













3 comments:

Mike Manley said...

Busted, I say go at it, even draw your pooch. The thing is to get into the grove, it's not about details per se. If you did a lot of this for 6 months, even two times a week, you'd find your work would greatly improve as would your "eye'. See, Observe, Remeber was the famous artist School motto, and this exercise is a great for that.

Don't let yourself get frustrated in the beginning, just take a notebook out the next time you are on a stroll and jot down some scribbles.

Pit, yeah, well you got the photography and language gene, so we're even :-)

Mike Manley said...

Jill, A gesture is the “action” of a pose in a drawing. The gesture breaks down the essence, the action energy of a figure’s pose. It’s the core of the pose. If the gesture is strong, the pose, the attitude of the figure will be clearly “acted’ by the figure or character you are drawing no matter the style; detailed, realistic or cartoon. A strong gesture means the emotion, attitude or pose will easily be “read’ by the reader or viewer. Thus the opposite is true, a weak gesture will not save a drawing or pose no matter how well it’s detailed or rendered. If the gesture doesn’t “read’ or look sad, the person looking at the drawing will not be able to tell the person of character, or ‘thing “you are drawing is sad.

Lalena said...

Great stuff Mike! I've been spending a lot of time going to the mall on weekand with a strict purpose of drawing. You really caputre the gestures nicely. It's always inspiring to look at your stuff! I'm glad I found your blog. Later!

aka RoCKetLaL