Life Drawing - Part 1

Joanna Quinn: How I Animate from National Media Museum on Vimeo.

Within this workshop we were shown the above videos which demonstrate movement and how the way it is portrayed within the drawing greatly adds to the fluidity of an animation. The first video demonstrates different animation styles while the second is an interview with freelance animator Joanna Quinn, in which she demonstrates her method of working with animation. She talks of the importance in concentrating on the shape of movement rather then whether it is "pretty", this ensures the movement flows between frames and the detail can be added later. Quinn also talks about using her mirror to aid her drawing of perspective and to ensure she can view her own work "with a fresh pair of eyes". The life drawing workshops being held were firstly to practise at capturing motion within a drawing and secondly to improve our observational drawing skills.

Starting with poses lasting around five minutes, they were reduced in time over the course of the workshop as to encourage faster drawing. Being forced to draw faster meant we could no longer try to create precise lines and therefore concentrate on capturing the pose, which in turn causing our stroked to be looser created a nicer outcome. The looser strokes are visually more appealing due to the flexibility and reduced stiffness, therefore accurately representing the human form.

Movement Sketches

Two tips we were given by our tutor Rob were, firstly to hold the pencil up as a measurement tool in order to measure the subject against the drawing, this is something I had been taught at college also and so was easy for me to pick up. Secondly we were advised not concentrate on drawing the figure but rather, think about capturing the spaces in-between. The idea behind this technique is that due to the abstracted shapes of those in-between, our mind doesn't over compensate for such, as they are meant to be abstract. Therefore any body part which may seem odd, due to varying angles we were drawing at, will not occur as a problem as our mind is concentrating on the other.

Above is a slideshow of the different drawings I produced.

I found concentrating on the abstract shapes to be very difficult to stick to, as my natural instinct is to draw around the subject first. However where I found myself to slow down in drawing the woman, I then used this technique in an attempt to create a more accurate representation while speeding the process up. This was the first ever time I have taken part in life drawing and I found it enjoyable as there were many poses to capture and I felt combined with our tutor's advise, it has developed my knowledge around drawing practises.