LESSON Gesture Drawing New Skills: Finding visual cues for where characters hold their weight Objectives: Using the provided images, mark the line of action, points of contact, and general placement of the character s mass. Repeat the process Lecture Notes Posture Drawing is a physical activity. You want to be able to draw for hours on end so keep your body loose and relaxed. Sitting up straight will avoid extra stress on the neck and back. Loosely hold the pencil. Gripping the pencil too tight will cramp your fingers/hand. Support the weight of your wrist, arm and elbow on the drawing board. Sit far enough above your drawing to avoid distortion and allow good movement. Try drawing with just your fingers, just your wrist, just your elbow and just your shoulder. See what the different muscles allow you. Practice drawing with your shoulder. It s the strongest muscle in your arm, and the one we train with the least. Ideally you will use all your arm muscles. Proportion It is crucial to grasp the basic proportions to be able to draw consistent and realistic figures. It helps to know the underlying skeleton structure, muscle mass groups, and tissue/fat deposits, but you can find what you need from the visible landmarks on the character. In our industry, men are more muscular and women more shapely than in real life. Once you can grasp the proportion standards, then you can exaggerate what you want to show. 1 of 5
The average height of an adult male is roughly 7-8 heads tall, but how do you know how tall the head is? Draw a line = total length of your character. Make sure it fits on your page. The line may be bent if the character is sitting or bent over. This is your Line Of Action (discussed below). Hips = divide the line in ½ for UPPER and LOWER body Knees = roughly sit ½ of lower body (1/4 of full body length). Waist = 1st third of upper body up from hips Shoulders = 2 nd 3 rd up from hips Head = top 3rd Line of Action Most students have difficulty grasping the line of action concept. However, for character artists and animators, it s the most important. 2 of 5
The LINE OF ACTION represents the primary thrust of the action in a figurative pose. ~ Drawing for Animation Consider the Line of Action as the mark you d make if you could only make ONE mark that would show the viewer the movement in a single pose. Most animators are concerned with the FORM of their characters, rather than the MOTION, yet animation is first and foremost about showing MOTION. If your line of action lines up with the edges of the picture plane (horizontal and vertical) it will seem very STATIC. Though diagonal thrust in and of itself doesn t guarantee drama. You must also consider TORQUE (rotation), SQUASH & STRETCH, and the design of the character. Weight & Mass We hold our weight UP and CENTERED over the places where we push against gravity. You can find a balanced person s center of weight by finding the points of contact, connecting them together, and then drawing a line straight up from there. Conversely, you can find if a person is balanced by drawing a line up from the center of their points of contact and see where the mass sits relative to that line. 3 of 5
EXAMPLES static poses EXAMPLES action/in-motion poses 4 of 5
Exercise WARMUP drawing circles. Practice drawing squares. Make squares into boxes. Make circles into bent, blobby volumes. Step 1 Look at photographs of characters in static poses Note the line of action. o You can usually see this in the curve of the spine and how the legs and arms extend. In a single, quick stroke, draw the line of action Step 2 Note the points of contacts. Make a mark for each. Step 3 Note the mass of the model s weight. Note where the points of contact are relative to the character s main mass. o Some people carry their weight HIGH, others LOW. Everyone is different. It usually is tied to the bulkiest part the character. Draw an ellipse representing the characters mass Step 4 Repeat the steps 1-3 looking at photographs of characters in active (moving) poses Step 5 Continue to practice this process on found images until you get a feel for where the weight sits in a character. 5 of 5