A quick post...
Looks like we're heading into August folks!
You gotta read this post by Mark Kennedy. He confirms my notions towards drawing (and especially life drawing), but hey says it in a manner that I wouldn't have been able to express myself. A quote:
"I read one of Robert Fawcett's books on life drawing. He claimed that he didn't really know all of the muscles. Basically he claimed he looked at the model and drew what he saw. He used the properties of design to create a pleasing drawing.
When I read this it was so shocking to me that I didn't understand it at first.
It makes total sense though. Maybe this is obvious to most of you. When you look at a great life drawing, are you responding to the fact that the scapula is in the right place? Or are you responding to the graceful curves of the body captured on paper, and the way they seem to occupy space, even though they are drawn on flat paper?
The latter, of course, but I never thought about that, or the implications of that: design is more important to a successful drawing than knowledge of structure. Don't get me wrong, I think a knowledge of structure is important too, but I think it's secondary to a good sense of design."
Another quick point - Siggraph 2006 is on right now - be on the lookout for some cool news popping up.
3 comments:
Right on man
I stopped caring about what looks 'right' some time ago... In our life drawing courses at Sheridan, in particular, the anatomy and structure is drilled into us in the first couple years. It takes over so many students drawings many begin to look the same. I think that's a good thing, to have such a strong focus what's technically right, but eventually you have to relax and realize you have the knowledge. You know where everything is, its time to let it sit in the back of your head and just make a drawing that is pleasing to look at. And yeah, if you have to distort/omit/change/whatever a part of the drawing for the sake of better design, go for it. When I do that I like the results much better than if I followed all the rules and made a technically correct picture.
I realize from a post you made a few weeks ago that you wont be having Gerry this year, which is really too bad. However I'm positive Angelo (or whoever that dude that will be teaching you) will giving you the course designed by Gerry because 3rd year is a real growth year in terms of life drawing. Most people I think really started to put some real character, design and story into their pictures and stopped caring so much about being correct. Im sure you'll know what I'm talking about a few months from now.
That was a good find, thanks!
Hey Alan,
I'm reading through this guys blog. I'm finding it very, very interesting. Gerry always told me: Design more! Of course, for me, I wasn't particularly anatomical either, and many of my drawings fell more into the expressive. I have become more conscious of design over the past year. To be honest, I find just by being aware of design while drawing, it immediately takes your drawings up a notch, even if you're not using its full potential, which of course takes time. For eg. Before I draw, say, a hand. Think about it. What I find is simplicity of shape, fluidity, and avoiding repetition helps alot. Anyway, I'm back to the blog to keep reading. Great post, Alan.
Hey Brandon - thank for stopping by - I definetly notice the improvement of the drawing quality as a result of Gerry's instruction - and I do feel that a lot of that has to do with what Mark Kennedy is talking about. I know Gerry picked Angelo particularly because he was looking for someone who could do life drawing as well as had a background in animation - we'll see how he handles it soon enough!
Hey Jarrett - Mark's blog is definetly pretty awesome - as I understand he's either a former faculty member or current faculty member of CalArts. Glad you like it - I certainly do!
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