Go For The Truth!

We actually create nothing of our ourselves—we merely use the creative force that
activates us. And when we draw we are not using the left brain to record facts, we have
shifted gears and are now using the right brain to create a little one picture story. With, of
course, the facts that the left brain collected and named and itemized in former study
periods. This is not a study period; this is a show and tell period (time we are not
studying).

Do you feel that you are too limited in knowledge? Robert Henri, that great teacher of art
said that anyone could paint a masterpiece with what limited knowledge they have. It
would be a matter of using that limited knowledge in the right (creative) way. Have you
ever seen the "knowledge" or drawing ability of that great painter Albert Ryder? Probably
not. But when you look at his nebulous paintings of ships at sea or skeletons riding
around with nothing on, you sense the drama and have a feeling a story in being told. If
its facts you want, pick up a Sears mail order catalogue.
I'm not advocating abandoning the study of the figure. Anatomy is a vital tool in
drawing—but don't mesmerize yourself into thinking that knowing the figure is going to
make an artist of you. What is going to make an artist out of you is a combination of a
few basic facts about the body, a few basic principles of drawing and an extensive,
obsessive desire and urge to express your feelings and impressions.

My sketching is the same way. I don't know a scapula from a sternum but when I venture
out into the world with my sketch book, I am able to distill my impressions into a oneframe
story that totally tells my version of what I saw. When my wife Dee and I go on a
vacation, she takes the photos and I sketch. She records the facts—I record the truth.
Shift gears! With the few facts you have—go for the truth!

The Essence

The word essence to me is almost philosophical in meaning: “That in being which
underlies all outward manifestations ..." Applied to drawing it is the motive, mood or
emotion as displayed through the gestures of the physical body.

Anatomy and mechanics are always present too, but in the end the essence of each pose
must prevail if we want to win the award for best animated scene (’scuse me - scenes).
Lots of things to think about: proportion, anatomy, line, structure, weight, negative space,
angles, squash and stretch, perspective, and more, but you can be off in lots of those areas
if you have the essence of the pose.
A little study each day spent on one or another of them will net wondrous results.
Hopefully, there will soon, suddenly, constantly appear in your drawings all of these
elements in a satisfying blend. You will be pleased and much prospered when they all
start to fit together and the exhausting battle with each separate one is over.

Gesture

Gesture is the vehicle used in fitting a character into the role it is called upon to act out.
We have drawn variously, dogs, mice, owls, elephants, cats, people, and so on; each
distinct characters with distinct bodily shapes and bodily gestures. To approach a model
with the idea of copying a human figure plus its clothing could be called a waste of time.
Our interest is in seeing the differences in each personality and their individualistic
gestures and, like a good caricaturist, capture the essence of those differences.

When we review the cast of characters in our past films we realize the need to place these
individual characteristics with the proper character and to be consistent in their depiction.
Holmes’ actions had to be different and distinct from Dawson’s, or their personalities
would become a blur. Mickey Mouse had his own personality—his own movements and
gestures, consistent with his body structure and the personality given him. Goofy, a
hundredfold different in all ways from Mickey, was Goofy because of the same principles
used in different ways.

There are really only a few principles of drawing but an infinite number of personality
traits and gestures. To “hole in” after learning the body structures is to miss the
excitement and the satisfaction of using that information to tell the story of life through
the nuances of gesture.

Lead to the Emotion

A well constructed drawing should have all the parts and they should be put together
beautifully, but that is not what you should see when you look at the drawing. What you
should see is the emotion. In a drawing of a starving man you should see fear and hunger
and despair, and you should feel this, plus pity and revulsion and anger. All gestures
won’t be quite that dramatic, but all gestures are certainly more than their parts.

Give Them the Experience

Drawing for animation is not just copying a model onto paper; you could do that better
with a camera. Drawing for animation is translating an action into drawing form so an
audience can retranslate those drawings back into an experience of that action. You don’t
just want to show the audience an action for them to look at it. You want to visualize an
action for them to see – that is, to experience. That way you have them in your grasp,
your power, and then the story can go on and the audience goes on with it, because they
are involved. You have allowed them to experience it.

The parts of the figure must be put together in a manner that will portray or caricature the
meaning of the pose. Otherwise it will be just a drawing. What a horrible fate – to be just
a drawing.

Observe, Observe, Observe

Animation! This is the vehicle you have chosen to express yourself in. A whole list of
"tools" are required: drawing, timing, phrasing, action, acting, pantomime, staging,
imagination, observation, interpretation, logic, caricature, creativity, clarity, empathy, and
so on—a mind boggling array of prerequisites.

Rest at ease. You were born with all of them. Some of them may need a little sharpening,
others may need to be awakened as from a deep sleep, but they are as much a part of you
as arms, legs, eyes, kidneys, hemoglobin, and speech.

Reading and observing are two emancipators of the dormant areas of the mind. Read the
classics, biographies, humor, mysteries and comic books. Observe, observe, observe. Be
like a sponge—suck up everything you can lay your eyes on. Look for the unusual, the
common, characters, situations, compositions, attitudes study shapes, features,
personalities, activities, details, etc