Showing posts with label observation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label observation. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Toy Drawing 11: Observation VS Rote Animation Cartoon Style
It's great to learn fundamental cartoon basics, like construction, line of action, silhouettes etc. But those are just your starting points. You don't want to be trapped in formula. Principles alone don't make a point of view or entertainment.
Not everything is made of the same few shapes. Animation, being probably the most inbred artform ever (maybe excepting rap) has a bad tendency of producing artists who ignore observation of the world around them.
When animators do life drawing, they tend to draw what's in front of them with a filter or animation goggles between them and the model. Any visual information emanating from the individual model that doesn't fit the accepted way of drawing "animation style life drawing" is often ignored or erased.
Drawing actual creatures-whether humans or animals is much more complex than drawing cartoons - and not because real life has more pores and hairs. I've seen tons of animation portfolios and sketchbooks with life drawings and visits to the zoo where the artists didn't draw the animals or humans to look anything like what humans and animals look like. Instead they draw animation school ducks, elephants and humans. It's because animation encourages animators to ignore the evidence of our eyes and to convert everything into the approved vague animation shapes. So many animation students' zoo sketchbooks show the same vague ducks, giraffes and chimps - all the actual details and specific parts that many animators consider ugly have been tastefully removed- which defeats the purpose of studying from life. There's no point in looking at anything in front of you if you don't see what's actually there. You'd just be converting everything into the same pre-designed anmal life drawings you've seen in other students' sketchbooks.
I think toy drawing is generally more valuable to animation cartoonists than life drawing. Most animators don't believe their senses and real life is far too complicated to study when you haven't broken the habit of ignoring the senses.
(If they really taught anatomy and observation in animation schools, my opinion might be different).
Drawing toys shows us what simple cartoony shapes look like in 3 dimensions-but we have to get our eyes to believe what we are seeing in order to benefit from it. We have to draw what we actually see and not conform the shapes and textures into accepted animation shapes.
I gave this assignment out awhile ago and was amazed at how much trouble most cartoonists had in seeing how funny and unique this balloon character was. Most cartoonists who copied it converted it into Preston Blair shapes (or the modern equivalent - Cal Arts shapes) and lost the feeling of what made this balloon look like a balloon. They tried to correct the balloon and make it look more like a stock cartoon drawing.
These drawings were done by Patrick. They are the best of the drawings in this assignment I've seen. He managed to make the drawings look like a puffy wrinkly balloon. He believed the evidence of his senses and didn't pass his observations through a filter of what he thought a cartoon character was supposed to look like.
There are some things that could be improved. Like these:
Patrick could check his other drawings against the photos and find any similar problems and correct them. But he did very well on the main point of the exercise: to use his eyes, not just his preconceived knowledge to draw something that doesn't fit exact cartoon formula.
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/12/puffy-yogi-drawing-challenge.html
The next step in an exercise like this (once you have corrected any mistakes) is to use the knowledge you learned from the exercise.
I would suggest taking another cartoon character and drawing him like a balloon to see if you retain an understanding of what general concepts make this Yogi toy look the way it does.
The mind learns why things look the way they do by studying construction, perspective, lines of action and all other kinds of artistic generalized concepts.
But the mind must also help the eyes to see, while at the same time to be checked by the eyes when the mind is not enough.
If what you see defies what you already know, then believe your eyes and draw what you see.
Then try to figure out why what you see doesn't conform exactly to what you already thought you knew. - Donald Rumsfeld
When you achieve this, you have learned something new and have added new visual tools to your collection. Your toolchest will grow and grow if you constantly expand you ability to observe new things and apply them to your own work.
If you go through life only drawing (or modeling) the same old approved animation designs and shapes, then no amount of drawing from the real world will do anything for you.
Observe with a purpose - that purpose is to constantly change the way you draw and to avoid blind formula.
HOW DRAWING TOYS CAN BRING MORE SATISFACTION INTO YOUR LIFE
Drawing actual creatures-whether humans or animals is much more complex than drawing cartoons - and not because real life has more pores and hairs. I've seen tons of animation portfolios and sketchbooks with life drawings and visits to the zoo where the artists didn't draw the animals or humans to look anything like what humans and animals look like. Instead they draw animation school ducks, elephants and humans. It's because animation encourages animators to ignore the evidence of our eyes and to convert everything into the approved vague animation shapes. So many animation students' zoo sketchbooks show the same vague ducks, giraffes and chimps - all the actual details and specific parts that many animators consider ugly have been tastefully removed- which defeats the purpose of studying from life. There's no point in looking at anything in front of you if you don't see what's actually there. You'd just be converting everything into the same pre-designed anmal life drawings you've seen in other students' sketchbooks.
I think toy drawing is generally more valuable to animation cartoonists than life drawing. Most animators don't believe their senses and real life is far too complicated to study when you haven't broken the habit of ignoring the senses.
(If they really taught anatomy and observation in animation schools, my opinion might be different).
Drawing toys shows us what simple cartoony shapes look like in 3 dimensions-but we have to get our eyes to believe what we are seeing in order to benefit from it. We have to draw what we actually see and not conform the shapes and textures into accepted animation shapes.
I gave this assignment out awhile ago and was amazed at how much trouble most cartoonists had in seeing how funny and unique this balloon character was. Most cartoonists who copied it converted it into Preston Blair shapes (or the modern equivalent - Cal Arts shapes) and lost the feeling of what made this balloon look like a balloon. They tried to correct the balloon and make it look more like a stock cartoon drawing.
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/12/puffy-yogi-drawing-challenge.html
The next step in an exercise like this (once you have corrected any mistakes) is to use the knowledge you learned from the exercise.
I would suggest taking another cartoon character and drawing him like a balloon to see if you retain an understanding of what general concepts make this Yogi toy look the way it does.
_______________________________
The eyes see things in front of them. The mind interprets them. It either adapts itself to the new information or it conforms what it sees into what it already thinks is right. The eyes and mind have to work in balance.Conclusion
The mind learns why things look the way they do by studying construction, perspective, lines of action and all other kinds of artistic generalized concepts.
But the mind must also help the eyes to see, while at the same time to be checked by the eyes when the mind is not enough.
If what you see defies what you already know, then believe your eyes and draw what you see.
Then try to figure out why what you see doesn't conform exactly to what you already thought you knew. - Donald Rumsfeld
When you achieve this, you have learned something new and have added new visual tools to your collection. Your toolchest will grow and grow if you constantly expand you ability to observe new things and apply them to your own work.
If you go through life only drawing (or modeling) the same old approved animation designs and shapes, then no amount of drawing from the real world will do anything for you.
Observe with a purpose - that purpose is to constantly change the way you draw and to avoid blind formula.
HOW DRAWING TOYS CAN BRING MORE SATISFACTION INTO YOUR LIFE
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
National Review Caricatures
The best ones have to be super observant and set aside their prejudices of what a caricature is supposed to look like, because everyone in real life looks completely different and you have to capture the individual's style and personality to be good.
This last one is from another magazine but it's good too.
I wish more animation cartoonists applied some of the kind of thinking that caricaturists have to do in their work. I don't mean literally drawing human caricatures into cartoons. They'd be impossible to animate. No, I mean being more observant and breaking out of making cartoons based solely on other cartoons, instead of scouring the world with your eyes and brain, on the constant lookout for new things to make cartoons about and new ways to design characters that aren't just rehashes of well-known overused animation styles.
Getting your pencil to tap into your own view of the world instead of being a slave to certain habitual flicks of the wrists that always produce the same shapes and stories.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Dick Briefer
http://greatestape.blogspot.com/search/label/Dick%20Briefer
http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/search?q=dick+briefer
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tips and Comments For Rodrigo
I met Rodrigo at Steve's acting for animation lecture last night and he was very nice and polite, even though he says he has been mean on my blog. But I don't remember that.
I only know him for the decent, all American rosy-cheeked lad he presented himself as in person.
So I checked out his blog today and decided I could give him some tips and comments which might benefit other folks as well.
Hi Rodrigo!
Here is a nice caricature he's done of his partner in Bromance. I like it. It is very observant.
One thing he did that many cartoonists don't, is that he looked at each side of a head at a 3/4 angle and drew each side the way it really looks. Many cartoonists when drawing a 3/4 view just take their front view and distort it so that the side closest to us looks exactly the same as the side farther away, just bigger. In other words, the silhouette is the same on both sides, which doesn't make sense at all.
The lips on a 3/4 mouth are wider and a different shape on the side of the face that is farther away. You would think hey would be bigger on the side closest to us, but they aren't. Why? Because we are seeing part of the inside of the lip on the side that's farther away.
Go look in the mirror, or look at your girlfriend and see the truth for yourself.
Now, the thing about drawing from observation that is very important - is to REMEMBER THE OBSERVATIONS AND TRY TO USE THEM IN YOUR OWN CARTOONS!
Don't let these nuggets of truth and discovery slip away into the aether! Take advantage of what you see around you and use it! Otherwise your life drawing classes and caricatures are wasted.
Here, Rodrigo did a careful study of a toy and what it looks like from different angles. This is a great thing to do - IF you then apply some of what you observed to your cartoons.
Rodrigo also sometimes does careful construction studies from classic cartoons - also a good thing - if you then apply it to your own work.
Here, he has applied some construction that he learned from observing and copying classic cartoons.
Here, he hasn't. This drawing below is cluttered and hard to read because there are no principles used in coming up with the drawing. All the shapes are disconnected, there is no composition, lines of action or construction - even though Rodrigo is obviously capable of it.
Doing caricatures is also a good thing for study. But again, be very observant. Don't trust what you think things are supposed to look like. Look at what they ACTUALLY look like and caricature that. Then try to figure out WHY things look the way they do.
Observe and analyze so you can apply the observations with an understanding of how things work.
These look flat to me, because the facial features are all squashed flat against the face. Nothing sticks out. In a real face your nose sticks out, your mouth is behind your lips and teeth, the back of your skull is a different shape than your 3/4 side etc.
When copying from life, really look carefully at what is in front of you and try to discover new knowledge of how things look, rather than forcing your subject into preconceived notions.
The worst thing a caricaturist can do is to have a set style that he has to bend his subjects around. Then he loses all the valuable new information that a subject can inspire.
When you learn something new, apply it to your original cartoons.
See you at the next Asifa show Rodrigo!
I only know him for the decent, all American rosy-cheeked lad he presented himself as in person.
So I checked out his blog today and decided I could give him some tips and comments which might benefit other folks as well.
Hi Rodrigo!
OBSERVATION AS A CREATIVE TOOL
Here is a nice caricature he's done of his partner in Bromance. I like it. It is very observant.
One thing he did that many cartoonists don't, is that he looked at each side of a head at a 3/4 angle and drew each side the way it really looks. Many cartoonists when drawing a 3/4 view just take their front view and distort it so that the side closest to us looks exactly the same as the side farther away, just bigger. In other words, the silhouette is the same on both sides, which doesn't make sense at all.
THE 3/4 MOUTH AND LIPS
Rodrigo observed something that REALLY most people don't. Something that goes against what you would think think would make sense.The lips on a 3/4 mouth are wider and a different shape on the side of the face that is farther away. You would think hey would be bigger on the side closest to us, but they aren't. Why? Because we are seeing part of the inside of the lip on the side that's farther away.
Go look in the mirror, or look at your girlfriend and see the truth for yourself.
Now, the thing about drawing from observation that is very important - is to REMEMBER THE OBSERVATIONS AND TRY TO USE THEM IN YOUR OWN CARTOONS!
Don't let these nuggets of truth and discovery slip away into the aether! Take advantage of what you see around you and use it! Otherwise your life drawing classes and caricatures are wasted.
Here, Rodrigo did a careful study of a toy and what it looks like from different angles. This is a great thing to do - IF you then apply some of what you observed to your cartoons.
Rodrigo also sometimes does careful construction studies from classic cartoons - also a good thing - if you then apply it to your own work.
Here, he has applied some construction that he learned from observing and copying classic cartoons.
Here, he hasn't. This drawing below is cluttered and hard to read because there are no principles used in coming up with the drawing. All the shapes are disconnected, there is no composition, lines of action or construction - even though Rodrigo is obviously capable of it.
Doing caricatures is also a good thing for study. But again, be very observant. Don't trust what you think things are supposed to look like. Look at what they ACTUALLY look like and caricature that. Then try to figure out WHY things look the way they do.
Observe and analyze so you can apply the observations with an understanding of how things work.
These look flat to me, because the facial features are all squashed flat against the face. Nothing sticks out. In a real face your nose sticks out, your mouth is behind your lips and teeth, the back of your skull is a different shape than your 3/4 side etc.
When copying from life, really look carefully at what is in front of you and try to discover new knowledge of how things look, rather than forcing your subject into preconceived notions.
The worst thing a caricaturist can do is to have a set style that he has to bend his subjects around. Then he loses all the valuable new information that a subject can inspire.
When you learn something new, apply it to your original cartoons.
See you at the next Asifa show Rodrigo!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Mars Here On Earth
As I have mentioned before, we cartoonists and animators easily fall into creative cliches and artistic ruts, by drawing the same things the same ways over and over again for years. (We are encouraged to do that by non-creative management and a broken production system, so it's not completely our fault, but we also are slaves to trends unless we will ourselves to go against all that is conservative and holy.
We get stuck drawing the same stock expressions, poses and character designs and don't even realize it.
This applies also to background artists. You can see the same stock trees, plants, houses in tons of cartoons. Trees are always the same brown, sky is always the same blue, foliage and grass is always the same green.
The only way to break out of this pattern of animation sameness, is to observe the world. Take a trip to Mars if you can afford it.
The way they have landscaped it is like a tour of evolution. You can see certain types of forms in each area and then a million variations of the forms. Like these cacti that are flattened star forms stacked on top of each other.
How many times do you draw the exact same bark texture on your trees? Go out and look at how many different really interesting kinds of bark there are. (In Canada all cartoon background objects , not just trees, have the exact same surface texture, trees, houses, dirt, mountains are all covered with the same Sheridan College Layout Class surface itch.)
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