basics animation 03 drawing for animation

Job No:01055 Title:Basics Animation: Drawing for AnimationProof - 5 Page:Cover

Drawing for Animation is yourguide to the act and art of drawing in the creation of animated films. Far from being a lost practice in anera of computer graphics and digitalenhancement, drawing remains avital critical and creative tool inanimation research and practice.

Beautiful examples from the multi-award winning work of JoannaQuinn and Les Mills help exploredrawing in all its many roles as a narrative tool; in the revision of traditional film language; theexpression of the various registersof reality; and the centrality ofcharacter. Their work also showsprocesses of origination throughdrawing, and drawing as a vehicleby which commercial briefs andmodels of adaptation are achieved.

A range of case studies by leadinganimation artists and scholarsincluding Peter Parr, Luis Cook, PaulDriessen, Bill Plympton and FrdricBack address the application ofdrawing in their creative, pedagogicand communications projects.Drawing remains central to thecreation of meaning and identity in the contemporary era andDrawing for Animation seeks outand illustrates this bigger picture.

Professor Paul Wells is Director ofthe Animation Academy in the School of Art and Design, LoughboroughUniversity. He has published widely,including The Fundamentals ofAnimation, Scriptwriting and Halas &Batchelor Cartoons: An AnimatedHistory (with Vivien Halas). He wasseries consultant for the BBCsAnimation Nation, and has curatedanimation programmes and exhibitionsas well as lecturing worldwide atfestivals, conferences and arts events.

Joanna Quinn is a major figure inworld animation receiving AcademyAward nominations for Famous Fred in1998 and for The Wife of Bathin 1999. Joanna has also won Emmys,Baftas, and Jury prizes at many animation festivals worldwide. She is an honorary fellow at three UKniversities and lectures at some of

the most prestigious universities and film schools across Europe.

Les Mills first collaborated withJoanna on her graduation film GirlsNight Out at Middlesex University. He wrote and produced Body Beautifuland produced The Wife of Bath whichreceived an Oscar nomination and wonthree Emmys. He now runs theiranimation production studio in Cardiff.

Featured topicsvisualisationclassical animationaestheticsobservationperceptionmemoryinterpretationrepresentationimitationexperimentationmotivationperformancesketchstoryboardcomic stripbody languagewalk cyclefilm languagenarrativeabstractionchoreographyadaptationcharacter animationconceptualisation

Featured contributorsJoanna QuinnBill PlymptonPaul DriessenPeter ParrHalas & BatchelorMichael Dudok de WitLuis CookFrdric BackJJ SedelmaierKimberley RiceMichael ShawRichard ReevesErica RussellClive WalleySupinfocomCurtis JoblingTim FerneLet Me Feel Your Finger FirstChristian VolckmanNina PaleyGerrit van DijkDeanna MarsiglieseShira AvniRight Angle ProductionsJulia BracegirdleKristen AndersonQuentin MarmierMichel Ocelot

ava publishing sa [email protected]

BASICS

03animation

Drawing forAnimation

BASICS

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nthe technique of filmingsuccessive drawings or positionsof models to create an illusion ofmovement when the film isshown as a sequence

Paul Wellswith Joanna Quinn and Les Mills animation

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Job No:01055 Title:Basics Animation: Drawing for AnimationProof - 5 Page:CoverUK

17.95

ISBN-13: 978-2-940373-70-3ISBN-10: 2-940373-70-1

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Job No:01055 Title:Basics Animation: Drawing for AnimationProof - 5 Page:1

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BASICS

Drawing for Animation

animation

Paul Wellswith Joanna Quinnand Les Mills





Autobiographical storyboard

animatorRichard Reeves

All reasonable attempts have beenmade to clear permissions and traceand credit the copyright holders ofthe images reproduced in this book. However, if any credits have beeninadvertently omitted, the publisherwill endeavour to incorporateamendments in future editions.

An AVA BookPublished by AVA Publishing SARue des Fontenailles 16Case Postale1000 Lausanne 6Switzerland Tel: +41 786 005 109Email: [email protected]

Distributed by Thames & Hudson (ex-North America)181a High HolbornLondon WC1V 7QXUnited KingdomTel: +44 20 7845 5000Fax: +44 20 7845 5055Email: [email protected]

North American Support OfficeAVA Publishing Tel: +1 908 754 6196Fax: +1 908 668 1172Email: [email protected]

English Language Support OfficeAVA Publishing (UK) Ltd. Tel: +44 1903 204 455Email: [email protected]

Copyright AVA Publishing SA 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permissionof the copyright holder.

ISBN 2-940373-70-1ISBN 978-2-940373-70-3

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Design by Tamasin Cole www.tamasincole.co.uk

Production by AVA Book Production Pte. Ltd., SingaporeTel: +65 6334 8173Fax: +65 6259 9830Email: [email protected]

Cover image: Dreams and Desires: Family Ties Joanna Quinn / Beryl Productions International Ltd



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14 Thinking about drawing

16 Observation

20 Perception

24 Memory

28 Interpretation

32 Representation

36 Imitation

40 Experimentation

44 Practice

46 Composition andperspective

50 Life and figure drawing

56 Movement anddynamics

60 Thinking animation

66 Drawing characters

72 Pre-production and productionprocedures

74 The inciting idea

84 Script

86 Storyboard

90 Scenes

96 2D to 3D

6 Introduction

12 How to get the most out of this book

Contents





177 Glossary

179 Notes on drawing

186 Conclusion

187 Bibliography

190 Filmography

191 Webography

192 Picture credits / acknowledgements

100 Drawing andnarrative

102 Sketchbooks asnarrative resources

106 Character as narrative

124 Drawing andadaptation

126 Commercials

130 Literary adaptation andgraphic narrative

142 Adapting aesthetics

148 Drawing charactersand concepts

150 Frdric Back

154 Paul Driessen

158 Richard Reeves

162 Michael Dudok de Wit

166 Luis Cook

172 Gerrit van Dijk





Drawing is a fundamental part of the preparatorystages of virtually all design-led projects. It is the core method by which ideas and conceptsmay be envisaged and ultimately shared withcollaborators, clients and audiences. In whateverform the doodle, the sketch, the study or theblueprint the lines and attendant markings,shading and so forth included in a visualisationare the essential representation of informationand meaning. Drawing within animation is mark-making in motion, representing themovement trajectories, action paths andcharacter choreographies of animatedphenomena. It can operate in myriad ways, from sketchbook work to full frame-by-frameanimation, and each performs a necessary andsometimes complex function in communicatingparticular ideas and emotions.

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Halas & Batchelor Studio

John Halas working on drawingsfor Animal Farm (1954), Britainsfirst full-length feature animation,in which he graphically capturesfacial gestures performed in amirror, recreating them in thecharacter of a pig.

Much of this view of drawing in animation isinevitably related to the significantachievements of the Disney studio in thegolden era between Steamboat Willie(1928), featuring Mickey Mouse in his firstanimated tale, and Bambi (1942), theapotheosis of Disneys hyperrealist classicalstyle. Though Disney had recognised thepioneering work of Winsor McCay in Gertiethe Dinosaur; Otto Mesmer in Felix the Cat;and the Fleischer Brothers in creatingcartoons that enjoyed their representationalfreedoms, Disney rejected imagistic anarchyfor its own sake and embraced the codesand conventions of performance alreadyestablished in live-action cinema. Inprioritising fully developed characteranimation and dramatic situation overgratuitous melodramatic riffs and visualgags, Disneys films were able to sustain along-form narrative.

Many traditional animators combine skilleddraughtsmanship with finely honedperformance techniques. This combinationof advanced drawing methodology andacting has often been seen as the singularand best way in which drawing operates inanimation, but it should not be regarded asthe only way drawing functions, nor should itbe seen as the Holy Grail of achievement inthe form.





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titleFelix the Cat

animatorOtto Mesmer

Otto Mesmers drawing for Felix the Cat was a subtlecombination of persuasivegraphic marks andchoreography drawn from thepantomimic performances ofCharlie Chaplin and other silentcinema comedians.

It was a consequence of this investment inthe animation process itself a greatercommitment to anatomically correctdrawing, the stimulus of inspirational art, arecognition of the appeal and format of theadventure narrative in comic books,persuasive character acting, and extensivestoryboarding which enabled the creationof a kind of realism relevant to feature-lengthstorytelling and the Hollywood economy.Furthermore, it privileged a particularrequirement for advanced drawingtechniques that still characterise fullanimation in the classical style. In a historicalsense, this became especially importantbecause it led to Snow White and the SevenDwarfs (1937), and the acceptance ofanimation as a bona fide film form as well asa graphic art; a main attraction rather thanprogramme filler.

Disneys achievement has left a long-lastinglegacy and remains relevant in the ways thatit foregrounds the number of approaches todrawing within the preparation of the finalanimated film. Disney retrained all hisanimators in the skills of life drawing, keenthat both the human and animal charactersshould have anatomical verisimilitude. Theconviction that Disney believed this gavehis characters served to support theirnarrative function and the anthropomorphictendencies in his largely animal-basedstories. Inspirational drawing enabled artists to experiment with character andenvironmental design; aesthetics;choreographed postures and gestures; and the narrative and motion potential in still forms.

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Disneys artists were influenced by a myriadof largely European visual sources includingthe work of JJ Grandville, Dor, Daumier,Kley, Griset and Potter, and ultimatelypredicated their drawing skills on Westernidioms of composition and perspective.Greater degrees of abstraction were found inworks such as Fantasia (1940), and in thecartoons of the 1950s, which themselveswere responding to work from studios suchas United Productions of America (UPA), andemploying modernist idioms drawn from fineart and graphic design. Disneys classicalanimation largely remained the same,however, and defined approaches todrawing in animation.

Scholars and practitioners have clearly feltthat this is both a benefit and a drawback.On the one hand, this provides a purevocabulary for drawing in an effective fullyanimated style, but on the other, it can be alimiting vocabulary for those who cannottechnically achieve such drawing, but moreimportantly for those who would like to workin many other different styles. This book willseek to engage with this perspective andwiden the philosophy of drawing foranimation, taking in classical animationstyling, but suggesting too that there are a number of other approaches andprocesses in which drawing is central and intrinsically different.

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Betty Boop model sheet

animatorFleischer Brothers

This original model sheet fromthe Fleischer Brothers BettyBoop cartoons visualises Bettys proportion, posture andimplied movement, as well as a number of her facial gesturesin the graphic articulacy of her emotional responses.Particular attention is given tothe demure, flicking motion ofBettys hand gestures.

Modernist idioms





titleMan Alive! (1952)

animatorUPA

UPAs work deployed modernistidioms, largely drawn from thework of Saul Steinberg, RaoulDufy, Georg Olden, Stuart Davisand Ronald Searle, whichrescaled, distorted andabsented environments, andsought to express mood andoutlook through colour, shapeand form.

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Crucially, on whatever terms and conditionsthe sketchbook or any other preparatoryidioms might be used, and for whateveroutcomes character animation through topure abstracted lines and forms drawing inanimation can facilitate a range ofpsychological, emotional, physical andmaterial worlds. These will be explored in the following chapters.

One of the most important characteristics of drawing embedded within theseapproaches and processes is the way inwhich it facilitates thinking about narrativeand encourages the visualisation of ideasand concepts. Further, drawing thatsuggests narrative events and comic idioms in turn suggests the process bywhich the movements required to create the phase of action may be choreographedand executed.

Right at the beginning of, and during suchprocesses, the personal sketchbook is oftenan important tool in engaging with visualexperiments, recording ideas, practisingparticular designs and blocking strategies,trying out perspectives on movement,making observations and creatingimaginative contexts to stimulate furthermaterial, etc. The sketchbook is in manysenses the great liberator from prescriptivethinking or the particular rules, codes andconventions that are often associated withexecuting full animation, and the longshadow of Disney-style classicism.

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Thinking about drawing

The opening address will encourage readers to see the roleand function drawing performs as a creative tool, and amediator of psychological and emotional expression.

Practice

Having looked at drawing in general, the discussion willbegin to look at some of the more typical expectations ofdrawing for classical animation, but also how this might bevaried, and indeed, rejected as a model of drawing inanimated film.

Pre-production and production procedures

Drawing plays a role in many aspects of preparing anddeveloping animated narratives and characters, and this isbroached in this next aspect of the analysis.

Drawing and narrative

This chapter views how drawing is related to narrative, andconcentrates on the particular ways that visual strategiesevoke story through concepts, associations and modes of communication.

Drawing and adaptation

The discussion continues by looking at how establisheddrawing styles and contexts are adapted to the animated form.

Drawing characters and concepts

This final aspect of the discussion includes a range of casestudies from established artists considering particularapproaches to drawing, and how it has been used forspecific purposes and effects.



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animatorShira Avni

National Film Board of Canadaartist Shira Avni suggestscompositional and motionaspects within the frame toinstigate a sense of how theanimation itself will eventuallywork. The looseness andsuggestiveness of the line itselfis highly pertinent in showingaspects of both the physical andspiritual flight in the characters.

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There are a variety of methods for generatinga script for an animated film. The animatorcould work with a traditional script,predicated on written descriptors anddialogue or, equally, might work purelythrough visualisation processes, such assketching and storyboarding, or eventhrough pure improvisation with particularmaterials and techniques. Each approach isinformed by different intentions and,inevitably, will have different outcomes. Whatremains significant, however, is the placethat drawing has in these scriptwritingapproaches, and its common presence aspart of virtually every project, whatever thestyle or approach.

In many ways it was drawing in the firstinstance that suggested the distinctive waysin which animation could work with symbolsand signs as visual short cuts in therepresentation of human beings, animals,objects and, crucially, ideas and concepts.This offered up the possibility of picturinginvisible or seemingly unimaginable things,whether they be complicated theorems orinterior psychological, organic, material ormechanical states. Drawing enabled thespecific selection of an idea or form to beexpressed, and in that allowed for it to be exaggerated, minimalised or transformed altogether.

Once drawings began to move in animation,the additional dimension of time enableddrawing to reveal the past or project towardsa future, and to be part of the ways in whichanimation could seemingly control allaspects of the temporal order or spatialconfiguration. Drawing like other materialsused in animation could enablemetamorphosis (the seemingly seamlesstransition from one state or form to another);condensation (the maximum of suggestion inthe minimum of imagery); fabrication (thecreation of imaginary orders, environmentsand worlds); and, importantly, offered avehicle for visualisation that was inherentlymetaphorical and metaphysical. Another title in this series, Basics Animation:Scriptwriting, provides a fuller discussion of this topic.

Chapter navigationhighlights the current unitand lists the previous andfollowing sections.

Captionsprovide additionalinformation anddirectives about how to read the illustration, or historical context.

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Page numbersare located on thetop right corner of each spread.

Section headingsprovide a clear straplineto allow readers toquickly locate areas of interest.

This book offers an introduction to the various techniques and potentialities of drawing for animation. From the development of an initial idea, communicating concepts withcolleagues, and storyboarding individual scenes, characters and stories right through to the final execution drawing is an integral tool in animation research and practice.

How to get the most out of this book



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Experimental expressiontitle The Wife of Bath

animator Joanna Quinn

Quinn depicts lustful advancesand emotional exchange in TheWife of Bath.

Abstract non-linear, non-objective, purely abstract drawing, investigating forms, shapes and coloursfor their own sake is of considerable importance in animation.

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Experimental drawing is all about not being fixed, norsubject to the rigours of success or failure. It is aboutthe process of trial and error; things emerging from theunplanned, unexpected ideas and concepts formingout of doodling, sketching and placing images injuxtaposition.

Paul Wells

Experimentation in both figurative andabstract forms is an absolute requirement indrawing and in relation to animation, as itachieves a number of outcomes. First, andmost importantly, it is a vital part ofdeveloping embryonic thought processesand assists the evolving terms andconditions of invention. Second, it facilitatesa call-and-response in the artist as he or sheis intuitively mark-making and yetsimultaneously going through a process ofimmediate evaluation and revision whiledrawing. Third, it enables the process ofrepetition, selection, refinement and practiceto take place as ideas, perceptions andmemories are being explored. The drawing isbeing formed and transformed, translatingideas into marks of interpretation andpersonal expression.

Experimental drawing is all about not beingfixed, nor subject to the rigours of successor failure. It is about the process of trial anderror; things emerging from the unplanned,unexpected ideas and concepts forming outof doodling, sketching and placing images injuxtaposition. Ultimately, such drawing ispure opportunity, unfettered by specificneeds or goals, and yet may provide thetemplate for all sorts of problem-solvingapproaches. Experimental drawing can beachieved using different media and tools,and can work within different time framesand contexts. It can also be a vehicle toexplore material in a spirit of test andselection, so that a vocabulary of knowledgeis built up to choose from in the act of morespecific practice. Such work allows andencourages inspiration and the developmentof a personal style. It will be no surprise that this is essentially at the heart of sketchbookwork, and experimental drawing is anextremely beneficial way of expressing and investigating fantasies, anxieties,preoccupations, influences, jokes and emotion.

Experimentation

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Running glossaryprovides the definition ofkey terms highlightedwithin the main text.

Thinking pointsseek to summarise,direct and informparticular approaches topractice and analysis.

Illustrationsdrawings and additional imagesappear throughout to provideinsight and information tosupport the main text.



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Hag sketches from The Wife of Bath

animatorJoanna Quinn

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The process of developing animation is just asimportant as the final creation. Ollie Johnson, oneof the leading animators during Disneys goldenera (192842), suggested that hand-drawnanimation is as much about thinking through theprocess as executing technically well-expressedphases of graphic action, stressing: Dontillustrate words or mechanical movements.Illustrate ideas or thoughts, with attitudes andactions, adding: If possible, make definitechanges from one attitude to another in timingand expression. This point is as much aboutseeing, recalling, proposing performance anddelineating concepts as it is about the drawingitself, and implies that drawing for any type ofanimation is a complex language of expression.We will explore this language by engaging withthe possible forms and functions of drawing.

Thinking about drawing





Observation

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Observational drawing is crucial toanimation, even if drawing itself does notfigure in the final outcome of a film project. Itis not merely concerned with the accuraterepresentation of something that is seen, buta process of recognition and record.Observation is, in essence, the process oflearning to see. In seeing the viewer beginsto understand the corporeal and materialcondition of people and their environmentsand, having seen, can process observationin three ways:

Journalistic: an act of personal reportage.

Documentary: an attempt to capture asrealistically as possible the thing observed.

Experiential: imbuing the person or objectobserved with a personalised embrace ofthe established codes and conventions ofdrawing in Western art.

Such codes and conventions are oftenestablished in the first instance through lifedrawing. Observational drawing is effectivelyabout challenging what might be known, oris thought to be known, about a person orplace by drawing what is actually there inthe moment. However, drawing in this wayalmost inevitably reflects the ways in whichthe artist has been conditioned to see, ortaught to conventionally recognise. Inobservational drawing the hand, eye andmind should be united in expressing what isthere. This might be about capturing gesture a particular action that has significantmeaning; recording a posture a particularway in which a body or form is situated anddisplaced in relation to its height and weight;or an environment in its present condition informed by the time and light in which it isseen and employing a scale that takes intoaccount the place from which it is viewed.

Though it may be difficult to accept forpeople outside the arts, all aspects ofexistence that which is intrinsicallypersonal, private or taboo, for example may provide the subject of creative practice,as Joanna Quinn reflects:

My grandmother was dying when I wasworking on The Wife of Bath. So the hag in itis very much based on my grandma. I knowit sounds awful. She was dying, wastingaway. She was really old and I was looking ather emaciated body. The human body to meis fascinating, and looking at her, and alsodoing this film at the same time, I was ablethen to piece the two together and explorethe idea of aging.


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Sketchbook materials


Here Joanna Quinn captures theimmediacy of the people,animals and figures in order tointerrogate anatomy; posture;physical detail; motion; therelationship between weight,size and space; and the senseof the corporeal and material.


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Observational drawing enables the artistto think carefully about what they areviewing and how they might furtherscrutinise the often taken for grantedaspects of the material world.

In drawing from direct experience, theartist can not merely describe the form,but also analyse it.

In observing the figure or form, thedrawing can anticipate the animation ofmotion and ultimately move beyond whatis seen to what might be felt.

Such drawing invests the ordinary andeveryday with significance and, in pre-figuring animation, challengesassumptions and orthodoxies about the figure or form.

In looking more closely, the artist offers theobservational drawing as a way of seeingthe world afresh.



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Observational strategies

Observational drawing enables the artistto think carefully about what they areviewing and how they might furtherscrutinise the often taken for grantedaspects of the material world.

In drawing from direct experience, theartist can not merely describe the form,but also analyse it.

In observing the figure or form, thedrawing can anticipate the animation ofmotion and ultimately move beyond whatis seen to what might be felt.

Such drawing invests the ordinary andeveryday with significance and, in pre-figuring animation, challengesassumptions and orthodoxies about the figure or form.

In looking more closely, the artist offers theobservational drawing as a way of seeingthe world afresh.

Rio Brazil Caf Das Artes


A point of view sketch takinginto account the forms andmovements observed at a cafat the Anima Mundi Festivalin Brazil.

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Anima Mundi Festival an annual animation festival hosted in Rio de Janeiro and So Paulo, Brazil.The festival attracts major audiences for its public vote awards and has expanded its educational andoutreach portfolio across the country (www.animamundi.com.br).

Dick Taylor and Bob Godfrey


A sketch of veteran Britishanimators Richard Taylor andBob Godfrey in conversation.Quinn captures not merely what characters look like, but their mood, expression and relationships.





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Personal perception underpins how weobserve, and is bound up with the particularknowledge and visual literacy each personhas. Joanna Quinn discusses this idea inrelation to her approach in creating theCharmin bear:

In the Charmin ads we started off by tryingto work out what it is that makes a bear abear. When you draw you take for granted,dont you, what something looks like? Youthink you know, but soon realise you dontknow what it looks like! Its that relearning,going back to the original thing and thenstarting to take things away from it; trying tofind that essence of what makes it what it is.Even if Im animating an animal I can getsomebody to enact a movement and drawit. The thing is that youve got the skeletonthere; you can tell where the weight is. Withobservation from life youve got the truth.You can bend it afterwards if you want to.Even now I still have to have a sheet ofdefinitive bear drawings to refer back to,because he went a bit round at some pointand the agency asked, Is he changing?And I said no, and then of course, I lookedagain at the old drawings and he waschanging! So we have a character sheet forreference for the drawings.

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title Comfy Bed


Joanna Quinns distinctivedrawing style has become thebrand identity for Charmin toiletrolls. The softness and ease ofthe bear drawings imply thesame characteristics in theproduct itself. Here the toilet rollsform a comfortable bed for thebear, whose warmth and charmessentially anthropomorphisethe product.

titleBeryl


Joanna Quinns centralcharacter, Beryl, challengesconventional representations ofmiddle-aged people. Beryl isvividly alive and takes greatpleasure from her physical andmaterial experience. Her bodyand sexuality an aspect ofidentity often denied in thosebeyond youthful years arecentral to her dreams anddesires, thus challenging codes and conventions, both in animation andmainstream cinema, about the representation of the female subject.

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Anthropomorphise the endowment of human characteristics on animals, objects and environments.





Endotropic shadow shading that occurs inside and on the form.

Exotropic shadow shading that occurs outside and defines the form.

Model (or character) sheet outlines the size and construction of an animated characters design froma number of viewing perspectives, including detail about the face, hands, feet, etc. This enables anumber of animators working across a production to achieve consistency in representation.

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The observation of a person or place is inevitablycoloured by the way it is perceived. The artistsperception is defined by his or her background,knowledge and context, and the particular way inwhich the subject is imagined or remembered to be.

Paul Wells

The observation of a person or place isinevitably coloured by the way it is perceived.The artists perception is defined by his orher background, knowledge and context,and the particular way in which the subject is imagined or remembered to be. Theartists recognition of his or her perception rather than the relative objectivity ofobservation of a subject is the first level of abstraction from capturing the subjectusing the established conventions of realist representation.

At the technical level, for example, this mightrelate to the perception and depiction of aperson or object in relation to a light source,using endotropic and exotropic shadow.This in itself might determine the spacebetween the material world and the artist;the sense of reality; and the process towardsaesthetic interpretation and expression. As inthe final animation itself, this may also informhow far the animation wants to be either areflection of reality; a developmentalinterpretation of reality, which more readilydemonstrates and illustrates the artistssensibility, technique and approach; or acomplete abstraction from reality in whichconfiguration and convention collapse.

In animated films, series or commercials inwhich a figure or environment recurs, modelsheets are traditionally used to show thecharacter or figure in a number of poses andpositions, or to focus on details in facialexpression. This fixes the perception of the character for a number of artists to drawand animate. It is then often the case particularly with iconic figures such asMickey Mouse that more individual orradical artists challenge this fixedperception (and the values, ideologicalfactors and cultural meanings often boundup with it) by re-perceiving such figures ondifferent aesthetic and social terms.

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Perception is often intrinsically related tocognition literally, sometimes what yousee is what you know. Engagement withones own perception of the world may bea useful tool in the process of expressing itdistinctively through drawing.

Perception is also an important aspect ofthe imaginative process, in the sense thatall drawing is predicated on seeking toexecute physically what is being created inthe mind. A mark of any kind a doodlethrough to the extended line might bethe direct expression of a train of thought.

Perception can often foreground aparticular insight through the act ofdrawing, where the immediacy of themark-making can offer a conscious orsometimes unintentional revision of, orpoint about, something.



Understanding perception

Perception is often intrinsically related tocognition literally, sometimes what yousee is what you know. Engagement withones own perception of the world may bea useful tool in the process of expressing itdistinctively through drawing.

Perception is also an important aspect ofthe imaginative process, in the sense thatall drawing is predicated on seeking toexecute physically what is being created inthe mind. A mark of any kind a doodlethrough to the extended line might bethe direct expression of a train of thought.

Perception can often foreground aparticular insight through the act ofdrawing, where the immediacy of themark-making can offer a conscious orsometimes unintentional revision of, orpoint about, something.

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The perception of a person or place is partof the marshalling of creative thought and isconcerned with the implicit ordering offeelings and ideas. These are themselvesinfluenced by memory, both of learnedknowledge and recalled experience.

Model sheet, corrected (1991)

animatorWard Kimball

Veteran Disney animator WardKimball playfully sends up themodel sheet, but in doing sosignals a range of potentialdrawing styles from othersources. Here Kimballreferences Picasso, R Crumb,Fred Moore, Saul Steinberg andChuck Jones, as well as stylingsfrom genre films, MAD magazineand political cartoons, which allreflect different approaches todrawing and expression.



The Third-Class Carriage(c.186264); La ClownessLooks Around (c.1886);



Personal recollection is a major resource todraw from in creating art, and a readyprompt for visual expression. Interestingly,for artists, memory is often related to theways in which appealing or effective materialhas already been expressed in other kinds ofimagery. Joanna Quinn, like all artists, hassignificant influences in her formative work,and recognises that she was attracted to acertain degree of realism and authenticity inboth the drawing line and the content of thematerial she favoured: I suppose myinfluences arent really animation influences.When I was little I used to like Tintin, theHerg comic strip. It was quite realistic, theway it was drawn. It wasnt total fantasy. I didnt really get into comics that werefantasy.... Another influence was Daumier. I love his line. Its terribly loose. If animationwere around when he was around, hedhave been an animator, absolutely. AndToulouse-Lautrec and Degas, of course. Itjust made me realise that theyre all basedon real life. Putting the line aside, the subjectmatter always deals with real human beingsand grit. The grit of life. And theyve all gotmovement in them. Theyre obviously staticdrawings and paintings, but theres so muchmovement and life in the line. I supposethats what I was attracted to.

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Animation itself is the hard copyof psychological memory.

Paul Wells

The Third-Class Carriage(c.186264); La ClownessLooks Around (c.1886); Seated Dancer (c.188183)

artistHonor Daumier; Henri deToulouse-Lautrec; EdgarDegas

The influence of Degas,Toulouse-Lautrec and Daumieris pronounced in Joanna Quinnswork, in the sense that eachseeks to capture the immediacyof the bodys expression in themoment. This involves two keyaspects of memory: first, theconscious memory, in engagingwith knowledge about art historyand technique; and second,sense memory, in embracing theemotional feeling that underpinsthe expression of motion and the pleasures, stresses andcomplexities of movement.

Memory


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Anatomical studies animators use anatomical studies of people and animals to help them construct realistic motion for a character, based on the extension of limbs, weight proportions, landing strides, etc.

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Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

Leonardo da Vinci, 14521519

Memory is an intrinsic factor in theconstruction of drawing, both in itself and inrelation to animated forms. Arguably,animation itself is the hard copy ofpsychological memory, not only in how thepersonal context of the animator influencesthe look of the final creation, but also inusing what the experimental animator LenLye called the bodily stuff, ie the meaning atthe heart of the expression. Most animatorswork is influenced by artworks that they like,and their own drawing and expression is areflection of the ways they have absorbedthis and, further, found their own style. Thislatter aspect is related to technique, but alsoto the ways in which drawing and animatingenable them to make sense of their ownmemories. Emotion plays an enduring part ineveryones life and drawing helps to in someway illustrate and define emotion, oftencapturing profound moments of transition,pleasure, pain and revelation. Animation can elaborate upon the core emotional life of the drawing through exaggeration orunderstatement, and by advancing itsintrinsic narrative, though this might notnecessarily be a story.

In animation the trajectories of motion cancarry with them meaning and emotivesuggestion that prompt symbolicrelationships, or associated ideas andinsights, which in turn effectively narrativise avisualisation or dramatic situation. Manyanimations do not have a beginning, amiddle and an end, but are visualexpressions of memory and, while alluding tosometimes bigger stories and issues,nevertheless function as a narrativeembodiment of feeling in its own right.

Memory


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Drawing as memory

Drawing is a fundamental and directmethod of recording the sensualinvestment in a moment. The drawing thenremains as a catalyst for that memory.

Drawing can become a valuable aide-memoire to a moment, recordingelements as reminders of things to bedeveloped and refined in later drawings.

Thinking about, analysing and usingpersonal memories can be a fundamentalresource for drawing.

Consciously using the memory of whathas been learned about drawing, engagedwith through looking at and analysing thedrawing of others, and improved uponthrough practice, is crucial in thedevelopment of repeating animated formsand movement sequences.

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The Muscles of the Shoulder(c.1510)

artistLeonardo da Vinci

This anatomical studyby Leonardo da Vinci remains aspertinent in the modern era notmerely for its intrinsic art, but itsapproach to life drawing and thesignificance of anatomical formin relation to movement.





titleGirls Night Out


While the comic strip Girls NightOut (1987) (see page 30) hasone image of the male stripper,the film can inevitably develophis striptease routine and createa more macho, arrogantperformance sequence, whichmakes Beryls act of removinghis pants only implied in thecomic strip even moreundermining and amusing.

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For an artist working in animation, it isimportant to apprehend the key ideas andthoughts that underpin an original vision andtranslate them into moving-image practice.Drawing is fundamental in enabling an ideato find form through visualisation. Althoughoriginality is rare, the way material might beinterpreted and presented is at the heart of asignature style. Joanna Quinn stresses:

I think to capture your initial idea on thestoryboard is the most important thing. WhatI normally do is draw the charactersrandomly and then put a box around them,or draw a box but go outside of it. I trywherever possible not to put any constraintson the initial idea and be as free as I can atthat stage, because those first drawings arethe most lively ones and they sum up whatIm trying to do. Then I take each storyboardframe, blow it up on the photocopier andmake it a size thats nice to work with. AfterIve captured the movement and energywithin the drawing I then look at it critically,often using the mirror to check theperspective. Looking at an image in reverseis like looking at it with a fresh pair of eyes. I make sure that every key drawing is asgood as it can be before I move on.

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Drawing can help with the developmentof narrative, concepts and the clearexpression of a point of view. Eachdrawing is essentially an interpretationof something.

In creating a story, event, situation orenvironment, interpretive drawing canshow the qualities of materials, theessences of character and a perspectiveon the person or place.

Interpretive drawing should seek tomatch style, technique and form to thesubject explored.

Interpretive drawing can aid reflectionupon, and encourage insight into, asituation or context.



Interpretation

Drawing can help with the developmentof narrative, concepts and the clearexpression of a point of view. Eachdrawing is essentially an interpretationof something.

In creating a story, event, situation orenvironment, interpretive drawing canshow the qualities of materials, theessences of character and a perspectiveon the person or place.

Interpretive drawing should seek tomatch style, technique and form to thesubject explored.

Interpretive drawing can aid reflectionupon, and encourage insight into, asituation or context.

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title Girls Night Out


Quinns loose and dynamicdrawing style richly illustratesBeryls lustful response to thepresence of the male stripper her eyes and glasses literallypop out. There are echoes here,too, of Tex Averys influentialcartoon takes illustratingoverreaction to particular events and circumstances inshorts such as Bad LuckBlackie, King-Size Canary andLittle Rural Riding Hood.





titleGirls Night Out (comic strip)


Joanna Quinn experiments withvisual storytelling in her comic-strip version of Girls Night Out,highlighting the key points of thenarrative, the shifts in locationand character focus, and theidea of a comic punchline. Allthese factors are helpful in theeventual visualisation andanimation of the film.

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Gaze a resonant term in both Film Study and Art History that may refer to the artists interpretive andcreative act of seeing, or the audiences way of seeing scopophilic, invasive, controlling, voyeuristic,etc. Ownership of the gaze and the mode of looking may underpin the creation of politically andideologically charged representational forms.

Animal representation animal characters combine human and animal traits, which enables deepercharacterisation. By not casting and creating human figures, animated films can also circumvent manysocial, religious and cultural taboos.

Cartoon a contentious term in animation, as it has become singularly associated with the Americananimated cartoon, thus limiting understanding of the form. The term animation is often preferredbecause it is more readily associated with a variety of other styles and techniques, as well as productionin other nations. Fundamental to the cartoon form is the drawing that underpins it.

Interpretation through drawing is a clearindicator of the artists understanding of theform. In drawing, the artist will inevitablyreflect any object through his or her owngaze. This reflection is based upon theartists own vision, experience and desire torepresent the object, either to point upsomething about the form, to consolidate aview, to reinvent the form, or to use the formfor a particular symbolic or metaphoricalpurpose. In animation, it is sometimes usefulto recall the variations in interpreting certainanimals, the characteristics of eachrepresenting different intentions on the partof the animator. Felix the Cat is very differentfrom Tom or Fritz; Deputy Dawg is a worldaway from Scooby-Doo or Gromit; Gertie theDinosaur is a far cry from those featured inRay Harryhausens 3D stop-motion orSteven Spielbergs Jurassic Park.

Interpretation, then, is essentially a point ofview: a way of understanding something aswell as presenting it. From the earliestsketches in an animation project, through tostoryboards and model sheets, and the finaldrawing for a film, the particular view,agenda and visual styling of the artist areembraced. Interpretation is related toaesthetic preoccupations and the desire tomake a particular point.

Joanna Quinn constantly engages not onlywith the act of drawing but the purpose ofdrawing, and throughout her career hasused various methods of researching andaddressing her material. Though manyanimated films relate to works drawn fromthe history of art, it is the popular forms ofillustrated stories, sequential narratives incomic strips and emerging graphicnarratives which may be seen to have the most immediate relationship to theanimated film.

Winsor McCays work as an illustrator andcomic-strip artist clearly fed into his work asan animator, and popular comic strips suchas The Katzenjammer Kids and Krazy Katwere some of the first to be the subject ofanimated cartoons. This has becomeextremely influential in the contemporary era,with many artists working with comic-stripand graphic narrative as well as animation,often adapting one into another and,crucially, using them as tests for narrativedevelopment or the construction of comicsequences. Quinn draws upon theconstruction of the comic strip and theconventions of the American animatedcartoon, but reconfigures them through her own interpretation.





Representation

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Annecy Film Festival the first and biggest animation festival in the world, bringing together the artsand commercial sectors in a celebration of animation of all styles, techniques and approaches, andinformed by historical and contemporary work (www.annecy.org).

Representation is often the consequence of interpretation. It has become veryimportant within drawing as artists havesought to redress misrepresentations or under-representations of certain social andcultural groups in dominant media forms.This occurred for Joanna Quinn:

I went to the Annecy Film Festival for thefirst time in 1987. I saw wonderful films, butsaw some bloody awful sexist films too.There were people there who found the filmshilarious and I was sitting there thinking Icant believe that in this day and age peopleare laughing at stuff like this. I couldnt reallybelieve what I was seeing. And then Ithought, gosh, you know, I do have aresponsibility to make films to try andredress the balance. More recently I think myidea of the men and women thing hasshifted somewhat. Theyre all as roundedand believable as each other now. I wasquite angry when I was making those earlierfilms, quite political. Now Im over 40 I realiselife is not so black and white, and actuallyquite complex. With our developing project,featuring Beryl, were having so much funexploring her husband and other malecharacters, in a much more rounded way.Before, her husband was a couch potato,but now hes turned into this wonderfulperson who always wanted to be a vet, butnever had the opportunity.


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In recent years, the work that has informedFilm, Media and Cultural Studies in regard tothe ideological, political and social readingsof creative texts has been properly related toanimated film. Animations distinctivequalities enable artists to create idiosyncraticand highly individual perspectives on theworld that are often intrinsically different frommainstream Hollywood film or conventionalnarratives in short film and broadcasttelevision. These perspectives often take intoaccount the particular address of gender,race, ethnicity, generation and social identity,and challenge some of the stereotypesplayed out in classical narrative andorthodox storytelling. The versatility of theanimated form has helped challengerepresentational issues. Joanna Quinn inGirls Night Out (1987) effectively reversed allthe established conventions of looking atwomen in conventional Hollywoodstorytelling, by parodying those ideas ingazing at men through the eyes of themiddle-aged Beryl as she enjoys denuding a male stripper.

titleBody Beautiful


Joanna Quinns initialstoryboards for Body Beautifulillustrate her performance in thecontest, defiantly championingher own appearance andrejecting the ways women aresupposed to look and be,largely in the eyes of men.





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titleBody Beautiful


Beryl trains to present hermiddle-aged womans body as a challenge to the macho,limited sensibility of Vince, her sexist tormentor.

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Representational drawing echoes socialrealist or established drawingconventions, but also challenges them,either through aesthetic restyling and/orthe particular content of the image.

Representational drawing in this styleacknowledges that ideological andpolitical conventions have sometimesbecome embedded in a particulardrawing idiom, and these are either usedto reinforce such principles, or tochallenge, revise or perhaps underminethem in some way.

Representational drawing is often anorm in animation because mostanimation is challenging the conventionsof realism at one level, and social andcultural orthodoxy at another.



Representation and resistance

Representational drawing echoes socialrealist or established drawingconventions, but also challenges them,either through aesthetic restyling and/orthe particular content of the image.

Representational drawing in this styleacknowledges that ideological andpolitical conventions have sometimesbecome embedded in a particulardrawing idiom, and these are either usedto reinforce such principles, or tochallenge, revise or perhaps underminethem in some way.

Representational drawing is often anorm in animation because mostanimation is challenging the conventionsof realism at one level, and social andcultural orthodoxy at another.

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Quinn takes this a step further in her filmBody Beautiful (1991) in which Beryl defeatsthe sexist Vince, and silences the criticism ofher workmates about her body by trainingfor and winning a company Body Beautifulcontest. Quinns drawing is important inradicalising the perception of the body andits representational condition. By placingBeryls body in flux, Quinn can effectivelydraw attention to all the issues by whichpeople judge others through physicalappearance, sometimes because of theirage and often through the expectations ofsocial (and artistic) convention.Representational drawing deliberately playswith convention and seeks to challengeexpectation by revising, representing, andre-interrogating the ways in which identityhas been constructed.





Photographic reference materials


Joanna Quinn usesphotographic referencing to helpher determine the character ofthe place in which Beryl lives,using the hill-based terraces asa physical challenge for Beryl toencounter as she walks home,and the factory as a model ofthe modern, foreign-owned andmanaged workplace. Theimages also suggest aspects offamily, class, economy, historyand community.

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Many artists start out by imitating things theylike and admire, or the things they recognisearound them. This imitation emerges from aninitial reference to real-world figures andcontexts, and is often then adapted anddeveloped through processes ofreinterpretation and repositioning. JoannaQuinn notes: I use photographic reference.If Im drawing a particular character then Illgo out looking for that character, or try towork out what sort of hair he would have,what sort of clothes he would wear. So whenIm out walking Ill perhaps see someoneand think, oh yes, then go back and do adrawing of someone with a certain kind ofcurly hair or something. So youre piecing ittogether like a jigsaw.

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Inevitably, as well as using particular graphicresources to inform drawn work, other visualand observational aspects are employed.Trying to apprehend a character in drawingoften necessitates a degree of imitation. Thisshould not be seen as copying, because theartist is always empowered to use, refine,and rework the initial source; imitation canwork in a number of ways, by looking atstyle, technique, content, structure, etc.Photographic reference might be particularlyimportant, for example, in relation toenvironments, in the sense that a particular

place can evoke a specific mood, create ahistorical context, a set in which action isgoing to take place, or become a physicalspace that can almost play the role of anadditional character. Equally, imitation of aknown style, character or place evidencedreadily in work by Gerrit van Dijk later in the discussion can be a clear shortcut to an idea, a time, an autobiographicalpreoccupation, a signifier of pleasure or pain, for example, and offer an aspect ofcommonality and shared experience to the audience.


*




Imitation as investigation and interrogation

Imitative drawing is not copying but anengagement with an established styling forinvestigative and interpretive purposes.

Imitative drawing can clearly referenceestablished figures, places,representational idioms as a short cut insignification and communication.

Imitative drawing is sometimes thequickest way to make ideas, thoughts and feelings available to an audience,which may prompt interactive oreducational processes.

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titleBritannia (1993);John Bulls Progress (1793)

animator / artistJoanna Quinn / James Gillray

In her film Britannia Quinn drawsupon the tradition of Britishsatiric caricature hereepitomised opposite in the workof James Gillray to revise theBritish Bulldog, so much a partof the illustrated representationof Britain in Punch and theIllustrated London News, and inFirst World War propagandafilms. Quinn imitates but revisesthis model of caricature tocritique Britains imperialexploitation in its period of Empire.

Imitation or imitative drawing can alsosuggest particular genres. Within animationitself, this has often meant the embrace of,or resistance to, the Disney hyperrealiststyle. Countries all over the world initiallyborrowed the Disney aesthetic and industrialmodel as state of the art, but then drewupon more indigenous stylings to challengeand replace the Disney idiom. In China, forexample, the Shanghai Studios used theirown calligraphic approaches; in Japan,visual constructions from Hokusai, FloatingWorld painters and erotic art; and even inBritain, where portraiture, satiric caricatureand modern art forms characterised thework. These approaches, in turn, becamethese nations own tradition, and wereimitated in the works of artists that followed.

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Imitation or imitative drawing can also suggest particular genres. Withinanimation itself, this has often meant theembrace of, or resistance to, the Disneyhyperrealist style.

Paul Wells

Floating World painters Ukiyo-e art (literally translates as pictures of the floating world) originated inshogun-era Tokyo and celebrated urban cultural pleasures. Hokusai, the most well known of theFloating World artists, inflected his work with more of a pastoral idyll.

Satiric caricature political cartooning that offers insight about, and mockery of, political and culturalfigures and institutions.





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Knight riding horse in The Wife of Bath


Quinn develops her sense ofmotion in her depiction of ahorse at an unusual angle.

Drawing is such a flexible model ofexpression that it enables all kinds ofapproaches and encourages a rich variety ofexperimentation and risk-taking in thedevelopment of work. Joanna Quinn reflects:

Ive learnt over the years to be confident withmy drawing. When I start a drawing I knowwhat I intend to draw but I let the line takeme in other directions and create forms that Ihadnt thought of, especially with the humanfigure. I love finding different ways to bendthe head back or twist the torso just byusing line to feel the form. Suddenly Ill seesomething dynamic and decide tostrengthen the line a bit. This is why mydrawings have so many lines on them, andwhy I dont like rubbing them out. It showsmy exploration of line, my enjoyment ofmark-making. I often have the sensation ofnot being in control of my hand, that someother force is guiding me, which is probablya common sensation for artists who aretotally at ease with a particular medium. Mydrawings are very loose and yet veryconsidered, and this is why Im so suited toanimation, because animation is all aboutloads of drawings, lots of problem-solving.

Experimentation


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Abstract non-linear, non-objective, purely abstract drawing, investigating forms, shapes and coloursfor their own sake is of considerable importance in animation.

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Experimental drawing is all about not being fixed, norsubject to the rigours of success or failure. It is aboutthe process of trial and error; things emerging from theunplanned, unexpected ideas and concepts formingout of doodling, sketching and placing images injuxtaposition.

Paul Wells

Experimentation in both figurative andabstract forms is an absolute requirement indrawing and in relation to animation, as itachieves a number of outcomes. First, andmost importantly, it is a vital part ofdeveloping embryonic thought processesand assists the evolving terms andconditions of invention. Second, it facilitatesa call-and-response in the artist as he or sheis intuitively mark-making and yetsimultaneously going through a process ofimmediate evaluation and revision whiledrawing. Third, it enables the process ofrepetition, selection, refinement and practiceto take place as ideas, perceptions andmemories are being explored. The drawing isbeing formed and transformed, translatingideas into marks of interpretation andpersonal expression.

Experimental drawing is all about not beingfixed, nor subject to the rigours of successor failure. It is about the process of trial anderror; things emerging from the unplanned,unexpected ideas and concepts forming outof doodling, sketching and placing images injuxtaposition. Ultimately, such drawing ispure opportunity, unfettered by specificneeds or goals, and yet may provide thetemplate for all sorts of problem-solvingapproaches. Experimental drawing can beachieved using different media and tools,and can work within different time framesand contexts. It can also be a vehicle toexplore material in a spirit of test andselection, so that a vocabulary of knowledgeis built up to choose from in the act of morespecific practice. Such work allows andencourages inspiration and the developmentof a personal style. It will be no surprise that this is essentially at the heart of sketchbookwork, and experimental drawing is anextremely beneficial way of expressing and investigating fantasies, anxieties,preoccupations, influences, jokes and emotion.

Experimentation


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Experimental drawingencourages personalresearch and investigationin the development of aparticular style and mode of expression.

Experimentation is thefreest aspect of drawing: inhaving no rules,conventions or subjects,the artist is free to discoverthem, and their personaladdress of them,technically, aestheticallyand thematically.



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Experimental expression

Experimental drawingencourages personalresearch and investigationin the development of aparticular style and mode of expression.

Experimentation is thefreest aspect of drawing: inhaving no rules,conventions or subjects,the artist is free to discoverthem, and their personaladdress of them,technically, aestheticallyand thematically.

title The Wife of Bath


Quinn depicts lustful advancesand emotional exchange in TheWife of Bath.



044-071_avadrawforan2:chapter2 - practice 6/21/08 4:43 PM Page 44



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Practice technique is intrinsic to the way in whichan object might be most appropriately visualised.Working in 2D allows the maximum degree offlexibility in the conception of the material, fromcomplete abstraction right through to quasi-realistic configuration of the body and theenvironment. As has been previously stressed,however, these approaches can operate as amodel of pre-visualisation for other methods and developments.

It should be noted, too, that drawing in this senseremains a suggestive and potentially symbolicmedium, perhaps using as little as one line torepresent something, right through to a confluenceof lines in the construction of a particular form. In the context of this discussion, practice alsobecomes a translation and adaptation of all thepsychological and technical engagements notedin the previous chapter.

The template for classical animation was set byDisney during its golden era, which establishedall the techniques for fully rendered 2D animatedforms that survive into the present day. Thoughsome have argued that 2D is dead with theimpact of 3D CGI as the dominant language offeature-length animation, it is clear that 2Danimation in long and short form will always havea future, and drawing will always underpin theproduction of a high percentage of approaches to animation.

Practice


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044-071_DFA_CHPT_SN_C1.qxp:chapter2 - practice 7/11/08 2:25 PM Page 46


Whiskas advertisement

artist Joanna Quinn

The first image shows a highdegree of anticipation as itproperly signals the nature of theintended leap. The image of theleap itself shows action andreaction by the two cats, andthe last image is a clear signifierof the weight and speed of awell-fed cat.

The emphasis on observation in drawing foranimation cannot be over-stressed in thesense that it is important to draw from life,and not from an imagination that would havebeen already colonised by established imageforms. This inevitably leads on to moreeffective staging of action in whichcharacterisation is achieved throughindicators within the visual form: it remainsabsolutely fundamental that animationdramatises predominantly through itsmovement rather than its dialogue. Theanimator must essentially perform throughthe act of drawing, which in itself must revealthe motives and consequences of thecharacter, shape, line or form in motion. It isthis, of course, which led to the developmentof the basic animation principles (seeglossary below).

However, such principles, while remainingcrucial to a successful outcome, must alsonot inhibit the creative expression in workingfast and loose, and re-working drawings.

Anticipation a model of signifying the movement that is to follow. Before moving in one direction, afigure or object moves back in the opposite direction, effectively pre-figuring the move and offering itgreater clarity and emphasis.

Action and reaction most action in animation is in some way caricatured or exaggerated as a clearevent which prompts a reaction. Primary action normally consists of forward movement played outthrough the whole of the body, while secondary action is generally the effect on specific parts of thebody or on other figures and objects in the environment, which can often necessitate an equal andopposite reaction.

Weight and speed weight dictates speed: larger characters tend to move more slowly, and theirposture is more affected by their weight, while shorter and/or thinner characters tend to move more quickly.

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Early drawing styles

In the first images, six-year-oldLola Wells draws the doll withspecial emphasis on the colourand flowers, while in the second,the Christmas card focusesattention on the tree branchesrather than the robin. Thisreflects a particular perceptionand preference in recording theimage that tempers realism withthe authorial.

Learning to draw

Joanna Quinns approach to learning to draw is outlined below:

Very young children draw from theirimagination, but by the age eight or ninethey have a sophisticated knowledge of thephysics of the world around them and theydraw from facts. They use symbols torepresent objects; for example, a man with acrown on his head is a king. At this stage the two distinct sides of the brain come intoplay: the left-hand side becomes associatedwith logic and correctness and the right-hand side with creativity.

Then the battle begins: logic interferes withcreativity, and it is often the case thatpotential artists become over-critical ofpersonal creativity. This is usually whenpeople stop developing their creative side,and are socialised into viewing creativity andart as the domain of specialists. Considerthe drawing of a retired businessprofessional and it will look remarkablysimilar to the drawing of an eight year old.


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Body proportions

artist Peter Parr

These life drawings use light andshade, and positive andnegative space, to define bodilyshape and posture. Thecontours of the body are definedthrough colour conventions.Both images consider theproportions of the body inrelation to the angle and positionof the figure.

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Perspective is a good example of the conflictbetween the left- and right-hand side of thebrain and why so many people are bad atrepresenting perspective. Draw a table inperspective and the legs furthest away willbe a bit shorter, but the logical side of thebrain (the left) will try to prevent you fromdrawing that because it knows that tablelegs need to be the same length in order forthe table to work. This is why humankindhas to learn how to draw. It is important tolet the right-hand side dominate the left,which means seeing things as three-dimensional shapes and drawing from life,not from symbols.

For example, in the drawing of a life model itis essential to properly look at the body as athree-dimensional form without associationsor preconceptions. The idea of what aperson is imagined to be, or should look like,should be resisted in order to avoidassumptions such as the arms are tooshort or the legs are too long. It isabsolutely vital to look at a model as a shapeand not as a person, and to therefore avoidvalue judgements and preconceived ideasabout whether your drawing looks right orwrong. Life drawings concentration on whathas been termed negative space pointsto its crucial place in the development of an animator.

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The emphasis on observation in drawing foranimation cannot be over-stressed in thesense that it is important to draw from life,and not from an imagination that wouldhave been already colonised by establishedimage forms.

Joanna Quinn

Joanna Quinns 30-minute life drawing

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To help measure the distances betweeninternal bends and shapes I have labelledthem A to H and coloured in the negativespace wherever possible, so the surroundingoutlines are drawn in as lines defining theinternal pattern rather than representing thefigure. This helps to see the form as anabstract shape rather than a figure, which is crucial when drawing a foreshortenedfigure as the left-hand side of the brain goes into meltdown!

Ive also drawn in some imaginary lines thatindicate how I measure. For instance, line Dmeasures the length of the body. DA is thetop of the head and DC is lined up with theend of the toes. Halfway is DB, so I will drawthis area of the leg in. I can now use thispoint to measure across the body to CC andBC. Everything i

basics animation 03 drawing for animation

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