Life Drawing and The Human Form in Animation - Contours and Key Elements

D. Holmes Chamberlin's sketch

Told by my fellow peer Daniel Goodman, as well as informed by the conventions of life drawing artists I've met or seen on the Internet, I've jotted down the main elements that define a solid human form and figure that is to be reproduced in an effective time span, considering it's for animation. There is a myriad of tutorials on the Internet on how to capture the flow of figures efficiently, all possessing a bit of educational gold. Dating back from the 1492 "Vitruvian Man" by Leonardo Da Vinci, life drawing styles and techniques have evolved and can now all be adapted to animation. For example, in this drawing by D. Holmes Chamberlin, the main essence that is captured comes from the curvature of the figure, which is done with easy-flowing pencil movements. Simple, yet visceral, the drawing shows how depth of form can be achieved with a variation of lines, not necessarily shadowing and post-sketched elements. Relative to animation, this is how Disney has been creating their animated life-like characters, where the "basic" shapes are sketched roughly for every frame, and then the details are added. Thus, life drawing is quite effective in animation for reference if an artist it able to immortalise a shape in just a few simple swipes. A different example would be is this drawing by Mayko Fry where the main element are the outlines of the woman's pelvic bones, which captures the voluptuous contour of the female figure. Piggybacking on this concept, animators exaggerate life-like proportions of the human form but retain the main elements that constitute the solid appearance of the form, where interconnected with tropes, women figures' hips are made smaller and faces made slimmer. To add an additional level of depth, only one color can create the reference point for the lighting, quite applicable to animation. As art has evolved, every form is compatible with every other as multi-media and multi-techniques make up this post-modernistic aesthetic of styles of animators, something that maximizes the versatility of the moving picture, breaking monotony and promoting eclecticism.

Mayko Fry' sketch