We were given a short brief in Visual Language that was basically set to last around a day and allowed us the perfect opportunity to do lots of life drawing, but to also incorporate life drawing into animation.
We worked in our tutorial groups to develop all these drawings together, while one of us would pose the rest would draw and it would switch around so with a group of 5 of us, for every task we would produce 4 different sets of drawings.
Rhythm is a Dancer
The first task was perhaps one of the most challenging of the brief. Basically we had to observationally draw a walk cycle. One of us would do the walk cycle, stopping at various points in the walk cycle for 10 seconds and in that 10 seconds the rest of us would draw. Below are all my drawings from this task.
Amy: Elegance
Joe: Waltz in the Park
Olly
Wing: Robot
I found this task very challenging to begin with. I believe I went into it with a lack of understanding about exactly how much drawing I can get done in 10 seconds. It was only once we were given this task did I realise how slow I actually draw. Unfortunately I could not just get the subject to wait longer so I could catch up so I knew i was going to have to find ways to cut corners to save myself time. For example when I was drawing Wing I did not even bother with any facial features, instead her head began to resemble a lampshade throughout her walk cycle.
I found that in order to draw all the subject such as arms and legs I had to reduce them down to the simplest of shapes. In some cases the figures are only made up of a few lines.
Looking back I feel that although my drawings are very rough to me anyway they all basically capture the basic poses the subjects move into.
Like a Puppet on a string
Again this task required us to draw very quick 10-20 second drawings so we had no time to incorporate any complicated features into our drawings. What was most important was to capture basic body shape and form. In this task we had to capture a subject squashing and stretching so at the start they could begin very curled up in a sort of ball then by the end of the poses could finish stretched out. Below are my drawings rom the task.
Amy: Squash and Stretch
Joe: Squash and Stretch
Wing: Squash and stretch
Olly: Squash and stretch
I really enjoyed this task, especially because by this time I had gotten used to the very short period of time we had to create each drawing. Everyone in the group took on very different squash and stretch movements so this allowed me to develop my skills drawing people in very unconventional poses.
Ah, Push it!
To me, this task felt a lot more like the life drawing I had done in the past. In this task the subject had to strike a pose that would resemble a pushing or pulling motion, then hold this pose for 5 to 10 minutes. Below are my drawings from this task.
I found this task very rewarding because it allowed me to go into better detail with each of my drawings. I could now draw a subjects facial features and develop a likeness between my drawings and the subject far more successfully than any of the other drawings I had done thus far.
What I did find a challenge was holding my own pose for 5 to 10 minutes while the others in my group drew. My pose was pushing a bin and much time spent putting my full weight on my arms proved to be quite a challenge.
Strike a Pose
This task to me was basically life drawing. It was the longest set of drawings we had to do lasting around 20-30 minutes on each drawing. Below are my drawings.
I really enjoyed creating these drawings, perhaps we did not strike the most interesting poses to draw but we had to think practical and if we would be able to hold these poses for at least 20 minutes. I did not think practically. In my pose I was holding my arms up like a boxer would in a fight. I felt and do still feel it was an interesting pose to draw, but keeping my arms up for that amount of time proved to be very difficult towards the end.
Although the session was quite intense I was very happy that we were able to do it all in one day and I feel that even though we only spent a day on these drawings, my drawing skills, especially with creating fast drawings have improved.
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