Drawing for Animation

When I started my own studies in animation several years ago, I did not start with Disney
or Warner Brothers. I started with Jurassic Park (the first one) I was da!!led "y the
com#uter animation which looked so real$ I decided that I would learn as much a"out
com#uter animation as #ossi"le. I am fairly good on the com#uter I assumed that I would
%ust need a few #rograms, some tutorial "ooks and I could start making e#isodes &, ' and
( of )tar Wars.
Well, not *uite. +ou see, within a few days, after looking around on the Internet, I
discovered that the first #iece of advice that com#uter animators gave out was learn how
to animate with a #encil. ,nd guess what advice those low-tech, #encil animators gave
out was. LEARN HOW TO DRAW!
I don.t care if you want to work at Pi/ar or Warner Brothers for any animation or
animation-related %o", you must still learn how to draw.
What you'll need
0ot much. 102 "ig sketch "ook, to start with. 3,0+ soft #encils (4-5B will do fine,
"ut most #eo#le #refer to start with 6B.s). , 7,I8 ,3190: of time. 102 lock on your
door to kee# annoying si"lings out. ,nd a BI; imagination.
,fter the second e/ercise, a live model "ecomes an ama!ing asset. 4ow will you learn to
draw #eo#le if you don.t draw #eo#le< If you can.t afford a model, either ask a friend, or
try to find a su"stitute like a good statue. Best of all, take a life drawing class, where you
have #rofessional models and art teachers too. 8emem"er, though - you can always draw
#eo#le on the street, on the "us - they won.t know or care.
I am not "y any stretch of the imagination (I.m sure I.ve said this "efore$) a #rofessional
or master artist. But some of the e/ercises which are hel#ing me may also "e of hel# to
you. =lick here to start. ;ood luck, and ha##y drawing.
Drawing Lessons #! Draw what you "ee
:he "iggest #ro"lem that artists must overcome is not one of techni*ue or of ins#iration.
:he "iggest #ro"lem is the lack of seeing. When #eo#le go through their lives every day,
they do not see. :hey look. :here is a very sim#le reason for this no-one could #ossi"ly
notice every detail in the world around us. )o the "rain filters out the details for us. When
you are walking down the street, you see the street, the sidewalk, the other #eo#le, and
the "uildings. +ou do not notice the cracks in the sidewalk or the weeds growing in those
cracks the *uality of the #avement or the ty#e of cars on the street the e/#ressions of the
faces of the #eo#le around you the te/ture of the "ricks on the "uildings you #ass. ,ll of
these things will have an im#act on you, "ut mainly on a su"conscious level.
:he #art of the "rain res#onsi"le for this filtering is the left side of the "rain (all those
who have read >Drawing on the 8ight )ide of the Brain, #lease ski# to the first e/ercise).
It re#laces the "ricks in the "uilding with the word >wall>, the vintage 3odel : with the
word >car>. But when you actually start to notice and o"serve what is around you, you
can force another #art of your "rain into action the right side.
:he right side of the "rain is what controls your unconscious, your instincts. :alking is a
right "rain function when you talk you do not think in terms of article - su"%ect -
#re#osition - ad%ective - adver" - descri#tive ver". 4owever, when most #eo#le draw, this
is e/actly how they think. :o draw a #erson, you draw a head, a "ody, two arms and two
legs, the hands, the feet, the hair, and the clothes. But, you are not actually drawing legs,
arms, heads, etc. +ou are sim#ly drawing >sym"ols> that you have learnt for these things.
, leg is two long straight lines, sometimes "ent a "it. , head is an elongated circle. In
short, you are drawing what you think these things are, not what they are.
I will for now omit the further e/#lanations of how and why this ha##ens, "ut all serious
art students should read a"out how the "rain works in the marvelous "ook, :he 0ew
Drawing on the 8ight )ide of the Brain? , =ourse in 2nhancing =reativity and ,rtistic
=onfidence . 7or now we will concentrate on the e/ercises that will remove drawing
from the left side of the "rain and shift it to the right.
1kay, the torture.s over. 8ela/ your hands, and
note the interesting "lue colour underneath the
fingernails. ,fter you havemassaged them "ack to
a more normal colour, you may now look at your
drawing. ,hhhhh$ It looks awful$ Well, don.t
worry, that.s normal. +ou see, the #oint of this
e/ercise is not to make a "eautiful work of art
(although that is rare "ut #leasant side effect). :he
#oint is to sto# using those sym"ols I was
ram"ling on a"out a few #aragra#hs ago. If you
can.t see what you.re drawing, it.s a lot harder to draw an elli#se. ,nd "y forcing yourself
to draw slowly, you will start to o"serve details you never saw "efore. :he indentations in
the skin of the knuckle. :he irregular folds of flesh of the hand. :he we""ing "etween the
thum" and #alm.
While #ure contour drawing has no direct link to animation, >normal> contour drawing
does. ,ll cleanu#s are essentially contour drawings they are drawing slowly and
#ainstakingly, %ust like the one you %ust did. =heck out the e/am#le in the margin of
Pocahontas to see what I mean - the cleanu# #ro"a"ly took a"out @-A hours.
Drawing Lessons ##! Draw
what you $eel
+ou have survived - intact - the rigors of contour
drawing. 0ow the fun "egins. We will learn a
techni*ue called gesture drawing.
With contour drawing, the name of the game was
detail. 0ow, the game has changed it.s called
structural movement, which means, oddly enough,
movement of the structure. :his name is a "it dece#tive as
it im#lies that there is #hysical motion in reality, this
motion is imagined. Does a flower have structural
movement< )ure it does. If I #ut my #encil near the
"ottom of the #age and try to draw a rose, my #encil will
"e drawn, almost on it.s own, to the #etals of the flower.
1nce there, the line will shoot out to the ti#, only to fall
again to the centre, and re-emerge on the other side of the
#etal. It.s sim#ly following the structural movement of the
flower. 1nce again, you.ll understand what I mean after
you.ve done it yourself.
, gesture drawing does not show the surface details of an
o"%ect, rather the forces that are contained within that
o"%ect. Bike contour drawing, it involves an almost
com#lete loss of conscious thought and allows you
sim#ly to react to what you see. 1kay, I.m starting to feel
like I.ve ram"led enough. :ime for an e/ercise.
Drawing e/ercise - :ake any com#licated o"%ect. , live
model (clothed or nude) is "est, "ut a flower, #lant, #et,
ri""on, or any other organically sha#ed o"%ect should do
fine. (I would not recommend using your hand this time,
as gesture drawing is very #hysical and involves the whole u##er "ody and you will not
"e a"le to kee# your hand still). )et your timer to CA seconds. +u#, you heard right.
+ou.ve got CA seconds to draw the o"%ect in front of you. ,fter the time is u#, move the
o"%ect or get the model to change #oses. 8e#eat a minimum of ten times. 0ow set your
timer to 5D seconds and re#eat A-CD times. 0ow set it to two minutes and re#eat a"out
five-ten times. 0ote that your drawing s#eed should 01: =4,0;2 when you have 6
minutes you should draw like you have fifteen seconds.
, #atience e/ercise? 7ind a
#lace where you can work
undistur"ed for half an hour.
Place your sketch "ook o#en
on a ta"le on your right hand
side, #refera"ly tilted towards
you. 4old your #encil lightly
in your right hand, and #lace it
roughly in the middle of your
#a#er. 0ow, turn in your
%hair until you are loo&ing
in the o''osite dire%tion of
your 'a'er( +our right hand,
the #encil and the #a#er are
now "ehind you. Place your
left hand on your knee and
rela/. )ER* "LOWL*, start
to trace the contours of your
hand. UNDER NO
CIRCUMSTANCES LOOK AT
YOUR PAPER! Draw
everything you see. Do not
attem#t to name something
(like a fingernail) and then
draw it, "ecause you cannot
see the #a#er you are drawing
it onto. Just >trace,> as
accurately as you can, the
contours of that thing (which
%ust so ha##ens to "e a
fingernail).+ou should start "y
drawing for a"out CA minutes
at a time (use a timer$), and
gradually work u# to
anywhere from CE6 hour to 6
hours #er hand. ,fter you
have "een doing this e/ercise
for several weeks, you may
look at the #a#er occasionally
to re#osition your #encil. But
do not move the #encil until
you are again looking away.
,nd truthfully, that.s all there is to gesture drawing. But there are some .tricks. you can
use to make your drawings more dimensional and lifelike?
Directional Bines?
Imagine that every cylindrical #art of the "ody (arms, torso, legs, even the head)
is covered "y circular lines. :hese lines wra# around the "ody like a mummy. If
you draw these lines, you will automatically gain a "etter sense of s#ace. (If you
are using a flower, these lines would wra# around the stem and would loosely
enclose the flower itself)
=entre of 3ovement?
If a #erson is sitting, the centre of movement is the torso. If the model is
crouching, the centre is in "etween the two feet if (s)he is hanging, it.s in the
arms. :his strategy does not always work, "ut is worth e/#erimenting with.
margin for demonstrations
)o what does this have to do with animation< 3any animation roughs look like gesture
drawings on steroids. )ome of the most ama!ing gesture drawings are those "y ;len
Feane (in the margin). :he main difference is that an animation rough must ,BW,+) "e
to #ro#ortion - a gesture drawing does not.
Drawing Lessons #+! The Human
$igure ,-
)o, we.ve drawn contour drawings for hours, and gesture
drawings for seconds. :he results of these e/ercises are
not su##osed to look >real>. But, when we.re talking a"out
drawings, what is real anyways< :he drawing is a flat
#age, so >real> can.t mean 5-d. , colour #hotogra#h looks
real, "ut we.re not using colours (yet). :he first thing that
makes a #encil, charcoal or conte drawing look real is
P81P18:I10).
0ow, there are several ways to go a"out getting accurate
#ro#ortions into your drawings. +ou know how in movies,
artists are always sticking their #encils out in front of
them to measure distances< Well, although artists do that,
occasionally, a far "etter use of the #encil is not to
measure distances, "ut to measure anles. :here are
several reasons for this? if you move your hand even
slightly closer or farther away from you "etween the time
than you measure the o"%ect and the time that you draw it,
E.er%ise! Pick a #oint on or
near the model (say the ti# of
his inde/ finger). :hen #ick
another #oint (say the ti# of
his nose). Draw a single dot
on the #a#er - that is the ti# of
the finger. 0ow, using your
#encil at arms length in front
of you, measure the angle
"etween the finger and the
nose. Without "ending your
el"ow or wrist, "ring your arm
down to the #a#er until the
"ottom of the #encil is
touching the #oint. Pick any
#oint along the resulting line -
that is now the ti# of the nose.
:hese two #oints will
determine the si!e of your
entire #icture.
0ow #ick another #oint - say,
the model.s el"ow. 3easure
the angle from finger to el"ow
as "efore, "ut instead of
marking a #oint, trace a line.
0ow, measure the angle from
the n!se to the el"ow. :race
that line. :he intersection of
the two lines is the #osition of
the el"ow. Bingo$ 0ow re#eat
this for the other ADDD "ody
#arts you can see. ;ood luck$
the #ro#ortions could go wildly off. +ou can only draw the model >life si!e> - that
is, the si!e at which you #erceive himEher. ,nd then there is the fact that we are
trying to draw #oses, and a munchkin can usually attain the same #ose as a
"asket"all #layer, even though he is a fraction of the si!e of the "asket"all #layer.
What the munchkin and 3icheal Jordan will have in common is the angles at
which the different #arts of their "odies relate to each other.
)o, read the a"ove and do the e/ercise. =ontour drawing is starting to look
e/iting. )urely this isn.t what animators do< 1f course not, "ut it is a useful
e/ercise to get you thinking a"out #ro#ortions. By the way, this is a sort of
drawing which com"ines left and right "rain functions - the right "rain does the
angles, the left checks to make sure they.re right (no #un).
)ee what you can do with the #revious three e/ercises. Why don.t you measure out the
#ro#ortions of the figure, using may"e A #oints (hands, feet, head). :hen do a 6 minute
gesture drawing, "ut trying to stay roughly within the confines of the five #oints. Darken
in the "est outlines of the figure, noting "oth the five #oints and your gesture drawing.
7inally, do a contour drawing, "ut look down and the #age from time to time, making
sure that you stay on the rough outline that you.ve already drawn.
0ow, if you.re smart (and I know you are), you.ll have
noticed that this e/ercise doesn.t really have much to do
with the human figure in #articular. Does this mean I.ve
%ust "een "la""ing away at my key"oard for no real
reason< Well, yes, "ut this is also intended as another way
of getting you to think a"out the figure. When we ne/t
revisit the human figure, we.ll start to study a "it of
anatomy.
Drawing Lessons #/! E.er%ises
0o#e, not real e/ercise - those are for your model (at least in e/ercise @$). Fee#ing fit is
your own "usiness for now, check out these e/ercises. )ome I made u# others (where
listed) come from a "ook.
The One 0inute 1hara%ter "&et%h
Pick a character, any character. 0ow #ick and emotion, or an action (eg ha##y,
e/cited, angry, fearful walking, talking, e/#loring). )et your timer to "ee# every
minute. 0ow, every minute, make one full-"odied (no close-u#s) drawing of your
character in whatever emotion or motion you have chosen. Fee# going as long as you
can. I generally run out of ideas at a"out the 5D sketch mark if that ha##ens, take a
"reak and try again later. :his e/ercise teaches you a"out staging (com#osition), as
well as e/#ression emotions with the full "ody (as there is not enough time to draw
the face). I recommend one hour of this e/ercise, with "reaks every 6D minutes or
half hour (use another timer to time that).
)ource? ,nimation? 7rom )cri#t to )creen
1afe Drawing
TH2" 2" 203ORTANT!!!!!!
,lso known as the flash #ose, this sim#ly involves drawing anyone or anything around
you. In the case of the drawings on the left, I was getting "ored at a rehersal so I sim#ly
started to draw the #eo#le around me - in this case, a girl #racticing a
dance from >Jesus =hrist )u#erstar>. :his e/ercise is where you learn to
draw 7,): "ecause you never know when #eo#le will move, or #eo#le
may "e moving already. :he drawing is not *uite a #ure gesture "ecause,
to a certain e/tent, you are trying to get a rough likeness, "ut the style of
drawing is definitely very gestural.
The One 0inute 0o4ie "&et%h
:his e/ercise re*uires a G=8 with free!e-frame that is, when you #ush
the >Pause> "utton the #icture should "e clear with no fu!!y lines. Put in
a movie - any movie, animated or not - and start watching it. )et your
timer to "ee# every minute, like you did with the C-minute character
sketch. )tart your timer. When the timer first "ee#s, #ause the film. 0ow,
draw - either the entire scene, or %ust one character in the scene. When the
timer ne/t "ee#s, resume the movie. 8e#eate as often as you wish. :his
e/ercise will increase your awarness of staging and action.
I develo#ed this e/ercise on my own, and then learnt a"out si/ months later that it is actually taught at
)heridan and other art colleges. )o I guess this one works after all$
The 0o4ing 3ose
:his rather interesting e/ercise is an o"vious
e/tension of the gesture drawing for the
animation student. :his e/ercise re*uires the
use of a model (actually, a model e/ercising
would "e ideal). :he model #icks an action
which he or she either re#eats or which is a
cyclic action (walking on a treadmill, using a
0ordic:rak, using a stationary "ike). I have
even drawn other #eo#le drawing other
#eo#le. +ou now start to draw the entire
action on the same s#ot on the #age. 9sually
you will start with the #art of the model that
is the most stationary and move out to the
#arts with the most movement. :his e/ercise can "e as long or as short as you wish.
When you feel you have mastered this try se#erating the #oses. Decide, for instance, that
you will draw five distinct #oses. 9sing a BI; sheet of #a#er, start to draw five different
stages of the action. Do not com#lete one "efore moving on to the other, rather, work on
all five at the same time, %ust like in the e/ercise a"ove. When you.re finished, you should
"e a"le to se#erate the #oses, feed them into a #encil tester and see the original movement
once again.
)ource? :he 0atural Way to Draw? , Working Plan for ,rt )tudy
Remem5er! none of these ne%essarily need to 5e done with a nude model!
Drawing Lessons #6! The Human $igure ,#-
Anatomy
Welcome to our continuing lessons into anatomy. If you are looking for detailed, concise,
clear and accurate descri#tions of human anatomy, then you have come to the wrong
#lace. :hese #ages will only give you the "riefest of introductions to the human figure
and what.s going on under the skin. :he diagrams are not anatomically correct, "ut they
are useful in that they will give you something to look for while you are drawing a
#erson.
The Trun&
7or starters, let.s look at 2den,
lying on the floor. 0ow, this looks
like a fairly sim#le, easy #ose to
analyse and draw. It.s not. +our
first im#luse, u#on seeing this,
would #ro"a"ly "e to draw a large
rectangle to re#resent her trunk.
:his is the worst #ossi"le thing
you could do. 7irst of all, let.s
look at these #ictures more closely.
+ou will see, coming out of the "ottom of her swim suit, a dark streak going down the
middle of her "ack with alternating light and dark #atches (which did not survive the
JP2; com#ression very well). :his streak is her s#inal chord, or "ack"one. It is what
holds the "ody together. It is 01: the line of action, which flows through the whole
"ody, rather, it only flows from the hi# "one to the "ase of the skull. 0evertheless, the
two often coincide, and at the very least the s#ine is an indicator of what the line of action
should look like. )o, when I "egan to draw this .illustration., the first thing I did was to
draw the line of action along the s#ine. +ou will notice that I made the angle a little
shallow, and so the entire #icture looks like it was taken at a slightly different angle -
while this was a mistake, it shows how the "ody must follow this first line. )o? Drawing
rule? look for the s#ine, and use it to find the line of action.
In this same closeu#, you should notice that the "ack is not, as you might initially have
thought, one "ig rectangle. :here are two very dark lines that #oint towards the "ase of
the s#ine. :his is actually the waist, the thinnest #oint on the trunk (for "oth men and
women). 0ow, these two lines are visi"le "ecause her hi# is "ent away from her u##er
"ack. :his is easily seen "y com#aring the directional lines of the "ottom of her ."ra. and
the to# of her swimsuit. In my drawing, I drew the directional lines all around her trunk,
noting the change of direction at the waist. :hen, as I drew the contour lines of her "ack, I
let them di# in, roughly following the directional lines. :hese overla##ing lines give the
illusion of de#th, and are very im#ortant. 8emem"er? =ontour lines are only visi"le
directional lines.
Dis%ussion
:he *uestion now arises? why is the waist the thinnest #art of the "ody< If you look at the
drawing a"ove, it "ecomes clear. ,"ove the waist, there is the ri" cage. Below, there is
the hi# "one. Both are made of hard "one. In the waist, however, there is nothing this is
where the s#ine "ends. ,s there are no "ones holding the flesh out, if you are thin enough
it will >sag> (for lack of a "etter
word) "ack into the "ody. Women
generally have thinner waists then
men, "oth "ecause of an
(over<)em#hasis on weight loss,
reduced muscles and a wider hi#
"one. I think that it is for this reason
that so many artists find women
easier to draw than men the thin
waist forms a neat division "etween
the u##er and the lower "ody, and it
is far easier to draw to sha#es at
different angles than one com#licated
sha#e that changes angles. If a man
were #osing in the #icture a"ove,
those neat inward lines would "e
much harder to see, if they were at
all #resent conse*uently, it would "e
much harder to draw convincingly.
1ne last note? in the drawing, you will notice two small triangles at her shoulders. :hose
are the shoulder "lades. I.ll talk a"out those more in a minute - for now, %ust look at them
and remem"er where they are.
Head and "houlders
:o finish u#, let.s look at the head, neck and shoulders. 4ere we have 2den, in #rofile
view. :here.s not much to say - %ust o"serve my notes in the drawing "elow. )ome *uick
notes. :he head is sha#ed roughly as a flattened "all from the front, and as a rounded
s*uare from the sides. :he skull is very roughly sketches in here. 0otice these things?
7irst of all, when the mouth o#ens, it swings o#en from #oint ,, %ust in front of the ear.
8emem"er to show the entire %aw moving when a character is talking - %ust o#ening the
mouth will look really weird. :he eye is located in a hole in the skull. :his hole is much
larger than the eye itself. :he ey"row is generally located along the to# ridge of this hole.
:he "ack"one fits into the skull %ust "ehind the ears. 0otice how the "ack contour of the
head and neck is concave as with the waist, there is no "one here so the flesh goes
inwards. ,lso like the waist, men generally have less inwards curvature, as many of the
"ack muscles "egin in the neck in this area. )u#ermodels have almost no "ack muscles
(they.re called tra#e!oids) at all, making their necks very thin and giving the illusion of
them "eing very long.
;etting down to the shoulders, you will notice that I have drawn a see-through view you
can see the shoulder "lades. In front are the collar "ones. Below the collar "ones is the
"reast "one (or sternum). :he "reast "one holds u# the ri"s, and forms the main sha#e of
the u##er chest (or thora/). 7or our #ur#oses, the collar "ones are far more interesting.
+ou will notice that, at the shoulders, they meet "oth the arm "ones and the shoulder
"lades. +ou will also notice that they are reasona"ly flat, when the shoulders are not
"eing shrugged. :he collar "ones and the shoulder "lades together form something called
the #ectoral girdle, which I find one of the most usefull structures on the skeleton. Why<
Because they are #hysical directional lines, reaching all the way around the chest$ When I
am drawing a figure that it even slightly "ent towards me, "e it from a model or from
imagination, the first thing I draw (after the line of action) is the girdle, from which I
#ro%ect the rest of the trunk.
$inal notes
1F, I.ve talked enough and s#ilt enough of my >secrets>. ((H of the things you.ll use
when drawing, you must discover for yourself - tricks such as the #ectoral girdle. +ou
will not find hints like that in "ooks, and I only gave it here as an e/am#le. :hese things
you will discover will "e your own secrets - the more you have, and the more you
#ractice, the "etter you.ll "ecome. I will write one more anatomy lesson - detailing the
lim"s - "ut after that you.re on you own.
7or more anatomy, ho# on over to the goods #age and get yourself an anatomy "ook.
:hat.s the "est way to learn, unless you feel like attending a dissection. But that.s not
e/actly life drawing, now, is it<
3ers'e%ti4e
>,hh, why do I have to learn #ers#ective< Don.t com#uters do all that "oring stuff now<>
.7riad not. =om#uters do occasionally generate "ackgrounds for feature films now (most
nota"le :ar!an) "ut the ma%ority of "ackgrounds are still done "y hand. ,nd all those
"ackgrounds are "ased on layouts, and all layout artists must "e #roficient in #ers#ective.
0ot to mention that animators to animate on to# of =; "ackgrounds must also know
enough #ers#ective to make the character look like they actually e/ist inside the
"ackground.
:his is a 4ery *uick visual introduction to #ers#ective.
:he hori!on line is the imaginary line at which the sky hits the sea. It is sometimes "ut
not always visi"le.
, 4anishing 'oint is a #oint to which straigh edges a##ear to converge. In C#t
#ers#ective, all y-a/is lines converge at a single #oint on the hori!on line.
In 6#t #ers#ective, all /-a/is lines converge to one GP, and all y-a/is lines towards
another. 1"%ects a##ear normal when "etween the two vanishing #oints moving them
outside can #roduce strange distortions.
In 5#t #ers#ective, the !-a/is lines also converge towards a vanishing #oint, located off
the hori!on line.
Irregular sha#es, including humans, can easily "e drawn within "o/es constructed using
#ers#ective.