Yo u Sho uld Know

This is not an ac ademic figur e-dr awing book; nor

does it cover the basics of dr awing the human
form. Wh at this book does is explor e and examine
my personal cr eative appr o ach to dr awing and
styli zing the human figur e. I co uld not h ave
obtained any of this knowledge witho ut h aving
spent many ho urs in intr oductor y co urses
pr acticing the fundamentals of dr awing the
human form. An intr oductor y figur e-dr awing
co urse wo uld cover pr inciples like: basic pr opor-
ti ons, volume, for eshortening, anatomy, light and
sh adow, etc., etc. - these ar e things which I
do not cover in this book. Ther e ar e do zens of
fantastic books o ut ther e th at cover these
pr inciples in a much mor e compr ehensive way. In
other wor ds, don’t get bother ed with this book
if it feels a little light on basic instr ucti on - I
didn’t design it th at way.

6
THE UNRE ACHABLE GOAL

Overview
Ther e ar e a lot of differ ent appr o aches o ut
ther e on dr awing the human figur e, none of which
ar e the “r ight” way or the only way. I certainly
do not think th at my appr o ach is any mor e valid
th an the next, but ther e ar e r easons why I h ave
gr avitated to dr awing this way and hopefully
th at will shed some light on this pr ocess.

As a yo ung tr aditi onal animator, I was taught

th at dr awing the figur e in quick poses was an
essential pr actice for any aspir ing animator who
wanted to learn how to master the gestur e of
the human figur e. While this pr actice still r emains
tr ue, I was hoping th at quick gestur es of the
figur e co uld become an aesthetic ally pleasing
piece of art as well. Reali zing th at absolute
mastership of dr awing the human form is never
r eally achievable, I kept tr ying to figur e o ut new
ways to dr aw the figur e and exper iment cr e-
atively. I wonder ed, wh at is mor e important to
pr actice, technique versus cr eativity, accur acy
versus design? I am not sur e I h ave these answers
yet, but my quest for finding these answers,
thr o ugh dr awing the figur e, sur e h as been a fun
one. This book is a collecti on of my exper imenta-
ti ons knowing full well, th at I will pr obably never
find the answer. Enjoy.

7
 Conté Cr ayon
While other artists use ch arco al pencils, vine
ch arco al, and p astel, I h ave fo und Conté cr ayon
to be my favor ite tool for gestur e dr awing.
Conté comes in var i o us gr ades of h ar dness with
a 2B gr ade being wh at I like to use most. If yo u
ar e a mor e heav y-h anded artist, think of in-
vesting in a h ar der gr ade of Conté.

Note: When purch asing yo ur Conté, make certain th at

the Conté sticks ar e not br oken within the p ackag-
ing. Sometimes, the Conté is mish andled which c an
destr oy its us ability. Save yo urself a r eturn tr ip and
examine the Conté befor e leaving the stor e.

Warning: Conté likes to end up on yo ur face! Af-

ter dr awing with Conté, yo u’ll fr equently find black
smudges on yo ur nose. How th at h appens, to students
and to myself, is a myster y. So check a mirr or befor e
yo u leave yo ur dr awing p ad for a job interview.
 Newspr int Pad
An 18” x 24” newspr int p ad will give yo u plenty
of r oom to dr aw. Any br and will do. My personal
pr efer ence is smooth newspr int as opposed to
r o ugh. Ro ugh h as much mor e tooth thus leaving
a bit mor e textur e to yo ur dr awing. Smooth will
look softer and cleaner.

Sandp aper Block

In or der to sh arpen the Conté, a s andp aper
block is needed. It is essentially a piece of wood
with str ips of s andp aper attached to it. Many
starving students h ave fo und th at a piece of
s andp aper fr om the h ar dwar e stor e works just
as well.

Episode 1
 Sh arpening Yo ur Conté
Things yo u need: X-Acto knife, Conté, and Sand-
p aper block.

The Pr ocess: Step 1 - Using an X-Acto knife,
sh ave yo ur Conté away so th at the point on the
stick is r o ughly h alf an inch long. Yo u want the
Conté point to be fairly sh arp. This enables yo u
to h ave differ ent edges to choose fr om when yo u
start working on yo ur dr awings. Aim for h aving a
str ong flat edge, a r eal sh arp edge, and a me-
di um edge. The sh aving pr ocess may be messy so
yo u might want to do it over a tr ashc an.

Step 2 - Once yo u h ave the Conté sh aved down,

yo u ar e now r eady for the s andp aper block. The
s andp aper block r efines the sh arpening in or der
to achieve a nice edge. While r otating the Conté,
r ub it up and down the s andp aper until yo u h ave
cr eated a r o und needle-like point.

THE TI P

ME DI UM E DGE

BROAD E DGE

Step 3 - The final step is r ubbing the Conté

on the p aper to get off all the excess sh avings
th at ar e h anging on the tip. Take a co uple of
swipes up and down yo ur p aper to get all those
off and yo u’ll h ave the perfect edge to dr aw
with.

Repeat the final two steps if yo ur lines do not

come o ut evenly.

11
 Exper imenting With The Medi um

As yo u ar e beginning to exper iment, p ay special

attenti on to using the br o ad, medi um, and fine
edges of yo ur tool. Spend plenty of time exper i-
menting with the thr ee differ ent edges. Keep in
mind, as yo u ar e dr awing, to var y the pr essur e
of the Conté on p aper which will give yo u a va-
r iety of line weight. This cr eates inter est and
depth in yo ur dr awings. Yo u sho uld h ave some
r eal nice dark, heav y lines mixed in with some
soft lines to give the illusi on of volume. Yo u will
want to make sur e th at yo u r un yo ur br o ad
edge on yo ur p aper a few times pr i or to the
first line of yo ur dr awing. This will help smooth
o ut the irr egular ities in the Conté.

A simplified tool like Conté helps the artist to

loosen up and focus on the mor e gener al sh apes.
At times, we tend to get r eal tight and noodley
when we use a pencil or pen. This tool tr ains the
artist to loosen up. Conté will also enco ur age
yo u to dr aw with yo ur sho ulder versus yo ur fin-
gertips by holding the Conté like a p aintbr ush.
The sho ulder will dr aw in big br o ad sh apes and
sweeping arcs, much mor e th an the fingertips
will.
‘Let go’ when warming up
the sho ulder. Instead of being
overly concerned with cr eating
a beautiful work of art, tr y to
focus mor e on loosening up and
fr eeing yo ur cr eativity. Tr y not
to over analyze ever y line dur ing
warm up; it will only impede yo ur
cr eativity. Make an effort to
allow yo ur br ain to make mistakes.
I h ave fo und fr equently th at
many mistakes I h ave made end
up becoming “Einstein moments”.

13
 Er aser-less
Conté is a bit waxier th an ch arco al or nup astel;
ther efor e it works pr etty well for quicker
dr awings. Once yo u put down a line, it does
not er ase easily, ther efor e, yo u h ave to learn
to accept the line and work with it anyway. The
absence of subtr active dr awing builds confi-
dence and allows for h appy mistakes, which we
r ar ely exper ience when er asing all the time.

14
 Look F or Feedback
As with all artistic pr ojects, be certain to h ave
others (artists and non-artists) cr itique on
yo ur work. Sometimes we ar e blinded by o ur own
achievements to the point wher e we no longer
explor e any further avenues for impr ovement. An-
other tr ick I like to use is to look at my work in a
mirr or. Yo u may be surpr ised at the err ors th at
pop o ut when seeing yo ur work in r everse.

15
Episode 2
 Br o ad Edge Dr awing
Tr y dr awing with the br o ad edge only for a while.
Do not give up after the first few dr awings.
They may not initially be pr etty. This technique
limits yo ur ability to dr aw detail and forces the
h and and eye to see the big sh apes and curves of
the form. This will help tr ain yo ur eye to see the
over all gestur e and how it r elates to the form
as a whole.

17
18
19
20
 To Measur e Or Not To Measur e
Yo u may h ave been pr evi o usly tr ained how to
measur e the body with yo ur thumb or a stick.
Tr y to deny this urge to measur e and instead, go
with intuiti on, or wh at feels r ight. The idea with
this pr ocess is to develop an intuitive measur ing
tool for human pr oporti ons. It may not be 100%
accur ate, but as I stated earlier, wh at’s mor e
important, accur acy or design? However, if yo u
h ave no understanding of pr oporti ons at all, I
wo uld highly enco ur age yo u to study up so th at
yo u c an build yo ur dr awings off of knowledge and
not just guesswork.
 ME DI UM E DGE

BROAD E DGE

F I N E TI P E DGE
 BROAD E DGE
ME DI UM E DGE

F I N E TI P E DGE

24
25
26
27
28
29
 The Whole F orm
One of the h ar dest things to conquer is how to
observe the human body. F or most of us, we see
it as a bunch of individu al members making up a
whole. The pr oblem with th at is when we “look”
at the arm, or the thigh, or the sho ulder as indi-
vidu al members, it will distr act us fr om seeing
their r elati onship together as a whole body. The
ability to see the human form as a whole, instead
of a collecti on of differ ent members, massively
impr oves yo ur ability to effectively design.

31
 In or der to tr ain the eye to see the entir e form
as a whole, as opposed to just individu al p arts,
it is important to identify the rhythms of the
form. I ask myself questi ons like: “Wh at is the
r elati onship between the head and the ankle,
wh at abo ut the p alm of the h and and the knee
or the rhythm thr o ugh the neck, down the spine
and along one leg?”

Notice the r ed lines on the following dr awings.

They indic ate the rhythms between body p arts.

These dr awings ar e 1-2 minute poses.

Episode 3
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
 How Long Did This Dr awing Take?
People fr equently want to know how long it
took to do these dr awings. In my gestur e dr aw-
ing classes, we typic ally start o ut with 2 - 3
minute poses. If I feel we r eally need to loosen
up, we will dr op all the way down to 10 sec-
ond poses. Most of the dr awings in these first
co uple sessi ons fall in the time limitati on of 1 to
3 minutes. Later on, when we explor e light, sh ad-
ow, and clothing, we str etch the time to 5 - 8
minutes. Some of the cr eative dr awings towar d
the end of the book may fall into the 15 minute
zone, but th at is the limit. I h ave fo und th at
most of wh at needs to be learned in dr aw-
ing the human form h appens within the first
2 minutes. Th at is when 90% of all the cr itic al
decisi ons ar e made. After th at, it is all just ic-
ing on the c ake. So, yes, we tend to go thr o ugh
a lot of dr awing p ads!

40
41
42
43
44
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
Tr y switching to a br ush pen fr om
time to time. It c an be ver y diffi-
cult, but yo u will learn to be ver y
efficient with ever y line.

65
66
 Step By Step

Her e ar e some step-by-step demonstr ati ons. It

is h ar d for me to explain exactly how I pr o-
cedur ally dr aw the form. In all honesty, it
is differ ent ever y time. Sometimes, I dr aw the
sh adow sh apes first. Other times, I will start
with a gr aphic sh ape. Commonly I will start with
the head and occ asi onally, I will start with the
hips. F or the s ake of demonstr ating a pr ocedur e
th at c an help the r eader, her e is a pr etty s afe
one:

Step 1 - Basic rhythms of the form ar e put

down first.
Step 2 - Simple sh apes ar e added in.
Step 3 - Some added detail to descr ibe the
form
Step 4 - Light and Sh adow.

67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
 This is wher e the form r eally starts to come
alive. Witho ut light and sh adow, yo u h ave to de-
scr ibe the depth of the form with conto ur lines.
Ther e ar e only two types of sh adow edges th at I
use in gestur e dr awing, form sh adows and c ast
sh adows.

F ORM SHADOWS ar e cr eated by the gr adu al

fading away of the form fr om the light so urce.
Bec ause the plane of the form is no longer in the
pr esence of light, form sh adows ar e also c alled
cor e sh adows - they ar e the darkest p art of
a sh adow. These sh adows ar e dr awn soft, with
the medi um edge of the tool.

C AST SHADOWS ar e cr eated by a p art of the

body c asting a sh adow onto another surface.
These sh adows ar e dr awn with cr isp, fine, h ar d
edges. Not br o ad, dark edges.

78
Episode 4
 C AST SHADOW

F ORM SHADOW

80
C AST SHADOW

F ORM SHADOW

81
 Dir ect Light

It helps to h ave a ver y dir ect singular light

so urce when defining the sh adows. If yo u ar e us-
ing mor e ambient lighting, or north light fr om a
large window, yo u will not get cr isp c ast sh ad-
ow lines on the form.
83
84
F ORM SHADOW

C AST SHADOW

85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
Episode 5
In quick gestur e dr awings, it is r eally impor-
tant to simplify clothing and costumes as much
as possible. Bec ause ther e is not eno ugh time in
the poses to c aptur e ever y single fold, yo u h ave
to quickly assess the fold p attern gener ated by
the tensi on point. After yo u’ve determined th at,
then yo u make up the fold design. Th at’s r ight,
yo u make them up and design them the way yo u
think looks best. If yo u tr y to r eplic ate the
folds exactly, yo u will over noodle yo ur dr awing
and waste all yo ur time on one p ant leg, AN D, it
will not look as good as if yo u made it up.

99
101
102
103
104
105
 Notice the simplific ati on of the folds. None
of these folds existed like this. After finding
the tensi on point, I made the r est up.

106
107
108
109
111
112
114
115
117
118
119
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
 Illustr ate An Idea
These dr awings ar e a bit mor e illustr ative. Once
yo u get the Conté under contr ol, understand
light and sh adow, and able to design folds in the
fabr ic, then yo u c an start to cr eate some fun
illustr ati ons.

133
 Exagger ating the form is the first step in adding
a little cr eativity to yo ur dr awings. It c an be
ver y difficult to do this at first, especially if
yo u ar e one of those artists whose dr awings r ely
mor e on observati on th an imaginati on. To br eak
it down even further, think of exagger ati on in
these thr ee ways:

1. Exagger ating the Gestur e

2. Exagger ating the Pr oporti on
3. Exagger ating the Style

EXAGGERATI NG THE GE ST U RE is when yo u push

the pose further th an the model is actu ally
demonstr ating. Yo u c an widen the stance, arch
the back further th an yo u see, and str etch the
arms str aight instead of th at slight bend. Yo ur
knowledge of human anatomy becomes incr easingly
important her e, bec ause it’s not easy pushing
the form if yo u do not know wh at’s going on
under the skin.

Episode 6
135
136
137
139
140
142
143
144
145
146
EXAGGERATI NG THE PROPORTION is when yo u
cr eatively decide to manipulate the standar d
pr oporti ons of the body. Yo u c an make the h ands
and feet larger, elongate the neck, or shorten
the torso. Tr y adding 200 po unds of fat to yo ur
model, or adding 200 po unds of muscle. Taking
away 50 po unds of body mass c an r eally r eveal
yo ur knowledge of the skeletal str uctur e.

147
Designing The Exagger ated Pr oportions
One thing th at yo u MU ST consider when exagger-
ating the pr oporti on is th at yo u do so with good
design pr inciples. Don’t just make humungo us
toes and leave the r est of the form pr opor-
ti onally corr ect. Th at’s just weir d looking and
people will think th at yo u made a mistake. If
yo ur decisi on-making is guided by good design, it
will look intr iguing and intenti onal r ather th an
a bad mistake.
150
151
 Pushing The F igur e
I like to think of gestur e dr awing as a cr e-
ative jo urney. In the beginning, cor e pr inciples of
dr awing, such as pr oporti ons, volume, composi-
ti on, design, gestur e, body rhythms, and light
and sh adow, must be learned. After yo u feel
th at yo u h ave a basic understanding of these
pr inciples, yo u c an start the cr eative jo ur-
ney into exagger ati on. The first step in dr aw-
ing fr om yo ur cr eative mind is the ability to
not fully r ely on wh at yo u see in fr ont of yo u.

152
The better yo u understand the cor e pr inciples of
dr awing, the better yo u will be able to know how
to bend those pr inciples to work with yo ur per-
sonal cr eative ideas. It is ver y h ar d to gr asp
this concept at times. I h ave fo und th at pushing
the bo undar ies of cr eativity, way beyond wh at
yo u may think is acceptable, gives yo u a better
understanding of bo undar ies. If yo u never push
away fr om r eality, yo u will never understand
wher e th at bo undar y is.
154
 Pushing The F igur e (cont.)
Sometimes, I like to ask myself, ”Wh at percent-
age of the dr awing is based on the model in
fr ont of me versus wh at is based on my own
cr eative imaginati on?” Start with a 90/10 r ati o,
and as shown towar ds the end of this book, yo u
c an go as far as a 5/95 r ati o. This is when the
fun r eally starts.

155
156
157
 F un Ho use Mirr or

Ther e is also a fun exercise th at I like to c all

the “fun ho use mirr or”. This is when yo u pr etend
th at yo u ar e looking thr o ugh a distorted mir-
r or of a warped form. This exercise c an gr eatly
fuel yo ur cr eative side over the ac ademic side of
dr awing the figur e.

CORRE C T PROPORTION S
OF MOD E L

158
SAME POSE. . . JU ST EXAGGERATED PROPORTIONS

159
160
161
162
163
 Then ther e is this r eally weir d zone of dr awing
the figur e th at I c all “inspir ati onal dr awings”.
They h ar dly r epr esent the figur e at all, and ar e
mer ely inspir ed by the pose of the model; but
after th at, it’s all abo ut letting yo ur cr eativ-
ity r un wild. While this c an be an incr edibly lib-
er ating way to dr aw, be c ar eful not to tackle
this witho ut a r eally good dr awing fo undati on
- or yo ur dr awings will turn o ut overly unr ead-
able.

Episode 7
165
166
167
168
EXAGGERATI NG THE STYLE is a r eally important
p art of h aving fun with yo ur dr awing. This is
the thir d way I look at exagger ati on, and it is
done when yo u stylistic ally take some liberty. To
get started with this kind of exercise, it helps
to h ave some r efer ence on h and. F or example, tr y
h aving some dr awings of classic Warner Br oth-
ers c artoon ch ar acters like Bugs Bunny, Wiley
Coyote, and Elmer F udd. Then, as yo u dr aw the
model, tr y to incorpor ate yo ur dr awing into the
old Warner Br os. style as if they wer e a p art of
the c artoon. Yo u c an tr y this with just abo ut
any artistic style. Yo u don’t always need r ef-
er ence either; yo u c an exper iment with obscur e
and str ange personal styles as well.

169
170
171
 Gr aphic Sh apes
Spend some time dr awing the figur e as gr aphic
sh apes. This is a ver y fun exercise th at may seem
overly simple, but c an be quite ch allenging to
cr eate good design.

172
 Well Educ ated Artists
Ther e is value in dr awing fr om sight and ther e is
value in dr awing fr om o ur minds. When we dr aw
fr om o ur minds, we pull exper iences fr om o ur lives
to sh ape wh at we dr aw. The r esult is a unique
and personal r eflecti on of o ur self. Be well-ed-
uc ated artists, not just ac ademic ally, but in life.
Get to know people and their personalities, find
o ut their histor y. Analyze the individu al ticks
people h ave, or their personality quirks. Cr eat-
ing exper iences with r eal people will enh ance yo ur
pool of cr eative choices to dr aw fr om.

173
Episode 8
 The Idea
I’d just finished working on stor ybo ar ds and an
animatic for a big Hollywood studi o pr oducti on -
and wh at an awesome pr oject; so much fun to
work on, so much fun to dr aw. But when it was
over I was r eady to do something differ ent.

I was on the plane coming home fr om L A, flying

back to Utah, and I was just down - just r eally
down bec ause I felt r eally over worked. I felt
like was spending a lot of time in L.A. and a lot
of time away fr om the family. We sometimes h ave
the tendency to let o ur jobs take over o ur lives.

175
 (cont.) And I felt so over whelmed, I r emember
sitting on the plane and flying home and I’m
just listening to my iPod, and th at song fr om
the Weepies c ame on, the song c alled “The World
Spins Madly On”. And I just r emember connect-
ing to those lyr ics. Abo ut how the world is
just madly spinning and how tho ughts, certain
tho ughts, help kind of r oot us in a world th at
just spins. Like tho ughts of o ur loved ones, of
people th at we miss and people th at we love.
It br ings us back to a solid base so we’r e not
spinning in th at world.

176
177
 (cont.) And at the time I just started thinking
abo ut how much I missed, not only my wife, but
also my kids, and just being home. And th at’s
when I tho ught I’ve got to do something with
th at, I’ve got to make a short film th at r e-
lates to th at emoti on. And I want to do it with
dance bec ause my kids wer e so into dance and
I myself love watching contempor ar y dance, and
my wife used to be a dancer, and so all these
ideas starting coming to me. It all r eally c ame
on th at plane r ide when I was exper iencing th at
ch arge. And th at’s when, as an artist, yo u h ave
to do something with it.

178
 Pr e-Pr oducti on
I knew I co uld not animate a beautiful contem-
por ar y dance, bec ause I’m not a dance chor e-
ogr apher, and th at’s wher e Kor i c ame in. Kor i
Wakamatsu is a university dance instr uctor and
chor eogr apher. She arr anged dancers to tr yo ut
for this pr oject I was putting together. I spent
a few weeks with Kor i in the dance dep art-
ment filming potential r efer ence mater ial for
the animati on.

I didn’t want to influence the initial chor eog-

r aphy at all. Kor i wo uld do the chor ogr aphy, but
she wo uld also chor eogr aph with the dancers.
So the dancers wo uld sometimes s ay “hey want
abo ut this or wh at abo ut th at,” so they wer e
also cr eatively invested as well.

As I watched the r ehears als and watched the

dances I tr ied to envisi on in my mind ever ything
th at I wanted to do as far as animati on goes
and all these ideas kept coming to me as they
wer e dancing. And in fact a lot of the modifi-
c ati ons th at we made wer e kind of “on the fly”
bec ause of the ideas th at wer e coming.

179
180
181
 I N SPIRATION

Cr eative inspir ati on is r eally h ar d to define and even

h ar der to put a finger on the tr iggers th at sp awn
cr eative tho ught. I h ave fo und th at “looking” for
personal cr eative inspir ati on doesn’t work for me. I
c an certainly be inspir ed when I look at other art-
ists work, but personal cr eative inspir ati on comes at
unsuspecting moments. It comes when we ar e sen-
sitive to o ur emoti ons, o ur exper iences, o ur existence
and other people.

Th at sensitivity is ver y inconsistent and comes and

goes unexpectedly. It seems we ar e most sensi-
tive when we ar e going thr o ugh some sort of highly
emoti onal exper ience. Th at’s when I feel like artistic
cr eative inspir ati on is at it’s r ipest. It’s abo ut
discover ing a personal connecti on with the fibers
of o ur own life, and then using the knowledge and
skills th at we’ve acquir ed over the years to cr eate a
piece of art th at r eflects th at personal connecti on.
Th at ch arge of emoti on will just fade away and die
as a p ast emoti on if left unattended to. However,
if yo u c an take th at emoti on, wr ite it down, docu-
ment it, and plan to cr eate a work of art th at de-
fines th at exper ience, then yo u’ve just r eceived and
acted upon personal cr eative inspir ati on. And th at
is wher e the magic h appens.

182
183
 I love tr aditi onal animati on, and I love h and dr awn
animati on, ther e’s a life to it. It’s not a math-
ematic al algor ithm th at computed th at - It h as
mistakes to it. I like th at.

184
185
 In or der to c aptur e the pr ofessi onal figur ative move-
ment of human form accur ately, I used live dancers
as r efer ence. However, just like when I dr aw the
figur e with Conte, ther e is a tr emendo us amo unt
of exagger ati on and cr eative explor ati on into ever y
movement. Some ar e mor e liter al and honor the ap-
pr opr iate movement of the dancer, others completely
dep art fr om the form and go into th at zone of ex-
plor ati on and styli zati on.

186
187
188
189
190
191
The animati on is ver y silho uette dr iven, ver y much
abo ut the figur e. But it’s fr om a distance, which is
inter esting, bec ause often times in animati on or film
when we want to show an emoti on we’ll go in tight,
and go in close on th at expr essi on. But I didn’t
want to do any of th at. I didn’t want to move the

c amer a ar o und, or intr oduce a close up and then

a distance shot. I didn’t want to use cinematic
techniques to tr igger emoti ons. I wanted it to be
genuine in its simplistic natur e - two people, danc-
ing, no facial expr essi ons, no dialog, h and dr awn and
putting in a lot of symbolism.

192
193
194
EF X animati on was my first c ar eer p ath into anima-
ti on. When I animate EF X elements like water, smoke,
or fir e, I feel like a yo ung animator again, str uggling
to be the best he c an be. It’s like r evisiting gr eat
memor ies of wonderful p ast pr oducti ons.

195
196
197
198
199
200
Ever y one of the beats in this film h as a personal
tr igger for me. Ther e is a r eason and a meaning to
it. However, I did not want to spoon feed th at
meaning with overt acti ons. I wanted to allow each
viewer to find their own personal meanings of, for
example, the smokey figur e, the wings, the heav y
cor ded arms, the var ying sh adows, etc.

201
202
I knew I h ad a big task in fr ont of me, two and a
h alf minutes worth of animati on, and 24 fr ames per
second. Th at’s a lot of dr awings. But it’s not
like work. When I look at the clock and I see I h ave
co uple extr a of ho urs to come work on this, it’s r e-
ally enjoyable.

203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
The animati on was dr awn in Adobe F lash. Ther e ar e
4,127 fr ames wher e the ch ar acters ar e moving. And
ther e ar e quite a few layers; we’r e looking at
20,000+ differ ent dr awings . . . its kind of like
animating the old fashi on way, wher e yo u h ad yo ur
p apers in between yo ur fingers. So yo u co uld flip yo ur
p apers and watch the movement while yo u wer e flip-
ping it. As I flip thr o ugh the fr ames, altho ugh I am
working digitally, it feels like the s ame pr ocess.

211
212
213
219
 began his c ar eer in
1995 as an animator for Warner Br other’s Fea-
tur e Animati on. Over the years, he h as worked
as an animator, EF X animator, Concept Design-
er, Stor ybo ar d Artist and Animatic Artist. He
h as worked for Sony Pictur es, Cartoon Net-
work, Walt Disney Studi os, Marvel Entertain-
ment and Dr eamWorks Pictur es on films such as
Sp ace Jam, The Quest F or Camelot, The Ir on Gi-
ant, Osmosis Jones, Spider-man 2, Spider-man 3,
Wher e The Wild Things Ar e, Ir onman 2 and Cowboys
& Aliens (2011). Ryan h as pr oduced and dir ected
4 short films th at h ave played in over 30 film
festivals worldwide. Since 2003, Ryan h as been
a faculty member of the Animati on pr ogr am at
Br igh am Yo ung University wher e he teaches sto-
r ybo ar ding, figur e dr awing, and animati on. Ryan
h as a BF A fr om Br igh am Yo ung University and
an MF A fr om The Ac ademy of Art University in
San Fr ancisco. Ryan is marr ied to Tiffany East-
erbr ook Woodwar d and together they h ave thr ee
daughters .
r yanwoodwar dart.com
conteanimated.com
Pr evi o us volumes of Gestur e Dr awing books by Ryan Woodwar d:

Gestur e Dr awings And Sketchbook Fr om Life (2004)

A book collecting Ryan’s gestur e dr awings organi zed fr om ten second gestur es to 15 minute gestur es - in
additi on ar e some exagger ative, cr eative, and r efined dr awings; and a small sketchbook secti on.
Gestur e Dr awings Vol. 2 (2006)
A small collecti on of a var iety of gestur e dr awings assembled fr om Ryan’s gestur e dr awing
class in 2006.

220
This is a fun styli zed ch ar ic atur e done by my good fr iend Jar ed Gr eenleaf who’s not only a
p artner in cr ime with me but a gr eat fr iend. Yo u c an check o ut his work at: jsgr eenleaf.com