Student Life Drawing For Animation
Gesture Studies Drawing the Essence
Student examples of gesture drawing from my Spring 2025 Life Drawing for Animation course at the California State University, Fullerton.
Student Life Drawing For Animation
Gesture Studies Drawing the Essence
Student examples of gesture drawing from my 2024 Life Drawing Lab at USC. The sense of gesture is of the essence in animation. And the challenge always remains the ability to "capture" this elusive essence of the gesture with a few quick strokes.
Costumed Figure Legendary Themes
Still working with quick gestures, we draw from the live costumed model to recreate archetypal scenes from myth and legend, such as Tolkien's Gollum and Prospero from Shakespeare's The Tempest.
These were also quick poses, ranging from 5 - 15 minute poses. Drawing for animation, students are focused on gesture and expression in the process of character design for animation.
Anatomical Studies From Renaissance Artists
Working from the anatomical studies of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, students develop analytic skills and a sense of structure and form in the language of drawing.
These are examples from a Life Drawing course I taught at Cal Poly Pomona during the Spring Semester 2023. These drawings come from in-class sessions around 25 minutes each. In absence of a live model, we turn to historical studies such as these as preparations for our next live encounter.
Light & Dark Modeling Form
In this Final Stage of Life Drawing, we turn to the behavior of Light upon Matter and Form.
Poses vary from 25-minute to 1-hour. With a little more time, we do not abandon the fundamental mission of Life Drawing for Animation. The essence, the anima of the figure continues to be the goal of the drawing, now entering the dimension of light and shadow in which tonal values take precedence.