130 Gesture Drawing, Enthusiasm, and Stuff Like That

I can’t resist the opportunity to comment on my recent ado in the hospital. Having access to the “press” I am taking it upon myself to give thanks for being associated with a group of such warm-hearted, caring, and loving people. The many calls I received and offers for help were truly heartening. Actually the multitude of phone calls and visits may be the things that cured me — I had to get better so I could go home and get a little rest.

I’m thinking that the quality of empathy is a needed ingredient in becoming a good animator or assistant animator. One needs to be sensitive to the feelings, emotions, and passions of others and to be able to portray those feelings to an audience in a sincere and often humorous way. All good art is brought about by feeling and sensitivity backed up by hard work and devotion to perfection. And all the above should be buoyed by enthusiasm. Hard work keeps you young. Enthusiasm keeps you young. Striving for perfection keeps you young. It keeps your eye on today and tomorrow not on the accomplishments of the past. Accomplishments are nice, but they should not be dwelt on too much. There’s always plenty of exciting, life-giving new stuff to be conquered.

Let me tell you about a “new guy on the block” who has warmed my heart with his reaching out for a new accomplishment. His name is Dylan Kohler. Dylan is, for want of a better word, a “non-artist.” He decided to come to the evening classes (usually both nights) and learn to draw. He came with no drawing background…so we’re talking “scratch.” According to my records he has been coming for exactly two months. In doing this I’m not trying to build Dylan up as a “whiz kid.’ “ nor am I plugging my part in it. What I mean to get at is that he is starting with a clean slate. No preconceived ideas of structure, technique, style, or details. He does not come to study anatomy or composition or any theories on drawing. He quickly picked up on the whole purpose of the class, which is to study gesture. You can almost hear his mind humming as he eagerly guides his pen toward that goal.

If he decides to continue his study of drawing, he will have to face up to the other aspects of drawing such as anatomy, foreshortening, perspective, etc. Most of us started with those subjects much to the neglect of the right brain’s task of making sense of it all. The formal training and the need for emotional expression have to be brought together — blended into a usable form.

By “starting with a clean slate” he is not using a little Bridgman here, a little Perard there, no Hogarth, Michelangelo, Hopper, Inges, nor the host of other masters and teachers. You and I had to start somewhere and where better than in the presence of the former masters of drawing? But somewhere, sometime, there must be an apron string untying. All those artists had particular goals that guided them into the course for which they are famous. They were able to channel their formal training into their own unique expression. Your form of expression is one of storytelling. We’re not sure Rembrandt or Hopper could fill that bill. You are filling it because you are training yourself for it. Animation! Storytelling (anatomy and gesture)! The ability to draw any character, from any viewpoint, in any kind of attitude, and in motion, all of this instantly readable by a general audience. So if you have spent too much time with Rembrandt, for instance, you may be trying to see the world through his eyes. I was re-reading my book, The Group of Seven (Canadian Artists), and this sentence struck me: “However, Thomson was a remarkably intuitive artist, often well ahead of his friends, who were probably more hindered than helped by their academic training.” We need academic training, but we need also to be able to channel that kind of knowledge into our chosen use for it. Your uses are caricature, humor, pathos, violent action, subtleties, and all manner of physical activities like bombastic hustle and bustle. A variety no one would believe.

Anyway, Dylan neither has the help of those masters, nor does he have the hindrance of their influence to break away from. He just has himself, the model, and the gesture he’s trying to capture. This is very refreshing. He reminds me of a western one-liner: “There was no training school for pioneers, you went out and you either was one or you wasn’t.”

I don’t have his first tries, but here are some after a few sessions.

Here are some more recent ones. Look at them with the realization that he has not studied drawing and is going for the gesture in an unmixed, unalloyed, unadulterated, self-motivated way. They are quite remarkable.

I came through the mill and had the chaff removed the hard way. When I started in animation in 1937 I was just 2 months out of high school. I didn’t know art schools existed. And if I did, in my upbringing, there was no way I was going to get to one. At that time the character’s heads were sometimes drawn in with a quarter or a half-dollar. I didn’t even know how to study drawing. There were several excellent draftsmen at the studio (Mintz) but they were untouchable. We organized drawing sessions as time went on, but they were as much social affairs as learning experiences. I’ve always had a retention (or recall) problem so my life has been a treadmill of learn and re-learn, learn and re-learn. I’m not reminiscing; I’m just putting in a plug for all the opportunities of learning that surround you here at Disney studios. Bill Mathews has a research library that is enough to boggle the mind — if you need your mind boggled. In it are books, tapes, and lectures on animation pertinent subjects. Also there are many experienced animators and cleanup artists that are more than willing to help.

Now, taking the part of the fairy godfather, I wish you enthusiasm. Not just those exhilarating feelings that rush through you like small explosions, but a nice sustained, high-potency enthusiasm that will help you to accomplish the things you want to do. A real faithful, “on-call” enthusiasm that you can rely on when the need arises. You all have those feelings so you know the mechanism is working. With a little practice and some encouragement it can be enticed to stay around for longer periods of time. There is nothing like enthusiasm to see you through the more trying times, and there is nothing like enthusiasm to make your life a more joyful experience. So HAPPY NEW YEAR!

P.S. It somehow doesn’t seem right not to include at least one critique. I’ll tie this one in with what I said about starting out with a clean slate — no preconceived ideas, etc. Here’s a nice clean, well-proportioned drawing of a head. You can see the “book learning” in every line. The artist’s passion to reproduce the things he’s learned was stronger than any desire to capture the pose, which in this case was a head turned away from us, no, that’s too prosaic! Let’s say he was thoughtfully staring at something in the corner of the room. That gets us involved in the story, and not in what the anatomy book says a head ought to look like.

In The Art Spirit, Robert Henri says: “The wise draftsman brings forward what he can use most effectively to present his case. His case is his special interest — his special vision (gesture drawing) He does not repeat nature.” In another place he states that “Every emotion has its expression throughout the body. The door opens, someone comes into the room. The look of the eye has its correspondence in every part of the body. The model sinks into reverie, every gesture of the body, externally and internally, records it.” That kind of seeing makes drawing exciting, and animation effective. Sure, an artist needs to know anatomy and proportions, etc., but only as far as it helps him to capture the emotions and expressions of his characters. Remember your characters in animation will be either animals, caricatured humans, or out-and-out cartoons. The test of how convincing they will be in their roles will depend largely on how well you act out their parts, not on how they match up to Hogarth, Loomis, Bridgman, or Schider.