105 A Second Chance to Make a First Impression

For a drawing session in the Florida animation studio we had one of the actors from the studio lot pose for us. The poses weren’t inordinately long, but long enough for Garrett Ho, a former intern from Glendale, to investigate ways to better his interpretations of the poses. This, to me, is a truly creative use of the model. Such a practice of probing for other possibilities is fundamental to animation, for if the first sketch does not fully tell the story, the option to search out a better gesture is ever present, and is in fact a necessity. Garrett’s vividly expressive drawings speak persuasively in favor of “going for the gesture.”

In some TV commercial I heard the line “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” In drawing, that is only partly true, for if your first impression doesn’t work, you can always conjure up another first impression. One of the hazards of putting too much work into a drawing that isn’t right, gesture-wise, is that you are likely to fall in love with it (you worked so hard on the details) and hate the thought of changing it, even though you know it needs improvement.

Garrett’s spirit of search is commendable. An actor should never crystallize his performances. If he does so, his acting will appear commonplace or hackneyed. Sure, there is a universal body language that we use to express ourselves, but it must remain forever flexible, always seem spontaneous- like gestural reactions in real life.

Maybe it would help to hold the thought that there is no ideal way to draw a gesture — only one of many that seems most appropriate to put over the particular one you are dealing with at the time and one that suits the character you are working with. Say, for instance, a certain gesture is called for as a reaction to something. The gesture may be a universally recognizable one, but would certainly have to be adapted to the character, be it Mickey, Goofy, Roger Rabbit, or Ariel.