Walt Disney said:
The story man must see clearly in his own mind how every piece of business in a story will be put over. He should feel every expression, every reaction. He should get far enough away from his story to take a second look at it … to see whether there is any dead phase… to see whether the personalities are going to be interesting and appealing to the audience. He should also try to see that the things that his characters are doing are of an interesting nature.
It’s not my business to pass judgment on the story people, but I do feel strongly that they should be masters at the very things we are studying in the Tuesday and Wednesday evening classes; that is, gesture drawing (storytelling drawing). A story sketch should convey the complete message of all the combined efforts that have gone into the story boards up until the time they ‘re finally accepted (expand that word “efforts” to include the sweat, frustration, pain, and total involvement), When the story sketch is turned over to the animator, it should be a firm foundation for the scene’s animation. The mood or atmosphere should be established so the animator understands what it is he is working for. Here is an example of Vance Gerry’s beautifully conceived mood setting sketches that Ollie Johnston used (and clearly followed) to create a most sensitive bit of animation for the The Rescuers.
Here are some of Ollie’s final drawings from that scene (cleaned up, by the way, by yours truly). Notice how Ollie was able to retain the feeling that Vance had created in his story sketches.
I’d like also to share a few of Ollie’s ruff drawings to show how he didn’t just draw the outline of Vance’s drawings, but added his own vastly creative efforts to bring them to their ultimate fruition:
In one “handout” I spoke of assuming the role of a young child and “acting like” one to pry yourself out of the sedation that daily living inflicts on you. In another I suggested using an inner dialog to guide you into depicting the story behind the gesture. Here is another method you might consider — the figurative language of the poet.
1. A comparison likens two objects that belong to the same class; that is, you might say, “His nose looks like W.C. Field’s nose.” Such an association will help you hone in on a nose drawing problem, providing of course, you have done your nose investigation homework.
2. Simile. That is a comparison of things that are in different classes: “His nose looks like a light bulb.” Sue… (sorry my memory fails me) thought I looked like a light bulb — here is her “How to draw Walt Stanchfield” classic.
3. A metaphor is an implied comparison between objects of unlike classes. But instead of saying a thing looks like another, it says the thing is another: “His nose is a red light bulb.”
4. Another more illusive and complicated one is analogy, where comparisons are made by attributes: “His nose is like a bat,” because the nose hangs from the forehead like a bat hangs from a ceiling. Or “his nose is like an electrical wire.” Not because it looks like a wire, but because something goes through both of them — air through the nose and electricity through the wire.
I’m not trying to make poets of you, but the mental pictures that aid them in writing can also aid you in drawing. And let me interject here the great benefits of reading, attending plays, movies, and sketching (studying people and wildlife), for as your input increases, so does your output. You need lots of background to form your comparisons.
Creativity begins with action. It ends with reaction. Let me explain that. If you simply react to your surroundings you will be a product created by your surroundings, but if you act on your own, your surroundings will be a creation of your own. So it is with drawing. If you simply copy the outline of the model, that is reaction; if you act, that is, use your intelligence to create a living gesture (with a story behind it) that is action.
Here are a couple of examples where action on the part of the artist could have led to a clearer portrayal of a piece of action. In the first example, the artist copied too much of what he saw, rather than match his drawing to the action that was to be depicted. The model was rather bent-backed and also portly in front. Trying to get both of those things in his drawing (reaction) the curved lines of the back and belly canceled out the feeling that the figure was bending forward slightly:
Here is another example where the artist reacted to the happenstance view he was “stuck” with and copied it in a submissive/reactive manner. I suggested since the sword was an important part of the story perhaps we could spread the legs more and adjust the angles of the arms, legs, and hands to get the sword out into the opening, also to get a feeling of movement by pulling up on the handle with the left hand and pushing down on the blade with the right hand.
Here’s another drawing that was more or less copied from the model. Live action can somehow get away with this kind of mincing acting, but drawing has to be caricatured. If you will glance back and forth from the student’s drawing to mine you will see how I created a feeling of movement by projecting the face out beyond the hand. A good drawing should have that “tingly” feeling of life in it. Even though it’s a still drawing, it has a suggestion of movement in it. Make it one of your thinking and drawing habits — ACTION, NOT REACTION.
