Wednesday, December 2, 2009

how to put down your lines

I never got a chance to work on panda, but this technique works great for this design.



So, some people asked me what I look for when I do film studies. Try pausing a Disney film and drawing the character like this. I would recommend starting with Mulan because it's really easy to understand. With some films, it's too hard to see under all the details. Also, any of the 1950's mickey mouse and goofy shorts are good as well.









16 comments:

Alex Miller said...

amazing, thank you so much for the advice

Mr. Scribbles said...

Great post! Great stuff to think about when you're drawing. Thanks for posting this.

rad sechrist said...

Thanks guys. I just added some Po sketches using the same technique.

George Yang said...

Thanks for posting these, Rad! You have a gift for explaining things clearly and quickly. These notes are very helpful, please keep making more!!!

flaviano said...

do you think flowing shapes and break point can coexist on the same character pose? or a group of related characters with both sqared and roundy characters, or the risk is that they don't look like a group?
i'm just drawing some character design for a project i'm struggle with some of this questions.
..but is also fun to invent ;)

great tutorials!

marco's blog said...

these are fantastic rad Thanks!
i tried it out this morning and put it up on my blog, if you want to check it out and grade me.
http://marco-magallanes.blogspot.com/2009/12/68.html

do you worry about proportion at this point, or just lines?
what's the progression, lines, construction, proportion?

rad sechrist said...

George: thanks. I never went to art school, so I had to figure all this stuff out. I was just really frustrated for many years pausing cartoons and trying to figure out how they drew them. I spent about two years not drawing anything out of my head and just doing studies. I still do at least 2 hours of studies a day if not more.

Flaviano: Keep in mind, this technique is a very "Disney" looking technique. There are lots of other styles that don't use these "rules". But, there should be some big idea that unifies everthing. For instance, Bruce Timm has flowy shapes and sharp angles, but the most important part is that everything is a straight against a curve. I think the best character designers have drawn for so long that they don't have to think about any of this, they just draw a certain way from years of doing it. The artist himself is the unifying factor.

Hey Marco, I give you an A+. I sent you an email with some notes.

Owen Sullivan said...

very nice stuff rad thanks
keep em coming

Louie del Carmen said...

Nice instruction Rad. Rhythm and manipulating form are hard things to wrap your head around so it's always nice to see how people approach things.

Tim Heitz said...

Dude, you're a natural born teacher.

Nice studies!

Sean Galloway said...

i am learning alot from you, Rad!

on a side note, i have my pal Jerry Frissen (Lucha Libre writer/co-creator) helping me put the short story together for you next week. How many pages do you want to commit to?

flaviano said...

interesting example Bruce Timm, his character shapes are always appealing.
there is a long way to go...

rad sechrist said...

Flaviano: You're funny. Your drawings all already amazing and have a very cool and unique style. In fact, if you used a lot of this stuff it would probably water down your style and make it look more generic. It's a good style for something like Disney because you can have a lot of different people drawing in the same style. I use it because it was easier to learn than to just start from scratch and learn how to draw and develop my own style at the same time. I basically learned it out of desperation. that, and I like the way it looks as well.

flaviano said...

thanks man, i'm flattered. but when i do storyboards i receive a lot of retakes because of the tendency to draw in my wacky style (that flow automatically from my hand). and almost all the production here in Italy are (sadly) in the disney style.
in this sense your post are really helpfull!

Khang Le said...

Thanks for sharing your awesome knowledge Rad! Getting drawings to have flow and rhythm have always bothered me, this really helps to clear things up for me.

Hugo said...

Rad: Thanks for all the things that put here. This lessons are great! Saludos desde la lejana Argentina!!!!