Gravity

It's what keeps us on the earth, otherwise we'd all be floating out into space. With out it we wouldn't be able to drive our cars or fly our planes. As we know the wieght of a car presses down on the road and the enertia of the vehicle pushes forward and voula! You're on you way to work. Our blood pressure and body structure is also dependent on it. Studies have shown that Astronuaghts that stay up in space for too long begin to atrophy and weaken as well as loosing bone density. We need gravity to survive.

And of course the other thing that shouldn't survive with out gravity is our drawings and art.

Too often the sketches of the models I see don't feel seated or balanced into their seats. The artist may also leave out important props like a chair and we then get floating people seated on thin air. A gesture sketch of someone sitting or opening a car door or anything involving a prop must have that prop drawn in. The prop is usually just as important as the character becuase it will help define what they are doing or thinking.

As gravity pulls on our bodies we don’t always stand straight up and down, I think we’d get tired and settle as we often do. We have a collapsible sort of break down to our postures. The soft malleable parts squash and bend and causes the opposite side to stretch until our hard bones and tougher cartilage rests upon itself and settles us into some form of comfort.

Understanding these kinesthetic ideas will also bring "Curves and Straights" into your work. Let their be straight lines in your drawings where it's needed. Allow for gravity to push up against your work and squash it to allow the form to have the weight it needs. If the person is sitting be cautious of how the rump flattens on the seat. Watch as peoples elbow to fore arm flattens on a table in the cafes. Watch the balance of the pose as you are laying down those first defining lines or your sketch.

Now here I give you {part one} of a bunch of pieces by a very talented friend of mine who is a staple in my gesture class Mr. Ken Morrissey. Ken has been an animator turned story artist and now animator again. His work executes many years of study and gravity definately plays it's part in his work. Ken is a very methodical artist with a keane sense for appeal and I always look forward to more of his work in class.

So please enjoy these pieces and as I always say, “have fun!”