Saturday, October 23, 2010

Gesture Class

Since seeing the Disney Disney Sample Portfolio in 1996 & subsequently studying Glenn Vilppu's books & Walt Stanchfeld's notes I've wanted to take part in a 'gesture class'.  It seemed something that was the sole province of the American animation studios.  Regular life-drawing classes in the UK just never offered what I was looking for:-quick, dynamic poses from models who could act a little.  Sure there were times when we did short or even moving poses but never in costume or with relevant props.  Sensing my needs one time a life class tutor asked the model to make more dynamic, more animated poses.  The model scoffed "you mean like bugs bunny?" and promptly sat on a chair believing that to be dynamic!

Anyway, now I've found a regular gesture drawing class here are my first results. 

30 second warm-ups with the model in his karate outfit!

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    Here we moved into longer, 2 minute poses.  Still quite quick but the poses were great.


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    The next model started off in a bikini & a large, floppy sun-hat for the 30 second poses.

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    For the 2 minute poses she changed into an old time pioneer house-wife.

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    12 comments:

    1. I studied from Walt Stanchfield before the books came out via the notes they had online and have been looking high and low for a class like this in London, too. No such luck of course. So I'm jealous! Haha.

      These are fantastic though. Lots of life in the last ones especially.

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    2. There's some great gesture classes in the city up here, but I rarely go as much as I should. Out of all of them, I enjoyed the 1 minutes the most. 30 seconds was just too hard for me. Still a lot of fun either way. But once they went over 15 minutes, I lost interest.

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    3. wow, that does sound great. It's always exciting when the model is doing interesting things and even wearing cool outfits!

      I'm in DC and where I go the guy running it likes loooong poses ... so we almost never do any interesting gestures like these!

      Congrats on Pixar btw. I love your work!

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    4. very beautiful, expressive readable gestures!

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    5. These are awesome! How fortunate to find a place with such quick poses. Here in LA the only way I've been able to find that short of poses is by taking Mark McDonnell's Gesture class.

      Can't wait to see the next batch, Keep them coming! :]

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    6. How do you draw the gesture of "I never Voted for Nick Clegg!" or "Saul Steinberg is wearing a pair of ridiculous shorts in this movie!" or "A pint of bitter and a packet of crisps, pleezz!"?

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    7. What a great idea. Here they have flamenco dance classes and ballet. I wonder if they would let me in?

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    8. I'm loving all your posts.
      Warm wishes from this side of the world.

      Best
      Gulzar

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    9. Wow! A lot of life and expression in these!

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    10. Try this one http://www.pixelovely.com/tools/gesture.html

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    11. Love the energy and dynamic in the poses...great stuff!

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    12. I only know how to draw the gesture of "Up Yours!"

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