Break out your pocket watch and your paintbrushes!
It's time for episode 10 of '10 Minutes to Better Painting!'
I am your asymptomatic host, Marco Bucci.
Let's get into this!
In the Spider-Verse movie, Miles Morales wonders when he'll know he'll be ready.
To which Peter Parker replies, 'You won't. It's a leap of faith. That's all it is, Miles.'
This episode's about Good Drawing, which falls under the category of ...
well, drawing IS the category! Drawing is kind of everything.
Here's some art by legendary teachers Glenn Vilppu and Steve Huston.
They may range from lines, to values, to paint ... but drawing is the foundation of all of them.
Drawing isn't just something you do with lines.
Drawing is the skill that converts a 2D space into the illusion of a 3D space.
In this lesson we'll be reviewing these very classical subsets of good drawing.
Speaking of classical art, the Intern and I took a little summer vacation!
And down in the tombs of the Vatican, we unearthed...
...a forgotten invention by Leonardo Da Vinci.
This device channels interdimensional forces and can alter matter itself.
...and OH MY GOD it still works!!
Hey Intern, catch!
Go ahead and give it a shot!
And remember, the minute you don't respect that thing, it destroys us all!
Ooh! It's showing us FORM. Let's talk about that.
This is not a line.
It's a circle ... foreshortened in perspective.
See?
As a circle moves through 3D space, a series of ellipses happen.
These are circles with various degrees of foreshortening.
If you connect the two end ellipses, you get a cylinder.
This already looks 3D...
but a good draughtsman keeps track of all those individual ellipses along the way.
You can do the same thing with box forms, too.
These intermediate outline-thingys are called 'cross contours.'
And they are a cornerstone of good drawing.
To get your brain doing that 2D to 3D conversion,
You could practice applying cross contours on top of a reference like this.
Then try it on your own cylinders. Starting with the end caps first,
connecting them, then going back and drawing behind the form,
as if you had X-ray vision.
You could practice foreshortening this way.
And don't forget to go back and put in all those intermediate cross contours.
This is not just for fun!
This discipline will help you conjure 3D space without needing a perspective grid.
Box forms are also extremely useful.
The flat faces of a box make for easy, trackable scaling.
And you get these handy points on each corner,
which allow you to do sophisticated things like twist the form in 3D space.
When you do this exercise, work on maintaining a consistent volume to the box from drawing to drawing.
Now we're not only practicing drawing form,
But we're getting into posing, too!
These boxes are looking quite animated, aren't they?
And...you know who else thought that?
Why ... animators!
The pioneers of Disney animation used a 'half-filled flour sack'
(which was a box with a belly on it)
to help visualize emotions, poses, and character.
And, decades later, Disney would further prove that basic forms can emote just like humans!
Speaking of humans, here's a study of one by Steve Huston.
Take a look at that twisted box that makes up the entire upper and middle trunk.
Here's another box for the hips.
Here's a cylinder / box for the upper-leg,
a little tapered cylinder for the lower leg,
and cylinder...and cylinder...and cylinder.
You can indicate the complex forms of the human body this way.
And you notice how Steve Huston further clarifies 3D space with those cross contours.
Artists study the human form because it demands accuracy.
A tree has form ... but nobody knows or cares if you move a limb.
Do that to the human form - even a little bit - and ...
All right! Hey, Intern!
What's next on Da Vinci's interdimensional thingamabob??
Ah, that's gesture. Let's dive into that!
If all that form stuff was on the academic side of drawing...
then gesture would be on the opposite side, which has more to do with feeling.
These gesture drawings by Glenn Vilppu capture not volume,
but movement, flow, and rhythm.
There's no real correct way to draw a gesture;
it's more like a system of personal notation.
Important information you jot down to expand upon later.
Generally, though, you're looking for overall flow and rhythm through the body.
For example, both of these poses (to me) are made up of curves vs. straights.
And in my gesture notation, I want to be very specific about how those rhythms are arranged.
It's often useful to compare the shoulder line to the hip line,
as that can indicate weight and balance.
From there, I can map out an overall rhythm to the body ...
...maybe mark the shoulders and go down the arms...
...and then, in this case, see if the legs are a continuation of the upper body's rhythm.
Notice I'm not just running lines down the middle of things.
It's common to make lines that ping-pong from one side to the other, offset in symmetry.
This is a pattern that nature uses over and over.
It's a good foundation for then building your form.
In this Vilppu drawing, gesture lines were laid in first,
followed by the assembly of solid form.
In finished art, those early gesture marks get completely covered up,
but gesture is what keeps the whole endeavor on track!
All right. Intern?
What else has that doohickey got in store for us?
Mmm, anatomy, huh? OK, buckle up!
So, a twisted box and a couple of cylinders are helpful in simplifying a pose like this.
Anatomy, then, provides the next layer of observation.
Also the next layer of complexity.
For example, just how the back connects to the arm from this view involves at least three muscles.
It's easy to get mired in anatomy, due to the sheer amount of it.
But essentially: there are bones, and there are muscles.
Muscles have tendons that attach to bone,
but the muscle belly itself is mostly what shapes the body.
Sometimes bones are hidden by muscle, and the muscle is the star of the show.
Other times though, the skeleton defines the overall mass,
over which we can build our muscle forms.
Muscles are just like basic forms!
Muscle fibers run across the form, just like cross contours, describing dimension.
Knowing anatomy will help you place those basic forms.
We'll start with the Deltoid.
The Biceps inserts underneath the deltoid.
So does the Pectoralis.
From under the pecs comes the Corciobrachialis.
The Lats emerge from behind the ribcage, inserting at the upper arm.
From behind the Lats comes the Triceps, and from behind the Biceps comes the --
oh god, what is it?
Pfft. Help? I don't need help.
What!? I know anatomy! Get outta here, I don't need any expert help!
Hey Marco! Stan Prokopenko here.
Your intern showed me the episode!
And it's not ... it's not bad.
BUT, I think you're missing something.
When muscles perform their function, they flex.
Which can emphasize the shape of the muscle bellies,
and can make the gesture and rhythm of the forms more clear.
Take the Triceps.
When it pulls the arm straight, the asymmetrical rhythm with the Biceps becomes more obvious.
Also, the muscle bellies of the Triceps bulge up here, and contrast with the flat tendon down here.
There's this kind of 'comma' shape happening.
(Marco interrupts): WHOAAA turn this off!
What dimension did HE come from??
What was his name? Stan Proko...penko?
What is that, some kind of Dr. Seuss dimension?
I mean, his advice is good, it's just, if he made his name more catchy...
I dunno, Prinko, penko... pro...proko??
How about STAN PRO! See, that's smart, because people can remember that.
(Marco fades out, babbling.)
Drawing Spiderman can be good practice because of his dynamic poses and fun shapes.
With my gesture here, I'm trying to capture those sweeping rhythms that are happening throughout this pose.
Then I'll switch to building form.
Like, uh, Stan Pro suggested, anatomy can help not only with form, but with rhythm, too.
One rhythm I find useful is how the Pecs transition into the Deltoid.
Take a look at these flowing shape designs that are both inspired by that.
In a way, anatomy is nature's gesture.
So, in my drawing, I've got foundations of gesture, form, and anatomy.
It's now time to find the shapes. You see, shapes are your final delivery mechanism.
A good shape presents all the disparate information we'd previously noted with tools like gesture, form and anatomy.
Shape brings them all to the viewer in a digestible way.
Shape is also where you can put your own personal flare on things.
Think of it like a chef presenting a meal.
Using knowledge of basic forms (boxes, mainly),
I can start the lighting and shading here.
Essentially, the top planes of the boxes will be light,
and the front and side planes of the boxes will be darker, to simulate light coming from above.
So, with all these problems sorted out in the drawing phase,
painting now becomes much easier.
I'll start with a simple flat color pass.
Then I'll add in a shadow pass, following those same boxes.
Here's a light pass, which illuminates the tops of those boxes.
Here's some reflected light from the environment.
And I'll finish this off with a highlight pass, just to pop that character out more.
At this point, watch this - I can take away all my lines,
and now it's the painting that remains.
And I hope this shows that painting IS drawing. And drawing is painting.
The two are inseparable.
Check out episode 6 for more about light and shadow.
As well as episodes 5 and 7, which talked about color.
You know what, just check out all the episodes!
I'd like to remind you that all the tools we've discussed here are just that: tools.
A means to an end.
The end result we're all working towards is feel.
But feel will only happen when you take that leap of faith.
Now, when can you take your leap of faith?
I think it's when you can wield the fundamentals well enough in order to combine them however you need to in order to convey your personality.
If you're studying this stuff right now,
you're developing tools intended to clear the way for something that's already inside of you.
Something the world will be ready for when you're ready to communicate it.
It takes time. But you can get there. So keep going.
Intern: Woooooww ...
Whoa!!
[Marco gasps]. INTERN, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?
No ... no!
I I I N N N N T T T T E E E E E E R R R N N N ! ! !
... oh boy