Hey you Proko people, it's Stan here.
You may remember Tim Gula from our 12 Days of Proko last year where he showed us his
meditative automatic drawing technique and gave us an overview of Riley rhythms for sketching the figure.
I was able to film him during an extended drawing session with a live model where he
used the Reilly method for quick sketch.
This is just part one of a three-part series, look out for the other two parts in the next month or two.
All right, enjoy!
We're gonna start with some two minute poses and full of actions so the rhythm lines and
their application becomes even more noticeable and then you'll have a better idea of how
to apply them to your own work.
So now this is how I break it down, start off with the head.
Lets see, that's the ear, so I had the angle of the head.
Just a very brief but clear features of the head and face, nothing too involved.
You gonna have to keep things on their most essential, you know, the neck and the shoulder, the angle there.
Now I have her chest, the angle and the arm.
See the rhythm, how I got the rhythm of the arm just in a couple of lines.
It's kind of almost like a - well, the reason they call it rhythm is it's almost like
as if a musical comparison.
The pelvic area, leg, see nice and simple, that's good.
And there it is, that's how like a two-minute pose is broken down.
But look how much information you've been able to give yourself to come in later if
you wanted to and put even more.
Okay, go ahead.
Once again, I start off with the head and we have the side.
And you, like that, I come in just put a couple features but don't get too involved because
I don't have the luxury of time to get too involved with it.
Get the angles, the cheek, where the arm is, the gesture the arm makes, see, a nice rhythm
to establish that.
Now, for those for the first time seeing this kind of drawing, you're gonna have to watch
this a few times to really mmm, get the full grasp of what all this is because it's gonna
be kind of strange but you'll be surprised after a couple times how like an intuition
kind of starts taking place and you need less and less explanation and you seem to understand
just through observation.
Once again, see it keeping those angles nice and simple using the rhythm lines to help
the action become that much more clear and convincing.
Nice and simple, just keep the shapes nice and simple but clear.
Once again, I start off with the head and the ear because you're not gonna notice, why
is he putting that ear like - because that's very important because that gives the angle
of the head which the direction of the whole pose will follow.
So that's why it's like very important that being the obvious.
And then after I have that, I'll get the angle of the shoulder on the neck and from there
I immediately come in then and establish the upper chest area, the ribcage, buttocks and
there, nice rhythm to establish where the weight's going of the pose.
Another rhythm, nice rhythm.
And you begin to notice the rhythms more and more easily.
A few poses and you kind of like begin to catch on.
That arm up in here showing the weight come in and put like certain identifying marks
like the shoulder blades.
Get that ribcage, very important, slowly start making all the forms that much clearer, okay?
Start off with the head and there's the ear, so I have the angle of the head where the
view is going and by also doing so I get the eye sockets.
So now I have a good representative of the skull, nice and simple indication of the nose,
the cheek, okay neck.
Once again, the shoulder, see, I get the angle of the shoulder and that also helps establish
the rhythm of the pose.
And then I come in, pit in the neck, I'll use that as a - as a marking landmark.
Buttocks and hips, nice rhythm where the arm is and here too.
See all these rhythms and now you're starting to understand that they're helping get the
action of the pose and now your poses are going to become more - far more convincing
because the action is going to become clearer and more natural, thanks to your understanding
of the rhythm, how to use these rhythm lines.
There you go, thank you.
We'll do another - that's a good one, I like the - I like the gesture, so let's try our
best to capture that.
Once again I start off with the head, mmm, maybe I'll lower it a little more because
the arms more raised and I use the ear to help establish the angle of the view and then
from there I go in with the eyes.
And remember, this takes practice, so you're gonna have to watch this several times at
least to have it really sink in.
But it will, just hang in there, persistence is what's gonna get you where you want to be.
And then the pit of the neck and then the shoulders, the angle of the shoulders.
And there's the ribcage, the arm up in here.
This one on the- yeah, and showing the weight, helping you - you use that to get the balance
of the pose making everything that much more clear and convincing.
Breasts, showing the angle of the chest.
I'm kind of relying on an osmosis kind of effect you know, seeing cuz I remember clearly
Fred when he would teach, like he would explain things but like I mean, it just would just ....
because, I mean, watching him was so like shocking, like how do you
take that and come out with an amazing drawing.
And then - and then after I got past that, then suddenly his words then the - the words
and pictures started connecting but I remember at first it's like 'oh my god, I'm never gonna
learn this, this is impossible', but I did because there is - I mean do not underestimate
how the way your brain can discern kind of strange new information, it's made to do that.
There's something in your head that's made to like look at things and "oh no!", but something clicks.
What it is, who knows but it's a mysterious yet powerful thing especially with the visuals.
My career as such started in 1980 and it was started at Hanna-Barbera and that's where
I met a guy named Alex Toth who was a pretty darn good artist himself and I started by
drawing concepts to weird science fiction type shows and there I went from there to
Bakshi, working on fire and ice where I met Frank Frazetta and we were - which was an
un-inspiring film but it was great experience and especially working with Frazetta.
And from there I worked at Disney on the Black Cauldron, then I got a job working in Japan
where I met even more - another whole array and system of artists that opened my eyes even wider.
There I went into comic books, I started working at DC on Superman and Martian Manhunter and
books like "In The Spectre" and then I started on other comics.
And from there I then went into teaching on the side too.
I've always wanted to teach, I wanted to keep the message alive and I think the most important
thing of all is to be yourself and it's hard to do when you're working on other people's
stuff all the time.
That's why coming and drawing at the life drawing workshops is very important because
it keeps your sense of who you are intact with all the pressures and compromise.
So if I could pass on a message it's that and keep practicing and make sure your heart's
in it completely because then you'll see it's fullest benefit available to you.