Back to Basics

Back to basics is what I've done in the last week.

It was clear that despite my improvement, I still don't possess the skills to realize my animation vision without a lot of mental breakdowns, cursing, throwing of personal items and punching of hard objects.

After nearly breaking my drawing hand as the result of one of these breakdowns, I decided that the better approach was to return to some of the books I'd already studied.

And this time, study them slower and more carefully.

This means I'll be reviewing all of the Loomis books I have (Fun With a Pencil, Figure Drawing for All It's Worth, Creative Illustration, Successful Drawing and Drawing the Head and Hands. I don't have his last, The Eye of the Painter probably because it's selling on Amazon for $365…used. I already spent $100 on Creative Illustration and I heard his books will finally be reprinted so I'll wait until then.)

After Loomis, I'll return to the Hogarth books (Dynamic Anatomy, Drawing the Human Head, Drawing Dynamic Hands and Dynamic Figure Drawing. I didn't like his approach in Dynamic Light and Shadow and Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery. Maybe it was too dynamic for me.) then the Famous Artist Course, Famous Artist Cartoon Course and Hale's Drawing Lessons from the Masters.

I've limited my list of studies to these because they were the most helpful the first time around. Vilppu's, Bridgman's and Eisner's books didn't speak to me as much as the others.

And after a brief departure from gesture drawing, I decided to return to that, too. Every figure drawing class I've heard of starts with gesture so I think it's something with which I should continue.

Some back-to-basics drawings:

Drawing from Loomis' Fun With a Pencil book.

Gesture drawings from photos.