Andrew Loomis—Arcs of Movement in Perspective Analysis II

Continuing a dissection of page 46 in Andrew Loomis's "Figure Drawing for All It's Worth"—

The Andrew Loomis—Arcs of Movement in Perspective Analysis I post ended with this image, a rough diagram of the figure before it moves:

THE FIGURE
So how did Loomis determine the positioning of the figure in this diagram?

It's based on these diagrams on page 33:

And specifically this part:

By applying the page 33 anatomical landmarks to the figure on page 46, you have a guide to positioning the various body parts in perspective. Keep in mind that the most of the body at the angle shown on page 46—torso, pelvis arms and legs—are cylinders. Remembering this will help you in conceptualizing the figure.

Of course, it's ideal to have some knowledge of anatomy to do these drawings correctly. That's why I said in the previous post that learning perspective and anatomy should come before learning to place a figure in perspective.

Please tell me if these explanations were helpful to you or if there's anything you think I did wrong or is confusing. I appreciate your feedback!

AND if you DO like these posts, become a follower by clicking on the "Follow" button on the right. Thanks!

Andrew Loomis—Arcs of Movement in Perspective Analysis I

Thank you to commenter Richard Matthew for asking about a diagram on page 46 in Andrew Loomis's "Figure Drawing for All It's Worth."

Page 46 from Andrew Loomis's "Figure Drawing for All It's Worth."

Before I attempt to answer Richard's question about the "snow angel" diagram, a reminder that I'm neither an expert nor experienced; I'm just sharing what I've learned or think I've figured out.

So here we go!

Richard's question regarding this page made me realize something about this book that I hadn't realized earlier: the order of the information in this book is illogical.

This page and the Flat Diagram pages deal with the FIGURE in PERSPECTIVE. Wouldn't it have been helpful, however, to have started the book with an explanation of perspective,  followed by an explanation of drawing the figure before teaching about the figure in perspective? So I think that the steps are out of order thereby causing confusion.

Therefore, to understand the snow angel diagram, we first need to understand its perspective and then place the figure into that perspective.

THE PERSPECTIVE
(NOTE: use a ruler to ensure that lines drawn to vanishing points are accurate. Some of my lines are freehand and therefore neither straight nor accurate.)

 1. As drawn by Loomis, the snow angel diagram is in 2-point perspective. One vanishing point is clearly shown below the text in the middle of the page. The second vanishing point, however, is WAY off the page to the right. I drew it by hand to make sure I found the right spot, taping two pieces of tracing paper together:

If you follow the horizontal lines of Loomis's diagram, they converge at a second vanishing point far off to the right.

2. To understand the arcs of movement, I thought it best to first draw the figure before it moved into that position, inside the 8-head-divided box explained earlier in the book. To make that box, I drew diagonals to find the midpoints of the box's left and right halves:

 

3. A line through both of those intersections to the second vanishing point divides the main box into quarters:

Line through midpoints goes to vanishing point on the right.

4. Lines to the first vanishing point create a new, centered box:

 

Vertical lines, centered, for placement of figure.

5. These newly drawn lines are the only ones with which I'm concerned right now:

This is the box to be divided into 8 heads to fit a standing figure.

6. Four boxes go below the middle line and four above. To determine their placement, again draw diagonals and use the intersections as midpoints:

 

Bottom section is halved.

7. Divide again to get the 4 bottom boxes in perspective…:

…to finally look like this, the first 4 boxes of our 8 box diagram:

 

8. Repeat the process to create the remaining 4 boxes:

The 8-head diagram in 2-point perspective.

9. Place the figure in proper perspective with the anatomical landmarks falling in the right boxes (please excuse my digitally mutated and inaccurate Loomis figure):

The standing figure from which we'll draw the figure with arcs.

Phew, that was exhausting! I'll continue tomorrow with the next steps of how to show the figure with the arcs, otherwise this post will be too long!

Andrew Loomis's Flat Diagram/Map—Addendum 1

Page 31 of Andrew Loomis's "Figure Drawing for All It's Worth" has some more helpful diagrams.

Oddly, the top diagrams on this page shows the finished drawing before the guide lines. It makes more sense to start with the last drawing and work your way to the finished drawing so that's how I'm going to show it (click on images to see them larger). Also,  it looks like Loomis drew the guide lines freehand but I recommend that you use a ruler for accuracy.


1. Start by establishing an horizon line (the eye line of the viewer).




2.  Choose a height for your figure with a vertical line, imagining that it extends from the top of the figure's head to the bottom of his feet.

3. Choose the depth of the perspective for the figure by drawing lines from the top and bottom of the height line to the same spot on the horizon, the vanishing point (shown here in red.)

4. Using Loomis's 8 heads proportion, divide the height line into 8 equal sections. To maintain accuracy in your divisions, it's important to make your divisions on the straight, vertical line since it is not in perspective and therefore not distorted (the lines are shown extended to the vanishing point.) Loomis added some additional lines: the blue line is for the shoulders; the green line is half the distance between the head and the bottom of the knees.

5. Draw another vertical indicating the width of the figure. For a male, Loomis uses a width of 2 1/3 heads (for a female, the width is 2 heads.)

6. Draw diagonals in the box to find the correct center in perspective (shown here in yellow.)

That's the completion of the "Quick Set up of the Map." Once you have this, you can place the figure in it using the landmarks on the body creating the "Quick Set up in Perspective."

After that, you can draw a fully-formed figure using the map as a guide.

Addendum 2 will explain the various figures in perspective that are at the bottom of this page.

If you like this post, please become a follower of my blog by clicking under the "You" section on the right. Thanks!

GO! Make Something Happen—Seth Godin

Image from Seth Godin's "Poke the Box: Workbook."

It's an easy concept but yet so hard for so many people to actually do: Start Now.

Per his bio page on his website: "Seth Godin is the author of 18 books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than 35 languages. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything."

If you need convincing to do your thing no matter what, read Godin's "Poke the Box." It's a short, to-the-point manifesto that encourages all of us to pursue our potential regardless of our current life situations.

For those of us who want to see different stories with different people in them, we need to follow Godin's advice and START NOW in telling our own stories.

Meet the Characters of "A Universe of Trouble"—The Old Man

With nine months before I premiere the first episode of "A Universe of Trouble," it's a good time to start introducing the characters.

Harry Harrison's story that I'm adapting—"The Repairman"—has two human characters: The Old Man and The Repairman (or in the case of my version, Repairwoman.)

Meet The Old Man:

 

Music: Bruce Edward Smith

Sound effect: Andrew Thomson

Andrew Loomis's "Flat Diagram"—Part III

A huge "thank you" to commenter roxy rock!  She reminded me that I never completed this series of breaking down the diagrams in Andrew Loomis's "Figure Drawing for All It's Worth" with Part III.  So here it is!

First, a summary of Part I and Part II:

1. Loomis divided the standing male human figure into 8 horizontal divisions, each representing 1 head height; and a bisecting, vertical line (the standing female figure has slightly different proportions. See below for the pages showing the male and female proportions.) The width of the diagram is 2 1/3 heads wide. NOTE the vanishing point (on an invisible horizon line) that's highlighted in yellow.

2. The dashed lines extend from the standing diagram to the edges of a diagram that is in perspective. NOTE how all vertical lines extend to the vanishing point while the 8 head horizontal divisions are re-created in proper perspective.

3. By applying the standing diagram's anatomical divisions to the perspective diagram, the figure is correctly drawn in perspective.

4. This diagram is an alternative method of making a perspective diagram of the Flat Diagram. It's more of a freehand version of the first method while using the same anatomical divisions.

That's the summary of those sections of this page.

The final diagrams on this page involve applying the perspective drawing to a figure that's bending.

1. In this diagram, Loomis applies the Flat Diagram to the upright portion of the body. For the bending portion of the body—the portion that's in perspective—he uses the perspective diagrams that he explained on the rest of the page.

2. This diagram shows two bends of the body. By applying the Flat Diagram to the upright portions and the perspective diagram to the foreshortened parts, your figure will be accurately drawn. (I added the lines from the diagram to the vanishing point.)

I think the 3 keys to understanding this page are: 1) accurately create a male or female Flat Diagram with all of the proper anatomical divisions; 2) determine your horizon line and vanishing point and 3) project your vertical lines to your vanishing point. Once those 3 steps are down correctly, you just have to divide your diagram correctly using midlines, diagonals and intersecting lines.

Here are Loomis's proportions for the standing female and male figures. Note the differences:

That completes this series. I hope I explained this clearly. If you have any questions, additions or need more clarification, PLEASE post a comment below. And become a follower of this blog, too!

I'll continue to dissect this book and other Loomis books since they're all full of great drawing instruction.

Thanks!

Shortcuts vs. Hacking

Casey Neistat (l) and Gary Vaynerchuk (r).

I’m a fan Casey Neistat and especially Gary Vaynerchuk’s mature wisdom. Something that both of these optimistic and successful men talk about repeatedly is that there’s no shortcut to success. The “secret” to success is simple, actually: Hard. Work.

It’s that simplicity that I think bothers a lot of people. They want the road to success to be an easy formula that if someone would just share that secret with them, they’d be successful. They want something that can be implemented easily, like sending out ONE tweet or uploading ONE post. If success were that easy, wouldn’t everyone be successful?

There is, however, no formula. The only way to success is to work hard at the right things on a consistent basis. This is a lesson I’ve only recently learned and wish that I’d known it 20 years ago.

But wishing won’t get me back those 20 years of flailing, misdirection, dead ends and lack of progress. Instead, I’m focused on now and the future. And since I’m 20 years behind other artists in skills and knowledge, I need to acquire those skills and knowledge as quickly as possible if I’m to execute all of the ideas I have.

Therefore, what I do and how I do it is crucially important. Vaynerchuk and Neistat are often asked for secrets and shortcuts. That idea is a huge mistake, especially if you’re young. Your youth is the time to be patient, learn and experience so you can execute on the things you’ve learned when you get older.

I realize that there are no shortcuts to me becoming a better artist. There are, however, hacks I can use to improve my work quickly. To me there’s a big difference. A shortcut bypasses and skips. I already tried that and discovered that I missed a lot and had to go back and re-learn. A HUGE waste of time!

On the other hand, hacking is about efficiency. It’s about determining what the best in my field did to get where they are and to focus only on those things that will improve my skills quickly. I’ve studied John K, Leonardo Da Vinci, Stan Prokopenko, Marshall Vandruff and Aaron Blaise in an effort to distill what took them years to learn, focusing only on what works and not wasting time with that which doesn’t work. They’re willing to teach so I’m willing to sit at their feet and learn.

I look forward to discovering what works best in my course of study so I, too, can share it with those willing to learn. Because it’s NEVER too late to learn something new.

Bone studies—Lessons from Robert Beverly Hale

Some comments from Robert Beverly Hale's "Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters" that I found especially important and am keeping in mind as I study the bones:

• It must be understood at once that the form of the body is dictated by the bones…Essentially, the body is a machine, with the bones in compression and the muscle in tension.
• …study [individual bones] until you can draw them by heart from any position. Then draw them together as a full skeleton.

My sketches of the clavicle being reduced to a basic shape.

• As you study the bones, memorize the exact origin and insertion of the necessary muscles…Half the time, you are simply putting your pencil on the origin of the muscle and moving to the insertion, or vice versa.

My sketches of the clavicle being reduced to a basic shape.

• Anatomy is something you cannot hold in your mind without constant drawing practice for the rest of your life.
• In studying bones, it is best to think of them as simply as possible, at first, and to draw them that way in the beginning…In your mind, you must create a simple form to put on each end of the bone…Then you can devote the rest of your life to refining the shape [of that form]. 

My sketches of the scapula (its axillary margin view) being reduced to basic shapes.

• Proportions reside in bones. If you wish to draw children, try to get some conception of how our bones vary in proportion, one to the other, from birth to adulthood.

Want Your Drawing to Stand Out? Learn Artistic Anatomy.

There are many stories I want to tell and my preferred method for telling those stories is through animation and graphic novels.

In order to give my stories the quality they deserve and to give the audience an experience they deserve, I need to draw well. And in order to draw well, I need to know human anatomy.

I first started studying anatomy in 1994, three years out of college, waking at 4am to sit at the kitchen counter in a roach-infested Brooklyn apartment. In the dark I vainly tried to make sense of all of the Latin-based names. There was no internet for me to consult, only the few books I could find including Gray’s Anatomy.

That attempt to learn anatomy eventually failed as did the multiple follow-up attempts. I just couldn’t wrap my brain around all of the names, origin points, insertion points and functions of the multitude of muscles. Once I did get far only to be stopped cold when I got to the large number of muscles in the lower arm and the leg.

But here are examples as to why I decided to try it again:

While I don't possess anywhere near the skill that these artists have, I DO know that these professionally drawn images contain anatomical mistakes that I want to learn to avoid.

I want to ultimately create the type of work that I like seeing from others, work that combines imagination with skill. 

That’s why I’m determined to learn artistic anatomy.

A Universe of Trouble Ep.10 Storyboard

A Universe of Trouble is Half Done!

Not only is the project half completed but I met the self-imposed deadline of reaching this milestone by June, 2016 (OK, I was off by five days.) 

When I stopped work on “Adult Toy Story” in April, 2015 and started this project, the intent was to quickly get a compelling story out into the world. I got off to a slow start with the first three episodes taking about six months to complete. But once I got further into the project, became more adept at reusing my art and animation and finding pre-made art, I began to complete episodes faster. As a result, I completed the next six episodes in six months.

When doing a project, it’s the small victories that count. American society is about BIG—big money, big houses, big cars, big mouths. We as a culture have a disdain for the small yet effective. What I’ve learned from doing this project is that every little effort put into the project reaps some kind of benefit. Every time I have to figure out how to accomplish something, I’ve learned a new tool or skill that can be used at a later time. So doing six episodes in the time that it originally took me to do three is a huge win for my confidence that this project can be completed in a reasonable amount of time.

As Melissa Dinwiddie says, "think tiny and daily":

Drawing Principles from Famous Artists Foundations Course

In my endless quest to improve my drawing, I reviewed the old version of the Famous Artists Illustration Course and purchased some new Famous Artists Courses.

I was less impatient this time and that made all of the difference. As a result, my eyes were opened to a kernel of knowledge that I had overlooked before. Seeing what I had not seen before was a reminder that, unlike 20 years ago, I am now ready to receive this information and act on it.

THIS was my revelation:

That’s it. These two illustrations changed EVERYTHING for me!

Now, I had been told 20 years ago while working at an animation studio to “think 3D.” I had read about “drawing through” objects. But those lessons just didn’t CLICK! I don’t know why, but this simple yet essential idea that EVERY OBJECT is 3D and should be thought of as such just didn’t find a home in my brain.

Until now.

Looking at these illustrations, it all SUDDENLY MADE SENSE! Now I finally understood how EVERYTHING is a 3D object, including clouds and mountains.

This shows the importance of studying from a variety of sources. Some would dismiss the Famous Artists Courses as dated and in some ways they are (is it important to learn how to draw different types of hats when men don’t wear hats anymore?) But due to the updated version of the Foundation Course, I had a significant and game-changing epiphany.

Drawing principles have not changed and it’s those principles we need to master if we want to be skilled artists.

A Universe of Trouble Episode 08 Storyboard

Production for this episode has begun. I'm allowing myself two weeks for a completion on Sun. June 12. But the goal is of course to complete it sooner. It's important to complete these shorter episodes quickly to allow myself more time for the longer or more complicated episodes.