Session  3 - Figure Drawing and Hai Ku

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Whats in the box?

Felt Tips and Gel Pen

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• Sketchbook – 

Please refer back to the previous sessions for the intro to sketch books and the video we saw today of other inspiring sketchbooks.

 

The main thing I want to say is…make friends with your sketchbook.

I have been using sketchbooks for many years now and they have brought me much comfort and inspiration. 

The key I believe is to make your image and text recording as fluid as possible so that you allow randomisation and juxtapositions to occur and cross fertilise your ‘musings’. 

It is a sponge to absorb all things the good – the bad – and the ugly.

Avoid making it a linear narrative – open it up at random to work in – fill it with the tiny seeds of ideas and allow them to grow and bloom in unexpected ways.

Get into the habit of carrying it around with you – make it your first port of call for something to pass the time instead of scrolling through the iphone or device.

Observe and record through text and image – scribble – colour – rubbings – found objects…etc etc….

 

• Manga – 

A Japanese form of simple line graphic illustration – that has a great expressive way of creating characters and emotions.

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• Figure from lines to clothes – 

In the worksheet and session video you will see the stages from stick figure through to fully clothed figure – make sure each stage is as good as it can be before moving on so that you are not carrying through mistakes – the idea is to smooth out and create strong final lines  - by going through the stages.

Proportions ratios are useful for basics but everyone is built differently – always observe well and use your pencil/pen as a quick measure.

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• Layout pad

These are useful for drawing and tracing to develop clean clear images for colouring etc. – But a windowpane and normal paper can work for some quick tracing.

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• Pencil to pen

Always use light strokes for your initial sketch lines – easy to erase later if you need to – use your ink gel pen for your final lines – and felt tips for colouring in. 

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• Lay figure dolls

These can be helpful to quickly gauge how some poses will look but are limited – ask a friend to pose in the action needed – most cartoonist have a large mirror by their desk so they can observe expressions and body shapes as they create characters.

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• Using felt tips – indicate colour cross hatch

Don’t block out with the felt tips – rather indicate colour by colouring in what would be the dark/shaded part of a coat say and then leave the light part white  - the eye and the mind will make up the difference and paint in the rest of the coat for you – experiment with the felt tips to see what they can do – always create a mark making page with any new mark making tool… do it in the sketch book as another reference page

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• Quick face in anime 

Most cartoon characters – it is al about the eyes and the mouth to show expression and in the Japanese tradition you will find that noses are mostly reduced to a quick v shape

Make the eyes nice and big and the mouth very expressive.

 

• Hai Ku

This for me is the sketching equivalent for creative text. Using the very easy 5-7-5 syllable method in three lines try and tell and very quick simple story – looking for the key ideas and moods and images to depict the scene.

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