Turnarounds! (Figure Drawing, some NSFW-ish) (Patreon)

This morning I did my second guest lecture for CCS (virtually, of course).  We focused on how to apply life drawing to cartooning! Warmed up with some 30-second and 1-minute poses...

After that we talked about gesture vs. structure, line of action, silhouettes, and I shared some of the figure drawing I've shown you guys here in the past, showing the difference between the rendered realistic stuff I usually start with, and the more cartoony versions I evolve them into. I also shared a few cartoony figure drawings by Stephen Silver to inspire them.

Next, more 30-second and 1-minute poses, suggesting a focus on gesture, clear silhouettes, and line of action this time.

(I can't talk and draw.)

After that I had our model dress in a costume and pose for 7 minutes at a time in the same pose, turned about 1/4 counterclockwise each time. This allowed us to create  turnarounds of her as a character.

To introduce the idea to them, I had my interns do the same exercise for me. I sent them a few selections of models doing the same pose, in the round...

You can follow my spring interns Embryum & Josephine here on Instagram, btw. :)

 Here's my turnaround of our model:

Now that we each had a turnaround - a style guide for our character - we spent the remainder of class drawing our model in 5  minute poses, in the style of our own turnarounds.

I kept talking, so I didn't get many done! But here are a few (I kept the turnarounds on the left so I could refer back to them):

I recommended one 10-minute pose:

... and asked if students wanted to keep 10-minute poses or go back to 5-minutes. To my surprise, they wanted their fives back! My kind of people. (I continued to fail to finish these because my mouth kept moving.)

and one silly 2-minute:

I'm always quick to clarify that this brilliant exercise is something I learned from aforementioned character designer Stephen Silver, btw. I took a workshop with him in 2009 at my first ISCA caricature convention, and it changed the way I thought about life drawing forever. :)

I can't remember if I mentioned it here, but I'll be guest hosting Michael New's nude figure drawing session via Zoom on March 31st, and I'd really like to start the class an hour early to share some of the lessons I taught CCS students. 

It's open to the public and the buy-in is stupid low (like $3 minimum, though if you have it, I always recommend donating more). If you'd like to join us, put it on your calendar and I'll remind you to sign up sometime next week! 

(If you're interested, feel free to comment below on what you'd like me to talk about - it's open to all skill levels, so if you're just starting out, feel free to ask questions that you think are too beginner-level to ask. I'm happy to answer them if I can!)