life drawing, students, animation, computer games
a collage of imagery combining a couple of photos and a vector image designed to create a feeling of mystery, memory, space, form and function. I will work on a few more examples and include some sketches that were done as demonstration pieces. The longer term aim is to develop a series that incorporates some form of narrative and potentially an animated concept character.
© http://www.chriswoodartist.com all rights reserved 2013
Having spent the last 8 weeks teaching the basics of life drawing to this years cohort of animation and computer games students, we are now moving on to consider ENVIRONMENTS, COLOUR and COMPOSITION.
We discussed the COLOUR WHEEL, PRIMARY, SECONDARY & TERTIARY COLOURS, COMPLIMENTARY PAIRS and warm and cold primaries and briefly touched on paint and colour mixing. We also discussed basic elements of composition.
In practical terms, one of the groups have created two studies: one INTERIOR and one EXTERIOR, as seen through a window. This linked to previous sessions, when we looked at one, two and three point perspective. Several students were caught drawing panoramic photos of architecture from their iphones and this was discouraged – the guilty parties were told to go back to the window and draw from direct observation !
For the INTERIOR study I suggested observing groups of students at work and combining this with interesting aspects of contemporary architecture. Overall COMPOSITION and VIEWPOINT of an image (close up, wide angle, from above or below etc) was key to this exercise.
Composition and viewpoint angles tie in well with camera animation which will follow next semester. I will also encourage them to consider their format by drawing different shaped boxes – the aim being to think about balance within the format – like different camera aspect ratios. For example 4:3, 16:9 and Panavision.
The next phase is encouraging the use of digital photography: in particular taking several pictures of the same subject and experimenting with composition and mood of the shot/subject, e.g. how could you take a photo of a mug of tea and make it look: 1. lonely/isolated, 2. Proud. 3. Menacing/angry.
Finally students have been asked to develop a narrative and work up their studies in their self directed study time. Drawings should either be developed further by hand and or digitally using whatever software/app they prefer. They could add a concept character or produce a short storyboard describing an embryo sequence. Particular attention to the use of colour and composition is the key !
© all images and text http://www.chriswoodartist.com November 2013
