GESTURE DRAWING

FRUIT WITH FEELINGS! WITH JOHANNA FORSTER - a Character Design Quarterly Art-ickle : Episode 256 of the So Free Art Podcast, with Artist Sophie Lawson

256 • FRUIT WITH FEELINGS! WITH JOHANNA FORSTER : A CDQ ART-ICKLE

In this one lilDENNiS and I look at a juicy lil article, or Art-ickle, entitled ‘Fruit with Feelings! with Johanna Forster’, from issue 20 of the Character Design Quarterly magazine, by 3dtotal publishing.

Some of the topics covered on this one include:

The Language of Lines,
How Emotions Are Everything,
Johanna Forster’s Lovely Shapes,
Staying in the Sketching Phase,
Body Language,
Capturing Contrasting Emotions,
The Grunlings Characters by Johanna Forster,
Drawing Beans,
Asking What Does and Doesn’t Need To Be In Your Drawing,
Being Playful,
and Ways To Overcome the Mind While Drawing.

Hope you find this one as tasty as I did :)

A MOTION MASTERCLASS WITH JOAKIM RIEDINGER - a Character Design Quarterly Art-ickle : Episode 253 of the So Free Art Podcast, with Artist Sophie Lawson

253 • A MOTION MASTERCLASS WITH JOAKIM RIEDINGER : A CDQ ART-ICKLE

In this one I look at a lil article, or Art-ickle, entitled ‘A Motion Masterclass with Joakim Riedinger’, from issue 22 of the Character Design Quarterly magazine, by 3dtotal publishing.

Some of the topics covered on this one include:

Capturing Motion,
Thumbnailing,
Action and Reaction,
Entanglement,
Awareness While Drawing,
Learning Rules,
Action Lines,
Thinking and Feeling,
Asking Questions,
Symmetrical Poses,
and How Creating Art is All About The Mind!

Thumbnail for this episode shows the Dancer from the art-ickle, drawn by Joakim Riedinger.

Hope you had fun with this one too :)

15 TIPS FOR BETTER CHARACTER DESIGN WITH DAVID MELLING - an imagineFX Art-ickle : Episode 170 of the So Free Art Podcast, with Artist Sophie Lawson

170 • 15 TIPS FOR BETTER CHARACTER DESIGN WITH DAVID MELLING : AN IMAGINEFX ART-ICKLE

A look at an ickle article entitled ’15 Tips for Better Character Design with David Melling’, from issue 201 of the art magazine ImagineFX.

This was such a cool article to study from; not only is it full of cute characters, and beautiful images, but it’s bursting with character design wisdom bombs too!

Some of the topics include:

Character Connection and Relationships,
Gesture Drawing,
Character Sheets,
Character Design Body Language,
How Everything has Story,
A new Fun Drawing Exercise called Sequential Drawing,
Anthropomorphic Design,
Exaggeration,
Expressive Silhouettes,
Being Open Minded,
How Keywords are Key,
Mickey Mouse’s Ears,
Silent Narrative,
and we have some Kitty Kisses :)

The thumbnail for this episode shows the character Ruffles by David Melling.

Hope you enjoy this one.

GESTURE AND POSE WITH IDA HEM PART 2 - an art book Art-ickle : Episode 155 of the So Free Art Podcast, with Artist Sophie Lawson

155 • GESTURE AND POSE WITH IDA HEM PART 2 : AN ART BOOK ART-ICKLE

The second part of our look at the ickle article ‘Gesture and Pose with Ida Hem’, from the Art Book ‘Creating Stylized Characters by 3dtotal Publishing’.

Last week we looked at – What is Gesture?, Squashing and Stretching, and Building up from a Gesture; this week we look at the rest of this ickle Gesture and Pose with Ida Hem article, which covers Capturing Gestures, and Exploring Personality & Gesture.

Topics include:

Reference vs Imagination,
Questions to Ask Yourself as you’re Capturing Gestures,
Balance between Opposites,
Simplifying Lines,
Visual Flow and The Line of Action,
Comparing Good and Bad Character Poses,
Why does America use Z’s instead of S’s?
How Less is More,
How Knowing What to Exaggerate is Key,
Technical vs Feeling,
Shifting Characters Weight via Contrapposto (Counterpoise),
And lilDENNiS starts humping Kitty.

This was such a fantastic article to study from, hope you enjoyed it :)

GESTURE AND POSE WITH IDA HEM PART 1 - an art book Art-ickle : Episode 154 of the So Free Art Podcast, with Artist Sophie Lawson

154 • GESTURE AND POSE WITH IDA HEM PART 1 : AN ART BOOK ART-ICKLE

What is Gesture? Let’s find out, as we look at an Art-ickle called ‘Gesture and Pose with Ida Hem’, from the Art Book ‘Creating Stylized Characters by 3dtotal Publishing’.

This is part one of two, and focuses on: What is Gesture? Squash and Stretch, and Building up from a Gesture. Next week we’ll be looking at the rest of this ickle Gesture and Pose with Ida Hem article, which covers Capturing Gestures, and Exploring Personality & Gesture.

Topics include:

What Do You Think Gesture Is?,
The Line of Action,
How We Don’t Like Stiffys,
How Gesture helps to create powerful Silhouettes,
How Shapes Tell Stories,
Bert Dodson and Trigger Words,
Becoming the Character by Physically Posing,
How Squashing and Stretching is like Pinching and Pulling,
Comparing Good and Bad Poses,
The process of Building Up From a Gesture,
lil Art Tip of Visualising String being Attached to your Characters,
Exaggeration is key for Dynamic Poses,
Facing Your Art Fears,
Body Language,
Shifting Characters Weight via Contrapposto (Counterpoise),
What Are T-Poses?
And there’s a click review of the book ‘The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho’.

I learnt a lot studying from this article, hope you do too :)

BURNING MY 20,000 GESTURE DRAWINGS : Episode 84 of the So Free Art Podcast, with Artist Sophie Lawson

84 – BURNING MY 20,000 GESTURE DRAWINGS

The Drawing exercise Gesture Drawing and Letting Go of Art are the main topics for this one, as I attempt to burn my 20,000 Gesture Drawings; Five years worth of Gesture Drawing go up in smoke, or do they? Dun dun dun lol

I cover a lot of tings on this one,

Gesture Drawing resources – QuickPoses and Croquis Cafe,
Traditional vs Digital,
The KOH-I-NOOR Clutch Pencil with Magic Coloured Leads,
Proko’s Figure Drawing Course,
Practicing Bad Habits,
Should you start your Gestures with the Head?,
Facing Fears,
and How the Mind is a Nobhead!

You’ll hear Fireworks exploding in the background at times, as I recorded this one spur of the moment on Halloween night, KA-BOOM! Think it adds a bit of ambiance to the episode :)

I had an aha! Moment during this one … I realised Gesture Drawing isn’t about collecting your Drawings, it’s about showing up to do the Drawing Exercise.

*sniff sniff*

Can you smell burning? I know I can lol

Hope you have fun with this one :)

Gesture Drawing, Why and How? • THE SO FREE ART PODCAST EPISODE 37

37 – GESTURE DRAWING

This lil one’s all about Gesture Drawing; I talk about why it’s my most fun drawing exercise, how online resources QuickPoses.com and Croquis Cafe can help improve your Gesture Drawing skills, and there’s this weeks lil Art Tip, which is Gesture Drawing related. We also have a new feature this week in Book Book Time :) where I’ll be looking at a different book each episode, and this weeks Book Book changed my life, it’s Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How To Lose Your Mind And Create A New One, by Dr Joe Dispenza. Hope you like this one :)