Willard Mullin

The essence of any drawing is the gesture. This we see emphasised over and over again. A recent printing of Walt Stanchfield's notes focuses a lot on this aspect.

Nobody could have absorbed this better and applied them in their work than sports illustrator Willard Mullin (1902-1978). His drawings are an study in gesture, action, force, energy and expression. All that goes into Animation drawing.

A nice little bio can be found here.

Mullin contributed to the Famous Artists School course. His lessons on drawing animals can be found here.

Here is a picture set on Flicr.

Book List

This will contain a list of books that I have used and have had real impact in my pursuit of learning the art, and which I fairly feel should do the same more or less to others as well..

Drawing / Illustration
Vilppu Drawing Manual
Natural Way to Draw
Dynamic Figure Drawing
Drawing the Human Head
Famous Artists Commercial Art and Illustration Course
Famous Artists Cartooning Course


Animation
The Animator's Workbook
Cartoon Animation
Timing For Animation
The Animator's Survival Toolkit
The Illusion Of Life

Glenn Vilppu Sketching On Location

Glenn Vilppu wrote another wonderful series for the Animation World Network . This is about sketching at any location live. this is a great way of learning to draw as well as record the unique aspect of what we see.

This is a great series of articles on how to sketch on location, and also helps learn how to compose drawings in general.

When I first read these articles, they did not have that much of an impact. After couple of years of practising drawing, I go back to these lessons, and now I see them to be gems. Every word and picture is valuable information.

I recommend this previous post on Vilppu's Drawing lessons before jumping in.

Let's Sketch on Location

The Thumbnail Sketch

Organizing and Creating Space

Light and Dark Patterns

Texture as Planes in Space

Pencil Technique

Drawing Groups of Figures

The Quick Sketch

The Silhouette -- Positive and Negative Shape

Three Dimensional Figures

Atmosphere

Using Photographs