The purpose of observation is to improve your drawing skills of the subject you are studying, but of equal importance it is to gain a stronger understanding of that subject, so that you can “imbue your art with soul and integrity” Gilland (2009, p. 24). Observation is such a vital part of an artist’s study, proven by the fact that the big studios like Walt Disney Animation actually funded a trip for their animators to go to the location of the film they’re shooting. Gilland (2009, p.24) talks about his trip to Hawaii to research for Lilo and Stitch (2002), saying how the effects animators not only drew from observation, but also recorded reference and simply observed the elements without active participation. This allowed them to be more authentic and animate with the feel of the location in their memories.
This feel of an effect drawing is just as important if not more so than the draftsmanship of it, which Gilland explains through his explanation of energy and capturing it in your drawings. Energy as explained by Gilland (2009, p. 27) is the “underlying substance of every effect”, it is the flow of the element, and successful effects drawings “must be informed with natural patterns of pure energy” Gilland (2009, p. 27).
To help capture this energy, Gilland (2009, p. 25) advises the artist to “loosen up, and let your drawing hand flow”. This can be done by drawing from the shoulder, as well as holding the pencil from above to allow a greater range of motion, Gilland (2009, p. 41).
I started by drawing smoke, as I felt it’s natural flowiness lends itself well for capturing energy, and is a good starting point for me to get used to drawing with my shoulder. I found that my mark making with this new pencil grip was a lot more appealing to look at, the curves being smoother and more energetic. I did find myself slipping back into using my wrist when I needed to be very accurate however, but with practice I think I can fully use my shoulder.
The main difficulty I had with drawing smoke was trying to avoid noodling. There are a lot of details in a smoke cloud - and a lot of them were similar looking - so I had to consciously correct any unappealing shapes. In addition to this, I found I kept getting lost in the details and I often lost the structure. This is most prevalent in the first drawing, as it is a bit too chaotic.
My favourite drawing was the second one, as it captured the energy of the smoke very well whilst still demonstrating a clear form. I ended up taking quite a while on that drawing however, so for the last two I decided to be quicker and more expressive. I think they weren’t as successful visually but helped me in cementing the right kind of shapes to use with a smoke drawing.
I found these water drawings incredibly challenging for three reasons. Firstly, I had a lot of trouble drawing the ripples in the right perspective. Generally I have trouble with symmetry, and if the ripples aren’t very accurate it is obvious to the viewer. Secondly, there were so many details within the water photos that I had trouble selecting the right amount of information to show. It also made it harder to capture the energy as I was getting lost in the reflections. Finally, due to how many small details and shapes there were, I found it very difficult to draw looser. The marks I made with my shoulder were more appealing, and I ended up using that as much as possible, however I wasn’t very accurate that way. This juxtaposition caused me a lot of frustration, and I feel my drawings both lack enough energy and accuracy. I think it would have been better to go for a layered approach, firstly just using my shoulder to capture that energy, and then going over it with a darker pencil to capture the details.
Despite this, I learnt a lot, specifically about what shapes to use to close off the drawing at the peak of the splash. This was something I had trouble with in my animation, so I was paying particular attention to it here.
Finally, I found these lightning drawings the least useful study, as due to lightning’s nature the only aspect I could observe properly was the shapes. I noticed that to give it more appeal, varying the line width of the main strike was important.
In addition to this, having thinner, secondary strikes come off the main beam gave it a more realistic look. I think the part of the strike that looks the best is when the shape of it veers outwards significantly. I think exaggerating these in an animation would give it a lot of appeal.
Observing actual reference of these elements significantly improved my understanding of their form and shapes. If you compare these drawings to my initial animations, you can see how much more appealing and believable they are, and how their sense of design, form and energy are more evident.
Later on in this project, I will also need to study video reference for animation and live action in order to both observe the movement and timing of effects, but to see the shapes and energy learnt from observational drawing in practice. Naoki Arazia (no date) says “the only thing that separates you from the professional animators is that precious knowledge hidden in the inbetweens, so what them carefully”.
I found a helpful video by Jason Keyser (2016) that gave a few tips on reference finding and studying. He provided a large library of fx animation references on his pinterest boards that will be useful to use, as well as a website to go through youtube videos frame by frame. The importance of this was stressed as Keyser talked about how something he’s noticed from 2D effects animation portfolio reviews is that often people lack really strong, punchy and dynamic timing. Studying references frame by frame is what he recommended to improve on this.
Another method of studying is to actually download the GIFs and videos and put them into an animation program. This would then allow you to actually draw over the reference frame by frame so that you can study the shapes and spacing.
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