now but generally what I'm starting by
whether I'm doing a fast poses long
poses makes absolutely no difference
my primary beginning is to focus on
getting a simple gesture now what I'm
doing is I'm doing the gesture as I'm
leading the eye through the drawing so
I'm just feeling the flow of how it goes
oh notice them but actually when I do
this I'm really doing sort of a rhythm
okay let me let me explain that rhythm
ID a little bit here in that when you
think of rhythm in terms of like music
we think of say a drummer a drummer is
giving you a beat that leads you through
a song well a rhythm is like a beat that
is leading you through the drawing so
I'm using rhythm in the same sense that
I'm leading my eye through the drawing
and I'm also leading the viewer through
the dry now this can be done many many
different ways we talked about here is
just a very simple flowing of lines I
could be doing it with a little more
choppy kind of line I could be taken
doing that with a chamois but I'm taking
a leading leading the eye through the
drawing now the next step in what I go
through to basically just contain the
form in other words very simple volumes
as I'm doing this I'm sticking and
containing going over over the surface
seeing how one form fits into another
now as I do this these are volumes so
the whole point then and doing these
volumes is to take and contain of course
but this is a constructive approach so
as I'm drawing from imagination this
constructive approach is allowing me to
visualize three dimensionally what I'm
drawing okay
now at that point now this could be done
the idea is of thinking of simple
three-dimensional forms is very very
fundamental it could be an animation
they could be traditional drawing we
could show Raphael Michelangelo they
could be breaking things down in boxes
but the idea is essentially is
containment
simple volumes fitting into each other
that's the essence of the form now of
course you have to take them have a
sense of size of these volumes tabby but
what you have that and this is where is
a big misconception a lot of people
they look at my drawing and they see a
style this aspect of the drawing is
totally non stylistic it's a concept of
taking and how do you approach the
drawing the in a way it's a it's a
workman's approach to doing nuts and
bolts as I say now once I've got that I
could render these forms in many many
different ways there's where the style
comes in let's just take for instance
here a little bit and we hola
look at the little bit of the torso here
through here we have a simple volume
under wide for now I could take and
render this form I could use tome going
over the surface I can take and be here
like a using tone fooling through or
across now what's the essence of the
drawing it would it could look to have a
totally different look then if I was
taking and using let's do another
version here if I was taking in coming
through and doing spice getting a little
low on the scene here okay if I was
coming across and doing
what am i doing what i'm doing here is
i'm taking this form and i'm consciously
thinking about going over the surface of
the form i'm visualizes like a wireframe
in a computer
this is visualizing the surfaces of the
form now whether i do this with tone or
taking work with the doing alexia
crosshatch which is i generally do quite
a bit of that was just taking a building
very carefully dealing with series of
lines going over the surface it's like
carving taking and feeling these planes
but the essence of what I'm doing is
drawing one volume as we started here
one volume fitting into another volume
so once I have that I can once I have
that simple volume I can then build on
that okay the basis of that simple
volume and it's thinking about the
center of the form if I think of the
center of the form like taking a bike I
say if you have a word and you put a
bracket around it you've contained it
okay you have a center you have the word
here so now when I'm thinking of the
center
I'm just bracketing it in containing it
within the head surface so there's
nothing really complicated about that
now I once I have that if I used to have
that then I can take and go from that
and I can add other volumes on top of
that I can take and focus on how these
surfaces fit one into another so it's a
stylistic consideration then I could
take it and if one I can say well let's
say there's a light source coming from
up here I can come in
then a d'accord I can take and drop a
cast shadow I could take and do this in
many many different ways but it's all
based on the idea that you're seeing a
very very simple volume and then you're
computing one volume on top of the other
so but the point here is this is not so
much a graphic statement as it is a
three-dimensional form the graphic
statement would be taking and coming in
and focusing on a two-dimensional
primarily contour of the drawing and
that's is not what I'm doing what I'm
doing is this is where it's a conceptual
thing is that instead of drawing the
contour and then coming going into that
I'm creating a contour with the forms
that I'm drawing now as you're doing
this you could take in please like I say
this could be all kinds of different
like I was taking down here doing lines
going over the surface I could visualize
it going more direct like just take and
say well and this is a different
approach to it I could take and
visualize these forms without taking and
drawing the simple forms but I draw a
thick of the simple forms so they come
through exact a here I'm drawing
directly I'm visualizing all of those
forms coming over look at the naval
coming through so now this is more of a
direct drawing so as I'm going over the
surface forms and actually you'll find
that as you develop your skills you will
take and tend to do more correct drawing
and it will end up having more vitality
to it
there were discussions uh we were just
having was that question came up okay
about about trying one of the things
that my feeling about drawing and that's
where I think myself was is a drawer and
it's a he can in that drawing is the
most autobiographical of the forms it's
a thing that's most direct and that you
can take and do that is closest to you
like your signature it is a signature so
consequently that in my own drawing then
it's very normal for people to take and
see a stylistic element in the drawing
yet what I am what you're seeing is my
personality in the drawing yeah you're
it's my signature so I'm doing the
drawing starting out I'm taking in a
little bit fueling the flow and letting
the rhythm drive the eye through the
figure and so I'm flowing it's a certain
flow and in a sense what makes my
drawing look like my drawing is that I
have a certain sense of rhythm in the
way I do things
in fact I've had students say they're
watching me draw it's so hypnotic that
it almost puts them to sleep and that
the way it's just a continuous flow so
here you can see what I've done is I'm
just feeling a thing but now I go back
into that I'll take in think of the
simple volume now here I'm not even
drawing the whole thing I'm just hitting
a fragment I'm visualizing it so and I
come through over now as far as rent
yet I could take and render this thing
again here now I'm not usual izing form
here is the I'm drawing a contour now
that's my mileage I have drawn figure so
many times that I can take in and here
is where I'm doing is I'm actually
thinking of Anatomy I'm thinking of how
things go and I'm coming through and
drawing directly but I'm visualizing it
but the idea is what I'm visualizing
still is a simple cylinder I think of
way Dessel with the muscles taking come
in I'm building it but it's very direct
and I'm not copying for so I'm taking in
seeing with my mind's eye in a way now I
can render this by taking and using tomé
going over the surface here I'm just
pushing forms back no way so I'm using
tone I was asked the question of well
don't I draw like Leahey draw with the
cross-hatching so much and I draw with
tone yes I draw it tone but I create the
cross-hatching is creating tone so I can
take and drop whole areas in shadow
through but I'm not obviously not
copying the shadows because I don't have
any I'm taking it each time I go through
I'm correcting it and changing it I'm
going to here I'm using a crosshatch
going over the surface of the form as a
student we used to prefer to be referred
to as I can say lightning bolts approach
to taking and healing
but it was just taken going over the
surface now that ended up being a
stylistic element they give it a certain
look right now
vitamin C now I'm digging and dropping
all of this into shadow now as I do that
I could take and leave this all one dark
tone I could take picking up kind of
visualize where the shadows would be but
at the same time in doing that I could
say well I really personally I like to
see all of the forms so even though this
is a flat tone but you find a lot of the
illustrators are taking and doing today
it's it's a flat tone by the Riley
school tends to deal a little bit more
with that now but I'm going to say well
I'm imagining the light source coming
from the other side so now I'm taking an
adding a shadow being caused by the
light reflected light imaginary
reflected light well what that does it
defines this surface here so now I'm
coming over that corner and emphasizing
what would be called the core so now
I've got the core cast shadow coming
through and I'm slowly adding to this
and we could take and really create some
strong cast shadows well again this
becomes a a look yet it's all based on
just a simple idea of simple volumes one
fitting into another I would have to be
correcting myself here I made this rear
end a bit large coming through pressure
down so you're building on a thing but I
could just as well take and be defining
this
by using heavy harsh lines so let's take
it go back into this in other words I
could be doing this we through oh I do
exactly the same thing with drawing with
a pen which is let's just take and do
pen drawing here while I'm at it now
what I'm doing this you will see that I
don't draw any difference this is a
little large for what I would do with a
pen but see I still taking and feeling
the flow
I'm going across and thinking behind I'm
literally thinking about going over the
surface I'm containing this for now I'm
coming through
going over and around the surface that's
really no different than what I was
doing to the pencil
except of course it's going to have a
very different look because I'm drawing
with the pen
so as I'm going through and we build
this thing now one of the elements is in
taking and doing a quick sketch now this
is a not so much a quick sketch but let
me explain this a little even farther
there's actually a series of hand
movements hand movement being one what
I'm doing here is going with the flow of
something okay the second is I'm going
over the surface and third it's
containing by doing this so now if we
combine all three of those in a very
quick type of gesture I would take and
do
because essentially only three hand
movements but what I'm doing is you can
see here is that I'm going through the
form I'm taking and going around over
the form and I'm containing the form yet
it seems really loose and flowing yet
it's actually very like I would want to
say precise but it's very deliberate if
I'm doing so that from here I could very
easily take and since I've already
visualizing the volume and I've got the
movement now I can take and build into
that other forms and emphasize contours
and it's nicely say here every few whole
forms are fitting in but it's a very
very deliberate and in a way this now I
try to make a little definition here is
that it's sort of the difference between
sketching and drawing I'm not really
sketchy I'm drawing so if I'm taking an
even ahead I would take and run over
through thinking the construction way
through see everything's very deliberate
I'm visualizing the underlying structure
the anatomy over the surface boo now it
has a different stylistic look and now
if I was to go back into this I could
actually combine say the pen drawing
with let's say even using a tone of a
graphite or poly Cromwell pencil I could
take and start visualizing structure I'm
thinking now what I'm doing is I'm
drawing planes we through building but
it's no different than really what I was
doing before looks different only
because the technique is a little
different but the underlying logic has
not changed at all I'm just taking in
being a little bit more nervy about how
I'm approaching the drawing
so the idea is to not be constricted to
thinking that there's only one way to
take and do it there's no there's no the
time I say over and over no rules so as
I'm doing the drawing I'm taking and
trying to understand a pose I'm taking
and feeling how the parks go through I'm
leading the eye I am taking and using
the rhythm like a drummer taking and
leading a group and driving the eye
through the figure I go over the figure
and pulling around so the different
strokes now one following through the
other coming in through then going
across over the surface going round over
the surface and then containing the
volumes take containing and building on
those volumes so it's constantly three
strokes its analysis but it's all built
on the idea of first get the gesture the
general leading the eye the drummer then
filling it out
and then taking and describing it a
little bit more so that's in a way is
the essence of what I do as you take and
develop the drawing farther then it
becomes a matter of personal desires in
terms of the look that you want
understanding of the next layer of forms
that you are taking and working on and
also at the same time individually it
can be maybe more preoccupied or more
concerned with the two-dimensional shape
that things go create but I personally
take and start with the volumes and then
work to creating a abstract shape for
instance in here I could see I would be
focusing maybe on a a straight line if I
have a straight line I can pull off of
that straight line with forms into the
interior and the more I emphasize the
two-dimensional aspects of it in
conjunction with things again the
drawing takes on a different look so how
you play how you orchestrate your
rhythms your your lying the quality of
line that you make whether it's very
subtle very free is going to take and
give us the look that you want and even
the gesture is you're doing the gesture
the gesture can be done working with
tone to begin with
is taking and feeling feeling the masses
for the thing which I do generally with
a chamois so that you're taking in again
you're getting in the essence of what
the action is because the gesture is the
soul of your drawing it's what it's all
about it's through its the story it's
the point that's what we're after then
from that then I again I would be doing
the same thing coming back in
thinking of the volume even if I only
hit pieces of that volume I draw it as
if I could see the whole thing it's not
coming through building within that
feeling how one form works with another
so it's a like and I'm constantly taking
and still I'm always looking for more
interesting ways to take and use those
basic fundamentals that I have
you