http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2006/06/different-type-of-anotomy.

html

Sunday, June 04, 2006

What I mean is the anatomy of a sketch. I had to take a pic of this piece because it was done a large
newsprint. This is a bit of insight to what goes through my head when I'm teaching students and trying
to instill them with all that I've learned from Walt Stanchfield. He taught many principles for sketching
an art and I've always said to the class that it really is hard to think of all of them and squeeze them all
into one drawing. This is why we do so many drawings in one class {at least 40 drawings easy}. Anyhow,
in one of the last classes I held I sat down in a moment of inspiration and drew this drawing as quickly as
I could. Along the way I wrote down all the thoughts I had when I was laying down the lines. The
drawing took about two to three minutes to finish and it was an interesting excercise for me, as I drew I
wrote and those two ideas coming together helped me solidify my encouragement for the students, I
got excited! I eagerly got up and showed the piece in hopes that some of what I talk about in the class
was reinforced by this little map of sorts. A map with a few of the Walt principles he taught. Certainly
there are more principles that exist, not only these but within gesture drawing these truly are some to
look out for.

Squash and stretch

off centered head {not stiff]
more wieght on one leg
the other relaxing
perspective on foot placement
shoulder to hip differential
twist of the spine

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 11:31 PM

http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2006/04/small-lesson.html

Monday, April 17, 2006

A small lesson

Here we have a small correction i did in the class. The drawing on top was done by the student
and mine on the bottom. It's really tuff sometimes when you doing a sketch and all of the
drawing principles are trying to crash down into one little sketch. The idea I was trying to stress
here was "keep it focused on what's happening". Meaning, the girl was sitting and smelling her
steaming cup of coffee. The top drawing was struggling with the clarity and sillohuette of that
goal. It's always nice to look for a point of interest or story in the pose of a gesture model or
someone your sketching out on the street.
http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2006/06/small-lesson-02.html

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

a small lesson 02

Many times we as story artist and gesture sketch artists concentrate so heavily on the characters
facial expressions that we sometimes forget that the person we are sketching has a cranium. I
have fallen into this trap many times and it isn't always easy to remember becuase we want the
expression on the face to read. Tom Gately{who works at Pixar now, and is an amazing
artist}would always get on my case about it. After a while of getting this banged into my head, I
think I got it...I think. This is a small sketch that I did to illustrate the simplicity of the head. Its
kind of like drawing two eggs overlapping each other. If we dont put something on the back of
the head of a character or sketch, we just get a flat face with no construction to hang on to.

Remember the cranium!

http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2006/11/thoughts-on-drawing-for-storyboards-pt.html

Monday, November 20, 2006

Thoughts on drawing for storyboards-PT 1

I recently took some of the great illustrations from Bill Peet's autobio book and decided to draw
over them and find out why I liked them so much. Aside from his artistic charm and wonderful
acting and posing choices, there where things about his work that I thought supported what we
do in the gesture class. We always look at these and grasp a bit of inspiration from them but then
we keep on moving without considering how we can disect them. I know there are many ways of
looking at art but for me this is how I looked at it and learned from it.

The terms that came to mind for me where:

Directional Rhythm- Using the lines and composition of the drawing to direct the eye to the
point of interest.

High contrast- the point of highest contrast usually helps define the point of interest or the
character you want the viewer to see.

Other terms {that will be on the next post, blogger issues} that I didn't write on these overlays,
but it is evident in them, where;

Lean- do it when ever possible, even in the slightest way. only draw striaght up and down if the
character calls for it. the more straight up and down the drawings, the less life it could have, so if
your character is scared stiff maybe straight up and down is what you need. But lean when ever
possible.

Perspective and overlap- We've all studied perspective and any book out there on the subject is
usually fairly good to explain it but Overlap it extremely important to execute perspective Be it a
flower pot, a car, a person or a building you need visual cues of diminishing sizes and shapes
relating to each other to really get the effect working.

line density- the best way to understand this one is, if the object is further away, the lines should
be thinner. If the object is close the lines should be thicker.

Tone and Value- Again, simply put, the closer to screen the darker it gets.

Life drawing and gesture drawing do translate to story sketching if we know how to bridge the
gap. Hopefully these pics will help.
Posted by Dave Pimentel at 10:20 AM
http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2010/01/egg-heads-and-head-shapes.html

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Egg heads and head shapes
When working with drawing the heads and faces I've usually told people to use the egg shape method
by Walt Stanchfield. It's meant to quickly sketch in the construction of the head because many times
people forget the volume. It's an excellent way to lay in the head and figure out the perspective by using
the nose and the eyes.

Objective aesthetics come into play as we draw in the nose/eyes placement. We all have our own way of
sketching a nose or eyes but this quick sketch beginning should be loose. Plus the intersection of the
two egg shapes allows for an easy ear placement.

Inevitably once you've become comfortable with the egg equation you graduate to the next level of
attitude and acting that's specific to the model. Our drawings become more unique and individual as we
push the acting and attitude given to us as the egg shapes morph into caricatured versions of reality
A particular jaw shape versus a forehead shape, mixed in with a nose shape builds on all the simplistic
scaffolding in the beginning of the sketch. The trajectory.

The idea with all this is to try and sketch economically direct! You want to use your construction lines as
your final lines. Or at least lines that are going in the direction of final lines. Which means hopefully you
won't have to many lines that are aimless.

Here are a few examples from one of my sketchbooks, hope you like'em.
http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2006/11/thoughts-on-drawing-for-storyboards-pt_27.html

Monday, November 27, 2006

Thoughts on drawing for storyboards-PT 2

So once again, now that I don't have any blogger issues I wanted to dish out part 2 of my tips on drawing
for story. These pages were given to the Cal Arts kids a while back and I hope that this can inspire others
as well.

the principles that weren't highlighted with visual aid in the last post were;

Line Density
Perspective and overlap
and Leaning the pose

I'm not going to go into heavy detail on these subjects, so I hope these pages are treated more like cheat
sheets to remind us of the principles.

The "letter" panels on the left, really helped me understand this idea.

Leaning in the pose was something that Walt Stanchfield always knocked into my head. Certainly the
straight poses in my examples have a place in this world but an ever so slight lean or a large lean, in any
drawing helps give movement and wieght. Bill Peet does this constantly.
Once again, the perspective panels I drew were really more of a cheat sheet idea to remind us to
overlap within perspective. Otherwise the drawings can be flat such as in the example third panel down
on the right.

And last a few quick examples of high constrast and rhythm

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 4:20 PM
http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2010/04/tapering-body-shapes.html

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Tapering body shapes

While out on a date night my wife began sketching an arm with a hand on a napkin. As she drew the
sketch was turning out cute and cartoony. She asked me to give her a lesson based on her sketch. The
first thing I thought about was the shapes must taper! I started sketching the same drawing she did and
began tapering the shapes of the caricatured anatomy. I also added in straights against curves but the
tapering shapes were what I wanted her to grasp right off the bat. I started speaking the direction of
"start with a shoulder, it's a bit round then down to the biceps, down to the elbow...etc"

The skin closet to the the joints such as the elbow, wrist, and ankle are some examples where the
shapes taper in. the rest of the anatomy could very in almost any kind of shape depending on the
person.
My wife was catching onto the lesson and started asking for more tips but suddenly my buffalo chicken
sandwich arrived and art school ended.

Tapering shapes will help any drawing or sketch. This is deceptively simple but a good one to
remember. It's enemy is symmetrical shapes and parallel lines. Lastly I thought this simple idea would
help.
Posted by Dave Pimentel at 10:58 PM

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http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2007/01/thoughts-on-drawing-for-storyboards-pt.html

Friday, January 12, 2007

Thoughts on drawing for storyboards-PT 3

"Negative space and overlapping shapes"

In all my days as an animator, story guy, and just plain sketch artist I've always had trouble with trying to
get a pose right and make it "read from across the room".
I kept trying and trying and one day back in the Disney days, my good friend Tom Gately{Now an
animator at a certain studio in emeryville- shamelss "freindship dues" plug} told me the most obvious of
reasons why my drawings weren't reading.

"Your sillouette value is off"

Darn it! He was right and I couldn't get it out of my head. Now I know that's animation 101 but the
easiest thing to understand isn't always the easiest thing to execute. For example I understand that an
Archer needs to hit the bullseye from a far distance but I probably can't hit that bullseye for beans
unless I work at it for some time and keep trying.

So ever since then I've been haunted by Tom's words in my head. Every drawing I've worked on to this
day feels like it has his eyes of concern watching over saying "Your sillouette value is off".

All this time I tried to understand and break it down to the simplest form and the two principles out of
the many that stuck out, where Negative space and Overlapping shapes.

When these two ideas are grasped and put into action your sillouette values will start to pop off the
page. If your sketch or production drawing isn't working you might want to check and see if the drawing
is breathing; is there enough air around and within the pose to see every part of it's acting or reason for
being?

When overlapping shapes are concerned I always tell the students in my class to use the items on the
model to show shapes in front of other shapes. Use the waist line to show the forms and directions of
the body, the neck line and collars and even existing wrinkles in th clothing to help show that the knee is
in front of the thigh. Props like wrist watches or helmets or anything the person is holding can also help
when it comes to overlap.

Anyhow I think you get the picture. I still have to think about it when I draw and I'm glad Tom told me
the truth when he did. I just wish his voice would get out of my head.

To help illustrate the point I drew over this wonderful page of Mickey's drawn by the master of
sillouette Fred Moore. What's amazing about it was how clear and precise every drawing is and yet very
very loose. I found this page on the great Disney History blog by Didier Ghez.
Enjoy.

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 9:48 AM

http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2007/03/thoughts-on-drawing-for-storyboards-pt.html

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Thoughts on drawing for storyboards-PT 4

Make those pupils read!

I've been seeing a lot of portfolios in the past few weeks and one of the things that really stands
out to me is the lack of prominent pupils in story boards.

Strong, definite and clear eye direction is extremely important when it comes to boards. It allow
us to see the thinking behind the character. All too often I see boards with huge eye
circumference and tiny pupils, and it's really hard to see into that character's thoughts. I
understand that there are different character designs out there but, story boards should be "read
from across the room" even in this digital age. We look at the eyes first- and that allows us to see
into that characters soul, his/her internal struggle. If I can impart anything to anyone who is
putting together a portfolio or working on story boards at all...

Darken those pupils! Make them read!

http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2009/07/trajectory-of-pose.html

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Trajectory of a pose

The trajectory of a pose is set up in the first minute! There's something that happens as we wave the
pen around the page waiting for it to contact. We are aiming! Eventually we feel comfortable putting a
line down and hope that its the right one. In the onset of the drawing those lines need to have a sense
of directon aiming for a target! Imagine if a there existed a magic bullet that when fired it didn't just go
straight, it wiggled around and drew a line that formed our drawings. The same kind of aim a marksman
may have when he fires a bullet to a target is the same kind of aim we need when we fire off a sketch,
but our bullet moves around in that magical line. All too often we don't take the moment to aim and we
start putting lines down that mean nothing or fight against each other on the way to that target.
Those first few structure lines are the most important because those are the ones that we are building
on and they act as your scope for the rest of the drawing to follow. So all the best as you aim and fire,
drawing out lines that are purposeful and hopefully.........hit a bullseye!
Posted by Dave Pimentel at 4:14 PM

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Labels: balance, drawing, gesture sketching, girl, neck, overlap, Stanchfield

http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2010/01/hair.html

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Hair tip

Happy New Year!

I've gotten the question asked so many times "how do you handle hair?" and I try to keep my
answer as simple as I can. The hair lines need to be in the direction of the haircut or hair style,
everyone's different. I see a ton of sketches that just crosshatch the hair or tone it in a one-line
direction. I think that's a really quick way to flatten the volume on any head of hair. Next time
you sketch someones dew try to follow the natural lines. Draw the cut or style of the person and
draw your strokes in the direction of the hair. Ok, well my answer went a bit long but I get a little
into it...ha!

These three lil' sketches are my very first sketches of 2010! I'm blasting through a little 3x5
moleskine. It's fun. {pics taken with my iphone so res will be a bit low}

Araceli
Diego

Gabriel

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 4:07 PM

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http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2007/06/overlap-neck.html

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Overlap the neck

There's a common problem that occurs when we sketch too quickly or we're just not paying
attention. The neck/chest connection just doesn't quite cut the mustard. It happens to me often in
the early stages of the gesture and I usually try to catch it and fix it.

The circumference of the neck starts at the clavicle and connects to the back spine of our bodies(
obviously we all know that). But many times when we caricature we draw the neck lines right on
top of the shoulder line. It runs the risk of having tangents in the drawing and thus flattening out
the pose. That neck needs some sense of overlapping shapes to help make it feel connected to the
body in a natural way.

I sketched out the examples for this with one of my students and the T-shirt analogy came up. If
you look at your shirt you'll see that the hole for your head comes out of the front, not the top
where the shoulder seam is. Also, clothing has all the gesture lines we need to help guide us in
the line work. Use the collar, use the seams, use whatever it is on that clothing to reveal the form.
It's all overlap, and it is needed, unless you really want a flat looking drawing. Even those who
draw in a so-called "flat" design style make use of these principles. Shane and Shannon, for
instance, use overlap beautifully to show the forms working together, as well as staying
completely away from tangents! They're super good!

Down below I threw in a couple of drawings I liked, just for fun.

Hope all's well......

http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2009/03/long-lines.html

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

LONG LINES

I've been yelling out for so long "LONG LINES" to all the students in my classes. The reason is
so that the lines can complete themselves out! There's something that happens when you let the
lines continue and go as long as they can. All to often I catch students stopping the line and
cutting short its desired destination to the land of balance and rhythm. Let the lines be long and
try to lay in their paths from top to bottom. Let them live!!!

This wonderful model is "Karole Foreman"

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 11:28 AM

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Labels: balance, drawing, gesture sketching, girl, gravity, neck, overlap

http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2007/09/spontaneous-human-combustion.html

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Spontaneous Human Combustion

This was one of the first articles I ever wrote on gesture drawing. It was posted on Jim Hull's site
"sewardstreet.com". Jim was generous enough to go through the trouble and upload it back then.
I thought it would be alright to re-post it here on my own site.

I hope alls well.

Imagine fire from within burning your body and all thats left is a charred outline of what you
used to be. Some doctors say its not possible and many conspiracy theorists have websites full
of pictures and stories about it, who knows maybe it is possible to physically burn up. But when
you put this into the context of creativity and passion its very possible. Inspiration sparks inside
of each and every one of us all the time, whether its by another artists work, music, or a lover.
Either way its always there, and more often then not you notice it.
If these sparks of inspiration are ignited spontaneous combustion will occur. It will send you
ablaze on the hot trail of making new art and new ideas that you never thought you could do.
Thus leaving behind a charred outline of the old artist you used to be.

Let me explain a bit, One of the things I learned from the late, great, Walt Stanchfield was an
artistic equation he would always quote during the classes he held at the Walt Disney feature
animation studios.

Impression - Expression = Depression

Now I dont think Walt wanted everyone to think that they were depressed and psychologically
challenged. I believe he was talking about being inspired and doing something about it when you
are. I figured it this way.

Inspiration from where ever Execution of art from that inspiration = letting the spark pass you
by and not growing as an artist

One of the things that I will always encourage is keeping a sketchbook. Whether youre an oil
painter, story artist, animator, or sculptor, the benefits of watching people and capturing that
moment on paper is priceless. A sketchbook to an artist is like batting practice to a home run
hitter in the major leagues. Even established artist can grow stale, one of the great ideals of
sketching constantly is that it keeps the old gears oiled up. The other important reason is, it adds
to the well of resources in your head.

This well in our heads is very important and it feeds off of the inspiration needed to fill it. I
always keep a sketchbook, it allows me to reference my well of resources in my head of what
things look like or how someone acts when theyre mad or confused or any emotion I may have
drawn. Animation artist {particularly story artists, because they still draw by hand} should be
sketching all the time in order to keep a knowledge of life they can pull from when theyre doing
their work.
The sparks are always there and we need to capitalize on them. The way a man hugs his wife, the
way a child plays or even someone reading a newspaper at a coffee shop. As you see these
things, a strange burning begins to occur inside of you and lines frantically form on a page and
blam! Youre on fire. Before you know it you have pages of art that never existed before and
your becoming a better artist for it.

Days have come when I didnt have my sketchbook and all I can do was kick myself. The best
recovery I can think of was reaching for a loose receipt or a napkin and sketch down a quick
drawing on it, and take that home with me. The problem with that was, a whole bunch of loose
pieces of paper around that I couldnt keep track of

On the left is a drawing I did in 1994. A niece of mine, who has since grown up, ran passed me
and I drew this as quickly as I could. On the right is my quick sketch of what it couldve been if I
were to draw it today. As you can see they are very different and seem to have been done by two
very different artists. If youve read any of Walts Words of Wisdom handouts he would take
artists sketches and give little critiques of them. These critiques and examples were valuable and
great to learn from. This is the sort of thing that will continue to do.

The first drawing seems to lack some life and energy the arms seem to be a little stuck into the body, at
least her right arm for sure. The legs seem to be a little stiff and theres hardly any action to the pose. In
the second drawing it feels like shes going to go into another pose. All the lines are drawn in rhythm to
get the whole body working together for the action of running. Life seems to be happening in the
second drawing as opposed to life frozen in the first. I will get into it a bit deeper as we go along in the
coming lessons, but for now enjoy my embarrassing drawing from 1994.

Anyhow, the most important thing Id like to stress in this writing is, be ready to fuel the spark inside of
you, and spontaneously combust into a new artist and leave the charred old artist behind! The sparks
will come and if you let them pass, you might want to kick yourself when you wonder, Why am I not
getting any better?

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 12:05 AM

http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2007/10/zig-zag.html

Monday, November 05, 2007

Zig Zag

Sometimes we get models who don't want to be involved in creating interesting poses, so they
just stand there. One of the things I always try to express when this happens is, remember to zig
zag your line. What I mean by that is when drawing a model that's too stiff we need to push and
pull the pen left to right, find what's interesting in the pose. Feel their balance in the hips, the
shoulders or the tilt of the head and neck. Many times our drawing arm moves mainly up and
down {in the strokes} causing the structure of the sketch to be too stiff. Moving left to right can
help add some rhythm and zig zag!
http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2008/05/gravity-pulls.html

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Gravity pulls!

Many times in class or in sketch books I see drawings that seem to be off balance or unstable. I started
thinking about it. remembering that I'm constantly trying to place the feet on my sketch as quickly as
possible before my subject moves or before I forget and I have a floating torso drawing.

The foot placement or contact with gravity has all the stability built in. if you find that placement and
lock down those feet early, your sketch will usually feel pretty good. I've done drawings before that
seem incomplete or off balance because I hadn't given enough thought to the feet{or even drew them in
for that matter}. Even if the subject where to be sitting then gravity would pull from their rump and
you'd want to feel that flat contact like the little sketch above. When a sketch is off balance, then it
looks like the subject is falling.

So with that said..... I played around with some squiggles that showed blue stability and red gravity. It
pulls!
No Problem

A little lean but still no problem

Problem! but we he can still catch himself if he tries.

He's probably not going to catch himself.

Too far gone.

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 10:40 AM

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http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2009/07/trajectory-of-pose.html

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Trajectory of a pose

The trajectory of a pose is set up in the first minute! There's something that happens as we wave the
pen around the page waiting for it to contact. We are aiming! Eventually we feel comfortable putting a
line down and hope that its the right one. In the onset of the drawing those lines need to have a sense
of directon aiming for a target! Imagine if a there existed a magic bullet that when fired it didn't just go
straight, it wiggled around and drew a line that formed our drawings. The same kind of aim a marksman
may have when he fires a bullet to a target is the same kind of aim we need when we fire off a sketch,
but our bullet moves around in that magical line. All too often we don't take the moment to aim and we
start putting lines down that mean nothing or fight against each other on the way to that target.
Those first few structure lines are the most important because those are the ones that we are building
on and they act as your scope for the rest of the drawing to follow. So all the best as you aim and fire,
drawing out lines that are purposeful and hopefully.........hit a bullseye!
Posted by Dave Pimentel at 4:14 PM
http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2009/09/imply.html

Monday, September 14, 2009 imply

 I added simple "orange"graphs to show the overlap example.

Imply

Pronunciation: \im-pl\

Function: transitive verb

Inflected Form(s): implied; implying
Etymology: Middle English emplien, from Anglo-French emplier to entangle more at EMPLOY
Date: 14th century
1 obsolete : ENFOLD, ENTWINE
2 : to involve or indicate by inference, association, or necessary consequence rather than by
direct statement imply obligations>
3 : to contain potentially
4 : to express indirectly implied consent>
synonyms see SUGGEST

usage see INFER

One of the things that I'm always trying to get across to friends and students is to "Imply" shapes behind
other shapes. Walt used to draw a circle over a circle and call it an orange in front of an orange to
describe overlap. The drawn lines of the oranges behind the front one where inferred to exemplify body
shapes or tree shapes or whatever it was behind what we drew. The other was the mountain example
which was pretty self explanatory. I'll use the orange example for the post.

When you look at the definition of "Imply" it starts with obsolete meaning no longer in use or no longer
useful. This could help, by thinking we don't need to draw what we can't see the hidden shapes within
the overlap. The second definition is about inferring and not drawing too direct. To infer the shapes
behind others. The third we are containing the shapes behind others and the fourth
is indirect expression of the shapes. HA! it all relates when you think about overlap and how we can
draw the orange behind the orange!

I had to put the examples first, blogger was acting up!

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 10:24 PM

http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2010/10/mr-stick-man-vs-contour-approach.html

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Mr. Stick man vs. the contour approach
People use the stick man to guide them along in their sketches way too much. I go to class and many
people draw that stick figure guy before any shape of the model is attempted. I've seen portfolios with
that stick man peeking through. Ive even seen commercials with the stick man acting and posing for the
audience.

I dont like him! When hes used in a gesture sketch he gets in the way of rhythm and clarity. I
understand why people draw him - Line of action, forms, volume. Thats been the whole excuse for his
existence. I guess he was used in beginning art classes to simplify gesture to the most rudimentary state
so we could grasp the idea of anatomy and form - but the problem is hes never left our brains and a lot
of artists still depend on him as a friend, but hes not!!!

Maybe Im being a little insensitive to Mr. stickman but maybe a contour approach is worth considering.

In the beginning of a sketch we want to start building the pose out. I like to start with the abstract
shape as I build the sketch. Those lines that I put down and commit to are usually contour lines that I
will use and if not use - closely guide me to the final product.

When students watch me sketch some interrupt and say oh youre outlining. But thats not true, Im
building lines around the shapes in my head. Im trying to have foresight in my approach. Thus not
having extraneous lines that get in the way of lines and shapes that matter. I believe that we all can
project the line of action in our heads as we develop the sketch and look for the gesture.
Heres an example of what I mean. After doing this sketch below I retraced the strokes that it took to
complete them. Mr. Stickman took approx, 24 strokes and Ms. Foresight-Contour girl took approx, 28
strokes. It took roughly about the same effort to draw Ms. Foresight as it did drawing Mr. Stickman.

As I finished the sketch on the right I was able to use lines that I started with and counting strokes aside,
the lines became more valuable. Mr. Stickmans lines are always going to be conflicting with his final
lines. I also get more for my money by thinking about other principles as I draw, such as acting, straights
against curves, squash and stretch, body twists, stability and weight.
In this example the drawing on the left shows where I started using lines that matter. The right one
shows the same lines put to good use without any inner lines getting in the way. You can say that Ive
developed a new kind of stick figure using curved and straight rhythm lines that contour the shape of
the model to reach my final sketch.
Its not always easy to grasp and it takes a lot of drawing and sketching time to feel comfortable
excluding internal line work. Some artists are naturals but if youre like me it takes a lot of good
practice.

On these last pieces I started with this whole approach and you can see faint lines within the final
drawing where I was building shapes. There are no stickman lines at all with in the interior and that
makes me very happy.

Ive talked enough. Ill leave you with advice that Walt Stanchfield gave me when I asked how can I
improve? He simply said

Draw Draw Draw!!!

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 11:27 PM
http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2011/06/straights-and-curves.html

Friday, June 10, 2011

straights "AND" curves

I know we ALL know it, but straights against curves is always thrown into the ears of my
students constantly. I can't emphasize it enough! I believe it's one of the cornerstones of art and
design. In my small example here I took one of my sketches from my class and drew over it
with various lil' examples of where this applies.

To say straights against curves may only conjure up one design to the theory. But if we say
straight "AND" curves it may open up our mind to more variation.

Let it be a psychological "click" in your mind! Straights "AND" Curves!

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 11:02 AM
http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2012/05/observational-drawing.html

Friday, May 18, 2012

Observational Drawing

I want to share my impression of what it means when I say observational drawing.

Many times people can get the idea that observational drawing means to literally observe every nook and cranny of
the object or model. Wrinkles, cracks, knuckles, follicles, pours, nose hairs or whatever can be seen is put into the
artwork.
I think there can be a place for such detailed type of artwork but when I teach the idea of observational drawing I
teach the study of story telling through drawing. Thats the most important part of it all. If the drawing conveys story
and meaning its that much more valuable as a piece of art.
We need to connect with the meaning of our drawings. If there's no story or meaning to the drawing that was
supposed to be from observation then theres less interest by the viewer. it becomes lines smudges and medium on
paper rather than impressions of moments captured that evoke an emotion or reaction.
Thats my goal in observational drawing. To capture a story or a meaning that makes you think or inspires you to feel
something. One thing I definitely do not do is force anyone into a particular style by forcing details into their art that
dont tell the story.
the key is what are we observing? the Story or literal detail that can add up to no meaning?
Dont let style define substance.

These one and a half second sketches were of my wife in P90x mode. I tried to convey the energy in the effort and I
thank her for letting me show these. Frankly I should have joined her. I could stand to loose a few pounds haha.
http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2012/07/abstract-shapes.html

Monday, July 02, 2012

Abstract shapes

Recently I've been asked how to get the "whole" body into a drawing in the time it takes to get a gesture
down. Some artists fall into a piece meal kind of sketching where they draw the form sections
separately from one another. I encourage and challenge you to strive to capture the whole gesture as
one piece as early as possible when sketching.

I like to think of the whole gesture as an abstract shape that encompasses the feel and attitude I'm
going for. Within the first ten to fifteen seconds of the drawing I'm blocking out shapes that allow the
gesture to live within it.

Henri Matisse inspires me with his abstract silhouette paper cut outs when I think of this direction. The
deceptive simplicity is very impressive and I believe we can be inspired by his work.

Henri Matisse

When gesture drawing we don't really have time for too much detail, we need to get the whole thing
down fast. I like to call this abstract shape the trajectory of a pose. It's a planning stage that allows you
to buy the impression you are creating and sends the drawing in a direction allowing you to finish even if
the subject has moved on.

In thinking about this stuff I decided to take a break from the Cintiq and slum it with the chinamarker on
paper. I sketched this stuff out of my head and wrote lil' notes to assist my thoughts above. All sketches
were done quick in under a minute each for the more detailed.
Draw! Draw! Draw!
Posted by Dave Pimentel at 5:34 PM
http://drawingsfromamexican.blogspot.ru/2012/11/centerline
-box-thought.html
Monday, November 12, 2012
Centerline Box thought

Walt Stanchfield used to really get cranky when our sketches where too straight up and
down. So when I'm teaching (and drawing my own sketches) I try to tell the artist to LEAN the
pose, push that hip out, move the pose more left and right etc....

If you imagine a box around the drawing from it's furthest edges you should be able to also
imagine a centerline down the middle. That centerline helps you see if the drawing is too
straight up and down. It also helps to keep the work asymmetrical and balanced.

My sketches below show the box that I'm talking about. I didn't actually draw the box but I was
thinking "no straight up and down, no straight up and down!"

Hopefully this works for you because it really helps me to get that LEAN in that Walt talked
about.

Forgive the quality of the Iphone pics.

Posted by Dave Pimentel at 12:43 AM