These are the words of the man who created Disneyland which everyone knows. What does it mean?
Master Animator and Director of ‘ Who Framed Roger Rabbit ‘ Richard Williams wrote in his book ‘ The Animators Survival Kit ‘ …
” Good drawing is not copying the surface. It has to do with understanding and expression. We don’t want to learn to draw just to end up being impassioned in showing off our knowledge of joints and muscles. We want to get the reality that a camera can’t get. We want to accentuate and suppress aspects of the model’s character to make it more vivid.”
What does he mean?
Nick Meglin, the coeditior of MAD magazine wrote these words in his book ‘ Drawing from Within ‘ ….
” Drawing can be a deeply satisfying, personal experience if we let it be just that. We often bring to this experience so many outside considerations that unfortunately, the pure, simple pleasure of self expression becomes muddled and complex. We make the mistake of looking outside ourselves for the validation of what is, in fact an inner experience. We look to others for approval, for them to tell us how good our work is before we can feel good about having done it. In other words : We draw for others. ”
Read these words once again. You will find a similarity underlying their statements. I will explain that underlying similarity later.
Now I will tell something about their way of thinking.
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| My Child. Artist: Magunta Dayakar |
Walt Disney …
One day Walt Disney went to an amusement park with his daughters to entertain them. There he observed filthy conditions of the park and parents of the children sitting idly because there is nothing for them to spend time on, while children are having fun and playing.
That moment he got the vision of a new kind of amusement park where children and parents will enjoy together. That vision which he got at the moment later turned out to be Disneyland.
Once construction of the park began, Walt wanted to know always, everything that was going on in the park. He knew about everything. He knew where water pipes were, how tall buildings were, he knew how the park ticked.
One time Walt visited the park, and noticed things were a little sloppy. He found the maintenance engineer of the park, and told him “I want this place painted”. The engineer agreed, and said “We’ll do it over the weekend.” “No, I want it painted by morning,” ordered Walt. Dozens of painting crews painted throughout the night, and finished before the park opened.
After reading this try to analyse what kind of mind he has.
Next we will see … Richard Williams…
When he was fifty years old, he was pretty accomplished by that time. Read these words in first person from Richard Williams.
” … John Watkiss – then a twenty three year old, self-taught, brilliant draftsman and anatomist – held his own life drawing classes in London. I used to hire John periodically to do presentation art work and we were friendly. I went to John’s evening life classes for a while and one day John, who is ruthlessly honest, pointed to my drawing and said, ‘Hey! You missed a stage!’ I felt like a butterfly pinned to the wall. He was right. I knew exactly what he meant. I was weak from a sculptural point of view. I was too linear. Years later, when I had dropped out of the ‘industry’ part of animation, I re-studied my anatomy and worked on drawing from the inside out.I advanced backwards and filled in the missing stage. “
After reading this try to analyse what kind of character he had.
Next we will go to Nick Meglin, the coeditior of MAD magazine …
Nick in his own words…” When students ask me to ”correct” their work, I generally refuse. I used to tell them … ” Your correction is more valuable than mine. ” I explain. …” I’d only be altering your work to fit my perception. Look at the model. Do you see that the hand on your drawing is larger in relationship to the head than the model’s? Place the heel of your hand on your chin. Now extend your fingers to your fore head. Generally the longest finger reaches somewhere in the middle between your brow and hairline. Having experienced that, now forget it! It’s not a solution, and it’s not a ‘rule of thumb’. By observing nuances such as these, you will be more aware of the ‘norm’ so that your own ‘distortions’ will be the result of conscious choice.” after this Nick commented…” Suggestions such as these can help to guide students to search for solutions through their own observations. Lessons like these in my opinion-not fact- are certainly more effective than an instructor’s corrections.”
After reading these words try to analyse what Nick meant, and what similarities are there in these three different peoples’ characters! And what is the creative mind they had?
(To be continued next week)