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 Primaries of Design When I was developing a drawing style for Aladdin years ago we were referencing Persian Miniatures, and Al Hirshfield and trying to find the common denominator that would give style unique to the show.  In the late 1980's at Disney it felt like there was a lot of pressure to try to create shows that could in some way measure up to the genius of the early Disney films.  It wasn't enough for us to merely "put our stamp on it", I felt I wanted to design something iconic that would be for but one purpose.  What would be the best way to visually express this story at this time and in some way attempt to infuse timeless qualities, pretty lofty goal.  Since the style was completely contrived and not expressed in either mine, or Richard Vander Wende's personal work, it took a good amount of exploration.  At one point I felt that I had 5 drawings that were beginning to define a direction, yet two were not quite there and I was puzzling why.  I had been
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Class Assignments

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 Here are some examples of class assignments in Inventive Drawing at ArtCenter We begin with short poses of 5 to 7 minutes.  These are to be observational concentrating sprints, not gestural quick sketch.  We are learning to observe more deeply and capture the weight, balance and rhythm along with proper proportions.  The process begins with pausing before you draw.  Observe to analyze commit to memory.  Avoid the glance and mark, glance and mark.  That is a mindless task that leaves little analysis or understanding.  Begin with the head, apply enough information to see the silhouette, a bit of volume, and most importantly which direction the head is facing and tilting.  From there go to the pit of the neck and draw a vertical line.  See which foot is closer to that line and that should also be the leg with more weight.  The figure is not drawn with standard 8 heads.  The height and proportion will vary depending if you are in the front row on a short bench or in the back on a high ben
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The Marks We Make

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The Marks We Make   In this post I have gathered drawings from different artists, different centuries, and different cultures.  Regardless of their individual styles,  what they have in common is they made a specific effort to display variation within the marks they put down.  In most drawings the change comes between material differences.  But I hesitate to suggest any rule here, rather the observation that their search for differences in the application of these marks provides variety, and clarity more in line with how we experience and see in nature.  But lines do not exist in nature, so the marks we choose to make and their juxtaposition has a great impact on image clarity, visual style, and how others interpret our images.  These artists observed very well the rich variety and visual nuance that exists in nature then reinterpreted by clarifying variation of distinctive marks, then designating them to shapes, or zones within their images.  Establishing the hierarchy between the var
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