Doing a proper life drawing class has been something that I’ve looked forward to for a long time. For me, drawing has been something that I’ve been doing intuitively, yet I learned from this class that we can approach life drawing based on its purposes. This reminds me of the classic design principle “form follows function”. For this class, the drawing served as prior communication data that will be used for animation purposes. Some of these data are gesture, flow, volume, etc.
From what I observed from my drawing, I realised that I do have some drawing habits that I need to minimize so I could adapt well to this class. For example, I tend to draw the figure part by part, that in my opinion, interrupted the flow of the gesture. And I also realised that just because the figure that I drew was clear in my eyes (as in the understanding of its volume, direction, pose) it may not be translated well to other people’s eyes, which meant that it doesn’t communicate well.
Week by week I tried to gradually change how I approach life drawing based on the information and materials that were given in the class, such as applying the beans principle, how to create the line of action, how to focus more on the flow of the gesture, etc. And I do see some differences and changes in how I draw. What is challenging for me is, every time I panic (Usually during the 30 seconds), my old habit is back. But this class helped me in these gradual changes, and I am quite optimistic that it will help me improve more and more.