A Note on Using Reference

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Maybe most of you can relate to this story:
         5th grade, and all your classmates know you are the kid that can 'draw'. You have a little sketch book of drawings of Pokemon and other random things you think are cool. You take pride in your drawings and you kinda let yourself feel like: "hell yea, you know what? I CAN draw" Then one day you are put on the spot, someone asks you if you can draw them a Tiger. You try to say you don't draw in front of people but everyone crowds around because they want to see how you draw a tiger. So you try to draw a tiger and the damn drawing ends up looking like freakin kitty cat.

          Why is it that when you are at home laying stomach down and you have a ripped page from a magazine to look at and copy from, you can draw anything! But when you try to draw from your mind and have nothing for reference all your drawing skills disappear?

WHY?
          Well in my opinion: When one hasn't developed a photographic memory, their mind usually defaults to cliches and generic drawing solutions. While developing as artist, free style drawing is usually their weakest area. People like drawings that breath life and remind them of the real thing. Even if the drawing isn't perfectly photo-realistic, if it has enough detail from your reference, people will accept it. This is probably why life/figure drawings or copied drawings usually get a lot of wow's, ooo's, and Ah's. They were drawn from life/something real and they have details in them that regular people wouldn't think of including into a drawing. Even caricatures and portraits are specific enough where the viewer accepts the drawing enough where they start to invent personalities and feelings to associate with the image.

         Every artist uses reference in one way or another. Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Norman Rockwell and even Disney artists! They all use reference. (they actually used live models, they would sketch them and then use their sketches as reference while working on their final painting) But using reference doesn't mean 'to copy', reference is to be used as a starting point and it should always be improved upon.

IMPROVE UPON?
           Here are a few images from the 1950's I found on the internet. You will see the reference in black and white and the finished painting on the right. You can see the photo the artist used for their foundation and if you study it closely you can see the specific changes the artist made in the final piece of art. Use this chance to test your observational skills and see how many changes you can spot between the reference and the final painting. If you want a greater challenge: Try to figure out WHY the artist made each change.

ARMS: The artist chose to switch the girls arms so that the other one held up the sheet.

LEGS: are more vertical up and down than in the photo. Forces the legs to line up with the vertical arm above them. which makes a line that leads you to the face of the girl. And the face in turn, leads your gaze to the mirror. You might think I'm over thinking it but these are just some of the elements that make a drawing stand out from the rest.

LEANING towards the mirror rather than away. 

EYES: in the reflection her eyes were changed to look down to bring focus on the tan line.

MIRROR: shape is changed. A square is too masculine! A circle is a much more 'softer' shape to compliment the female.

HEAD:Turning the head screen right forces a twist in the body/neck that is visually more interesting than having all the main body parts orientated in the same direction.

LEGS: Are tucked in to simplify the silhouette 

ARMS: Are changed so that the object's silhouette do not compete with the woman's silhouette. The box top is brought in closer to the body.
PILLOW: It's a better decision to tuck it in behind her so that she 'leans forward' more towards the viewer 

Very little difference here

         Sometimes the artist will really like their reference and literally copy it. *GASP* ...and it's not a bad thing! *DOUBLE GASP* Your audience will never see your reference so all they know is that these drawings/paintings have come straight out from your imagination. It might feel like cheating but it's not. When all is said and done it is still your work and your decisions that we see. Keep in mind this is not the right and only way to use reference. I urge you to find your own (but similar) process for using reference. Stay away from stiff character designs and generic poses!! 

Art of Disney's FROZEN

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“Now then, let us begin. When we are at the end of the story, we shall know more than we know now: but to begin.”   -Hans Christian Anderson, "The Snow Queen" 

Anna Drawing Artist: Jin Kim

Elsa the snow queen by Jin Kim

 How do you take an idea and show it to the world? DRAWINGS!
     
        It took about 600 artist to make the movie FROZEN. All 600 deserve their moment in the lime light but I want to specifically bring attention to some amazing art made by some talented people at Disney. It took 70 years of off and on development, innumerable story variations, and many failed attempts but the Snow Queen finally has finally been initiated into the disney family. Enjoy these concept/visual development drawings and paintings I have collected from the corners of the internet of my fellow Disney Artists. David Womersley did the following landscapes!

Landscapes show scale and can set the tone of the story (Artist: David Womersley)

Snow isn't just white, snow can reflect a spectrum of colors! (Artist: David Womersley)

       Keep in mind that 80 percent of all art work made for a movie is never seen by the outside world. Why? Because when an artist is drawing for a movie, they are exploring the film. For example: this means an artist might do a hundred drawings trying to figure out how a character should look. "Is he too short, no he should be taller, he looks too old in this drawing, ooh how about a beard? Is he too skinny?" The artist draws and draws until finally, he/she comes across a drawing the director likes. That chosen drawing is the only one to live on while the other hundreds of exploratory drawings are put away. These drawings below by Brittney Lee and Bill Schwab are golden.

Artist: Bill Schwab

arttist: Bill Schwab

Artist: Brittney Lee

In my opinion, this is one of the best Disney dress of all time (artist: Brittney Lee) 

      These following model packets show the range of emotion for the sisters and Olaf. As an animator these drawings serve as guidelines and they help us keep the characters on model. Every character has a specific personality, We work to make sure everyone knows every characteristic of each character so that they are believable when they are up on the screen. They really capture the essence of the "Disney appeal." Jin Kim and Hyun Min Lee are the talented artists responsible for model packets below! 

good drawing = strong knowledge of techniques and life drawing (Jim Kim)

I love to practice drawing these on my spare time (Jim Kim)

Olaf and appealing mouth shapes! (Artist: Hyun Min Lee)

      Below are some Paintings from Lisa Keene. She is great at showing a full emotional range of color within an icy white setting. Check out these next three paintings by Her

Artist: Lisa Keene

Artist: Lisa Keene

Artist Lisa Keene

___________________________________________________________

THE SNOW QUEEN

“Many a winter’s night she flies through the streets of the town, and peeps in at

the windows; and they then freeze in so wondrous a manner that they look like flowers.”

“It was a lady; her cloak and cap were of snow. She was tall and of slender figure, and of a dazzling whiteness. It was the Snow Queen.”

The Snow Queen by Elena Ringo

“… a woman, dressed in garments of white gauze, which looked like millions of starry snow-flakes linked together. She was fair and beautiful, but made of ice — shining and glittering ice. Still she was alive and her eyes sparkled like bright stars, but there was neither peace nor rest in their glance”

Copyright Disney Enterprises Inc

Artist: Marc Davis

Disney has been trying to make this movie for years..  Copyright Disney Enterprises Inc

       Why was it so hard to make the Snow Queen into a film? Mostly because in the original story the Queen is described beautifully but is lacking in personality and is completely un-relatable. Her actions are unexplained and she is not even present in the climax of the original story. How could one make an entire movie out of a character that has no dimension? This has been the question of the century in the Walt Disney studios since 1943... 

     Finally, the making of The Little Mermaid, another tale by Hans C. Andersen, was a success for Disney and literature once again springboard for Disney features. Many people tried to work on the story of the Snow Queen, even Disney Legend Glenn Keane tried but to no avail. After Tangled was a success, in 2010 the studio again tried to thaw the story of the Snow Queen with the directors from Beauty and Beast and an army of established artists.. John Lasseter also joined the fray as executive producer but again the story did not work...

      Disney then announced the film under the title, FROZEN! It was to be made and they gave it a release date and all! No story, no characters, no where to start!!!?? One simple suggestion changed all that:

“What if Anna and Elsa were sisters?”

      The rest is history, from that little suggestion the Snow Queen snow balled into what it is today. The resulting story is inspired by the original story and nothing more. The integral themes of the Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale are still intact: Love, Family, and finding your inner strength. This movie no matter what flaws it may have, has an equal number of reasons to be able to stand on it's own and hold a place in the pantheon of Disney Classics. 

David Womersley and Brittney Lee

Art: Lisa Keene

Shape and line must me continued through broken structures (design) Artist: David W.

    Go watch the movie and I hope you like it! Stay after the credits and you'll get a bonus clip and if you search and look hard enough, you might see some cameos by another Disney princess!!!! That's all I'm saying :) Thanks for reading, soak in the art and always keep in mind, my blog = my thoughts. They are not facts, just insights from my world here at Disney that I love sharing with you!

Artist Brittney Lee

Artist: Hyun Min Lee

OALF!! Artist: Hyun Min Lee

Shiyoon Kim

Drawing 101: Training Your Eye

"There are two ways of thinking about painting, how     not to do it and how to do it; how to do it -- with much drawing and little color; how not to do it -- with much color and little drawing." 

(Letter to Theo van Gogh, April 1882)

      No matter what style you might draw/paint in, it is essential to at least know how to depict things with accurately. The foundation of being able to do so, is knowing how to judge proportions. When I judge proportions while life drawing, I try don't rely too much on my background knowledge of anatomy. I try to judge and draw with what my eye sees instead. Learn how to OBSERVE! Things I might say to myself while I draw, "Well from this angle the head is half the length or her thigh.. her right thigh is parallel to her left arm, and it looks like her head also lines up with her left arm but it obviously doesn't have the same angle as her right thigh. Therefore her head has an angle of its own I have to reflect in my drawing." etc etc... (notice how I talk about parts and not the body as a whole.. You must learn to see and draw the parts that make the 'whole'. You use the 'whole' to guide the over all direction of the smaller parts it consists of so that they exist and look as one.)  

      Looking at a model, a building, an object with this mindset/perspective is not easy. Its a very technical way of looking at your subject in order to get an accurate drawing. Thats why life drawing WITH a teacher is always more beneficial to you than drawing alone because they point out where your eye is weak in observing the subject. The teacher guides you. 

      When I was in high school we didn't have classes like I had in college. So I had to find my own way to improve and start training my eyes. The easiest way to start training your eyes to start learning how to line things up and see the PARTS of your subject instead. Using a grid is a simple example of using lines to guide your drawing. Soon with enough training you will be able to use the same technique with out any visual aids. But if you are just starting to learn how to draw, stick with a grid until you can use it to draw your pictures very accurately. 

      - To use a grid, you grab a picture and draw a grid over it. how many lines the grid has is up to you. But make sure that the grid on your drawing paper is pretty much exactly the same!

 - Then start section by section. Look at the parts that make the whole and draw the shapes they make and not the subject. Look for negative and positive shapes (if you do not know what I mean USE GOOGLE.. you have all of mankind's knowledge at your fingertips. start tapping into it by googling something for yourself. you'll be glad you did.)

Here, the Helen South (awesome tutorial instructor) started to cover parts of the picture so that they could focus on a section of the drawing. 

Remember I mentioned something about positive and negative shapes? on the right hand side: the negative shape is shaded in. You can think of a negative shape as: the space that your subject does not occupy. Notice where the edge of the jug crosses the grid line (is that half way? 1/3? 1/4th?? ) and make sure that your drawing does the same.

      When I was younger I would love to use the grid to draw some of my favorite characters and pictures. Always keep in mind: copying is not the goal! Training your eye is! As soon as you are good at using the grid to replicate drawings, then its time to move on to other techniques such as life drawing and depicting things that are in front of you. To many people get comfortable  and content with themselves in being able to copy very realistically. but when you ask them to draw a face from real life.. they are unable to. This is because copying only deals with LINES not FORM. One must learn to draw things with volume and form. You can not learn this from just copying flat pictures. This is why its important to move on and to not become content with being able to just copy. Your imagination dies when you get stuck copying. 

      I drew this in high-school using a grid on a 3in X 6in magazine photo. 

   This is the first post of a 3. Next will be a little more about whats the next step to do to develop your eye. I hope this post helped out any readers who need the help! And for those who are just curious, I hope it gave you insight into a perspective you might not be familiar with. Happy drawing. 

Thanks for reading,  -Danny