Drawing

Wide Variety & More

Variety Show

by Mr. Rogers

Notes: There is 1 assignment highlighted in blue on this page and 1 optional assignment highlighted in yellow.

Assignment #1: Wide Variety of Figures

Materials:

  • 8.5×11 White paper
  • Pencils (Colored Pencils or Regular or 2H/2B)

Resources:

  • The videos in this post
  • The Character Variety Examples Slides in the Unit 1 resources folder. 📁

Goal:

  • Our new goal is to draw a variety of different character types with a focus on shape, proportion, and style.
  • Our continuing goal is to use gesture drawing techniques to create dynamic and lively figure drawings. Then we will apply an additional layer of structure (I use a red colored pencil for the initial gesture and then add structure and definition with a blue colored pencil) .

Essential Research & Reference:

  • Take a good look at the varied examples of character art in the Character Variety Examples Slides in the Unit 1 resources folder. 📁

Instructions:

  • Looking at the Character Variety Examples Slides 📁 (in schoology) for inspiration, fill your page with gesture drawings of characters in a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles.
  • Our goal is to really pack the figures in on this page: One way you can do that is by fitting small and odd shaped characters into the spaces between larger drawings.
  • You will need to create at 8 to 12 figures and leave a minimum of empty space: see example below:
  • Just like our previous assignment, try and spend no more than one minute per drawing. I drew the (initial red colored pencil layer) figures above in about eight and a half minutes. Keeping our drawings quick at this stage allows for spontaneity and keeps our focus on the shapes and pose.

Example Video #1: First Layer

In the first video above I start with a line of action for each drawing and try and. create a variety of different characters:

  • Note that some figures have rubber hose arms and legs while others have more articulated arms and legs with elbows and knees.
  • I’ve tried to create figures of various sizes.

Example Video #2: Next Layer

In the video above I spend about a minute on each figure cleaning up the structure and refining my line work. Note that I make changes on some figures at this stage.

Optional Assignment: Style Try-Outs

This assignment is optional, unless you have finished all of the other Unit 1 assignments while the rest of the class is still finishing.

Materials:

  • Newsprint or Regular Printer paper
  • Pencils (Colored Pencil or Regular)

Resources:

  • The videos in this post
  • The work you did in the previous assignment above.

Goal:

  • Our new goal is to take your favorite figures from the last assignment for a test drive. What that means is you are focusing on the work you felt was most successful from the last assignment and trying to refine those figures and draw them in different poses.
  • By exploring these designs more you can discover if you want to move forward with a particular way of drawing these figures and making them into actual characters.

Instructions:

  • Choose at least two different types of figures from your previous assignment and redraw those characters in new poses on a new piece of paper (or papers. if you need more room).
  • As an example: I decided to try out a couple of figures in two styles:
  • As slightly more streamlined figures with rubber-hose type arms and legs (on the left).
  • As more articulated figures with elbows, knees, and slightly more defined musculature (on the right).

Example:

Videos: