"XRay" Update

I think this process is just as important (if not more) than the piece itself. The whole purpose of doing this piece "XRay" is to not only show that I can complete something that I start (believe it or not, it rarely happens with my own work that only depends on myself), but also to really break down the figure when it's in motion and seriously analyze what happens to the line of action, the body's composition, and how that all interrelates. I also want to understand how the physical and accurate movement of a person directly relates to if it was animated, what can be pushed, what shouldn't be pushed, and what the audience sees vs. what is actually happening. I find all of this fascinating and usually an artist is either exposed to one or the other in extremes, very rarely both- unless it's motion capture. And even then, it's not drawing.

So in taking this opportunity to learn all of this, and I think it's imperative that I share my findings with the public since most of you probably won't do anything to this extent.

First off, I have to get out of the way that I am my most creative when I have obstacles in my way. For this project, namely, it's drawing. Haven't been drawing my whole life and it definitely shows. So I am using a combo of photoshop brushes that I manipulated to create the splatter effects. And instead of drawing these out as they are thrown against the canvas, I'm using a method I have very commonly used before... erasure. I take the final image and erase backwards frame by frame to make it appear as if it's being painted when it plays forward. Mind you, it's not JUST erasure (I'll usually manipulate it a touch to breathe life into what's happening), but that's the basic principle. And since it's only 15-30 frames or so each, that doesn't have to be as accurate as another project would require.

I also haven't been doing figure drawing my whole life, and it took me until recently to fully understand the meaning of an "Action Line". At first, I didn't quite get it. I literally drew the entire piece (extremes only) about 3 times before it really started to click for me. I started out pose by pose following only the spine, and then I switched to just the weight and energy, but neither of those will accurately display what is physically going on with the figure until you combine the two. Now this is where it gets good... animation helped me understand that because figure drawing is static and relatively lifeless. They put the model into a pose, and you have no idea how they "got there" in context, where they are going, or where they are transitioning their weight. Clearly, in the figure drawing, this doesn't matter because it's based on the energy of the pose, but ultimately, it took a moving figure for me to really get this. Now when I apply it to a static figure, it makes WAY more sense, and I can pull from that idea when I'm lost. Another key point is you should keep the line going through the middle of her torso, and incorporate the head. Ultimately, it looks like just a line, but there is a lot of thought and analysis that must go into it in order to capture the essence of the pose. Here's an example of my lines thus far:

Another handicap is anatomy... I never took the class and I barely understand it. I can tell when something looks weird, but I can't tell you why. So for the part where I turn her into a skeleton, clearly there is a lot that I don't know and I don't want the piece to be about how inaccurate the anatomy looks since it's solely based on live movement. So I have a 3D skeleton, and I'm going to very loosely take renders of it in those positions and draw over it. I don't want to draw all 250ish bones, but the basic ones should do the trick (large and defining bones). But, this will serve two purposes: I can learn about how the bones will look relative to the body position (if the rig's integrity holds), and I will learn a little about perspective.


I'll upload more with transition tests, screen shots, and some more updates when I have them. Next stop is the boxes, however, I have the feeling (due to my complete lack of talent in perspective, it's going to be a while). I am really happy with how far I've come with this piece, and I can't wait to see the final product!

Let me know what you think so far! Thanks!