The Art and Feel of Making it Real: Gesture Drawing for the Animation and Entertainment Industry

by Mark McDonnell, Remi Sklar (Editor)

Mark McDonnell's The Art and Feel of Making it Real: Gesture Drawing for the Animation and Entertainment Industry is the one-source book animation and entertainment enthusiasts have been waiting for! This self-published hardback contains 208-pages of full color illustrations and instruction offering artists the key to opening the door to the long guarded secrets of studio only techniques, theories and practices. This book will help explain how to design and capture the essence of life through the knowledge of gesture drawing, increase observation skills and use basic design principles that will help to fuel the power of your imagination . . . all of which are important and necessary skills to have in the animation and entertainment industry! This book applies to animators, storyboard artists, visual development artists, concept designers and any person interested in working in the animation and entertainment industry. From hobbyists to industry professionals, this is the book that will help you create successful images with a strong focus on storytelling skills! Mark McDonnell has blended his own sensibilities of instruction as well as continued teaching Walt Stanchfield's theories and practices at the Walt Disney Company to its employees and artists. This book is in addition to Stanchfield's previous thoughts and practices and is more focused on tailoring teachings and words of wisdom to the industry and how it functions in today's times. It comes with a foreword by the legendary Eric Goldberg (Director/Supervising Animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios), and contributing words by Andreas Deja (Supervising Animator/Visual Development Artist at the Walt Disney Animation Studios), Marcelo Vignali (Art Director/ Visual Development Artist at Sony Pictures Animation), and industry instructor Karl Gnass (Master Draftsman & Figure Drawing Instructor).

Genres: Drawing

208 pages, Hardcover

First published April 20, 2009

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 4 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

The Art and Feel of Making it Real: Gesture Drawing for the Animation and Entertainment Industry is a book looking to give people tips on gesture drawing. This is not a book teaching anatomy.

Gesture drawing is more of observation and most importantly to put meaning and story into a pose. The subjects covered in the book includes using good silhouette, defining form and volume, using perspective aids, adding props and backgrounds, color linking, different mediums and others. All these are tips and things to look out for. The lessons come with lots of self drawn examples from Mark McDonnell himself.

There are numerous spelling mistakes in the book, of which the most uncool is probably to misspell the name of Walt Stanchfield, especially so when he's referred to as the inspiration.

Overall, the book provides really practical tips, although at times, I wished the book would talk more about posture of people in different emotions.

If you're looking to read more on gesture drawing, be sure to grab Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfield as well. There are two volumes with a total of over 800 pages on more gesture drawing tips. And maybe Will Eisner's Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative also.