Cartoonist Stan Drake had a gift for drawing from photographs. He easily turned photos into elegant line.
But a photograph couldn’t show him how to draw those invisible motion lines. Look how awkwardly Drake expressed movement in this next picture.
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| Drake’s motion lines are contradicted by the hair hanging flat and other body language |
Similarly, look how badly Al Hirschfeld– a talented artist in other respects– draws the path of this punch:
Contrast Hirschfeld’s motion line with the line of Leonard Starr, who understood the arc of an arm:
Motion lines expose many an artist who doesn’t know anatomy. A photograph can’t help you map invisible lines.
Capturing movement with a static drawing requires an artist to imply beyond what is visible. To show what has taken place before or after the recorded instant, it helps to understand the distribution of body weight and support, balance and counterbalance, the function of muscle and bone, the flow of clothing and hair.
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| Notice how there’s no weight behind this punch. |
Photo reference is a great tool for artists who have already paid their dues but if you haven’t, it leaves you exposed when it comes to the invisible parts of drawing.