So far we've talked about actors as art school models and dancers as art school models...that leaves only one more category that needs to be covered....
...FUNNY models.
If you're an artist and you're interested in comedy just imagine the giant strides you could make if you had funny models to work from: models who get it, someone who isn't offended if you exaggerate some anatomical flaw.
A good teacher will bring props to class that might heighten the effect: glasses, funny wigs, fake buck teeth, etc.
It would be fun to team up two draped models who have opposite personalities. An overbearing Marie Dressler-type (above) would make a great foil for a Mr. Meek-type (like me, above).
Grouches make great comedy models because they're good at reacting to things. They do great slow burns when someone does something stupid in front of them, and when they finally yell it's massive.
Hero types are fun to draw.
They could stuff their shirts with towels to get a funny physique.
Legs are always funny...even mens' legs...if they're wearing the right pants.
With baggy pants models you could tell a funny story using only leg poses....no part of the model's upper body would be visible.
Skinny legs would also work.
So would sexy legs.
The male model every cartoonist would like to have drawn was Eric Campbell (above), the villain in Chaplin's best shorts.
Sigh! The Campbells of the world are probably hard to find....or are they?
This (above) is what Campbell looked like when he was offscreen... a real nice guy, not at all like the bad guy he played in the films. Maybe you know a nice guy who can be converted into a good villain model.
A draped two model session, male and female, offer great posing possibilities.
They make for great romantic scenarios, too.
Just make sure they're different heights.
Haw! Here's a sketch idea for two models: the guy stumbles on a coin-operated robotic love machine and decides to try it. No, no, no...nothing obscene happens...but the girl's hands caress his head, play with his tie, squirt him with cologne, empty his wallet, etc.
I've already mentioned this but it bears repeating: nothing I've suggested is meant to displace classical figure drawing. The picture above makes an eloquent argument for the classical approach. I just think cartoonists would benefit from both types of drawing session.
***************
BTW: here's a fascinating animated short about art models. Many, many thanks to Kelly Toons for the link!!!!!!!!!
For the kind of model session that Theory Corner cartoonists might like, I'd I like to see a catwalk made of collapsible tables.
The model would walk on that.
If the model was a dancer, even an amateur dancer, that would be great.
Of course the catwalk makes possible a dance that's also a walk. I see the individual poses as lasting no more than three or four minutes. I kinda like the idea of overlapping some of the drawings to get the effect you see above.
A catwalk makes it easier to do funny walks and eccentric dancing.
There's no end of funny walks.
Some walks and dances look better when more than one dancer does them. No problem. You just sketch in the clones after class.
Two models can become eight, as in this dance of Fosse's: The Rich Man's Frug."
Or one man becomes three. The choreography for a session like this could be improvised or planned. Me, I'd love to think of moves for sidemen to do.
Poses involving animals like horses are no problem. You draw the model-driven rider poses then add the cartoony horses later.
Or the cow.
If you had two models doing different walks at the same time you could combine the drawings in a sort of collage.
Haw! I'm just kidding with the picture above, but it does serve to make my point...that female models dominate art school classes, and not just for the obvious reason.
Female silhouettes follow lyrical, curved lines that begin at the head and follow through to the feet. They're beautiful, no doubt about it.
Men, on the other hand, are lumpy. The parts just don't fit together. Let's face it, realistic men are not as fun to draw as realistic women.
If more evidence is needed I refer you to the comparison above.
Now don't get me wrong. Art and artists need men. If you could boil all of art down to just one principal it would be the combination of force and grace in the same object or situation. We men are half that combination so we have an earned place at the table. Even so, the problem remains....how do we make men more fun to draw?
My own solution is acting. I picture gifted amateur actor-models working in twos, one male and one female. A story outline dominates the session.
It could be a comedy...
..or a drama.
Or some combination of the two.
A script is okay, but I picture improvised situations based on a loose outline, spoken dialogue only if it feels right. A whole story or fragments of different stories. The important thing is that whatever fragments are used, they should lend themselves to visuals that are fun to act and fun to draw.
It would be fun to alternate comedy with drama, or solos with match-ups. I could see a male actor doing a solo variation a bit like Chris Crocker's "Leave Britany Alone!" Of course you'd have to change the timing to freeze some of the poses and give the class time to draw.
I could see a solo woman doing a sketch like Bette Davis's "I wipe my mouth" from "Of Human Bondage."
Probably the sessions I described would work best with draped models. I'm not sure amateurs could act with their clothes off. That's no problem because I'm not trying to replace classical nude model drawing with these actor sessions. Students need both.
Is that all? Mmmm...no, wait a minute, I forgot something: a good homework assignment for a session like this one is to have the students draw up one or two carefully finished drawings based on the sketches done in class.
I'm a cartoonist so I see this assignment done in a cartoon style like the one above.
Lots of styles would work.
BTW: that's not my drawing above. I wish I'd copied down the artist's name.
This Sunday I paid a visit to Steve Worth's to see Bakshi's new film, "Last Days of Coney island." I knew the film would be good but I didn't know it would be THAT good. It was gorgeous! Look at the way the painterly way the characters (above) are handled. Who else does that? All the way through I kept saying to myself, "This is shocking! Absolutely shocking! I don't believe what I'm seeing!!!"
At the film's end it was clear that, at an age when most animators retire, Ralph had created an industry changing film. It's easily the best thing he's ever done.
The first thing you notice is the color. Ralph did all of it himself. I've always liked Ralph's paintings...I knew he could paint...but who knew that he could paint like this? He's raised the color bar for the entire industry. What was acceptable last year will get faint applause after people have seen this film.
By way of an example, check out this bar (above). It's red, like something out of a Nolde painting. Not only that but but the woman behind the bar is wearing a similar red, making the bar shape more complex and interesting. The background is green to make the bar pop out, and even the guy sitting at the bar is wearing a type of green. It's a case where red sits on top of green, and green sits on top of red. It's a nice contrast, and it fits the contrasty story, which is flamboyant and melancholy at the same time.
The film is full of exciting color, like this triad (above) of red, green and purple. The big studios are too timid to try things like this.
You can see the character color a little better here.
The second thing you notice is the cartooning. Everybody who's worked for Ralph has lamented that the public never sees his own sketches and animation, but only other artists' translations. Now we get to see Ralph raw and unfiltered and the experience is vastly entertaining. 'More about this in a minute.
The third thing you notice (and this'll be my final bullet point) is how cinematic the film is. Ralph's always had a knack for editing but here the film is uniquely wedded to what's happening with the color, cartooning and music. I'm not aware that his own paintings have ever been shown to greater advantage. It's "synergy." Ralph's a big believer in the power of combined arts to create something bigger and better than its parts.
I said I'd return to the subject of Ralph's cartooning and animation. Some of his characters are drawn as if they were made for a pencil test. The characters are outlined carefully, but sometimes have internal lines everywhere, and it works spectacularly.
The lines don't get in the way, rather they help to give the characters a texture, and color reads better on texture than on a flat ground.
The animation, that's done in Ralph's own style and it's beautiful!!!!! It's alternately smooth and deliberately jerky, and when it needs to be wild a Jimmy Tyre influence comes into play. It conforms neatly to the animator's code which is, "funny drawings that move in a funny way."
To sum it up, THIS FILM LOOKS LIKE IT WAS CREATED BY AN ARTIST! AN HONEST TO GOD ARTIST...and a CARTOONIST, NO LESS! Imagine that! What a rarity! Geez, there are some studios where cartoonists are shot on sight and their bodies fed to sharks. Many thanks to Ralph and the visionary supporters who financed this at Kickstarter!
BTW: The film costs 4 bucks through PayPal and is yours for a week. What a bargain! The link:
