MORE ABOUT COMEDIC FIGURE DRAWING

 I was a cartooning teacher for a while and in some classes we would apply whatever the lesson was to model drawing. Before paying individual attention to students I'd quick-sketch the pose myself on a big board just to suggest one way of approaching the problem. No one was required to draw in my style.

If you're curious to see what this kind of session (or rather, an idealized version of such a session) might have looked like then read on. For the purpose of this post I'll try an operatic theme.

Before the comedic poses started the class will have done some quick sketches of the models so they got used to caricaturing them.

Backgrounds were optional but encouraged. I handed out reference to those who wanted it. Yikes, maybe the BGs would have been a little simpler than the one shown above.

The opera had no script and nobody actually sang. I just got the models to take comic singing poses, as Wood did here.

Haw! I like a pose where someone steps on someone else.

The model session was meant to firm up the lessons contained in the lecture that preceded it. In this case the lecture was about composing figures in space. One of my jobs was to position the models so there was a foreground, middle ground and background.

The scenario could involve several people even though there was only two models. The models did double duty.

Hopefully, we got some good, comedic poses in there.

The beginning and end poses suggested a hint of a story even if the middle ones were completely random.

What style was used?

Whatever style the student chose. No, that's not my drawing above. I got it from the net.

FUNNY FIGURE DRAWING MODELS

I like to think that comedic models will become common in future figure drawing sessions. I further fantasize that the best models...i.e. the funniest ones, the most fun to draw...will become much sought after on the art school circuit. I predict that we'll see a lot of certain types of characters. I'll mention a few of them here. 

Well, there's the Mr. Meek type (above). 

With costume changes the very same model could, in the same session, be a flamboyant dandy...

...a dancer or a singer...

...a snob...

...or a goofball...

...or a villain like Captain Hook.

As with male models you'll want female models who, with a costume change, could play different kinds of roles.  Skinny Olive Oyl-types (above) would be fun to draw and could probably do double duty in the same session.

She could also be a dancer (above)...

 ...or a funny melodramatic actor.

I don't mean to give the impression that one model could handle all the women's parts. For other sessions you'll also need a big-boned model (above).

With a couple of pillows tucked into her clothes she could be a hefty post-middle age woman.

You'll obviously need a sexy bathing suit model (above). This requires someone funny who's voluptuous and curvy, not thin like a super model.

You'll also need a dramatic actress who can parody actresses like Garbo or Bette Davis.

COMEDIC FIGURE DRAWING / TECHNIQUES I'D LIKE TO TRY

For comedy drawing sessions I usually prefer draped models.  Sorry, I don't know who drew this. 

I don't think oddball contortions are the best use for a comedic model.

I prefer funny poses. There's always something about them that you'd never have figured out if you were just winging it. In this case (above), the angle of the feet. I like the clothing wrinkles, too. 

Maybe if someone held her feet up you could get something like this (above).

I like ignorant poses. 

As an experiment I'd like to try poses that are influenced by movies and animated cartoons I've seen. Somewhere out there, there's bound to be comedic male models who can do exaggerated public speaking poses like the ones Daffy Duck's doing here (above and below). 

The padded shoulders and gloves magnify Daffy's gestures so I'd try that on the real life model.

For a text, maybe fragments of one of Billy Sunday's prohibition sermons. Or maybe a poem. What do you think of this Walt Whitman parody (below)? 

AFTER WALT WHITMAN
by Richard Grant White

I happify myself.
I am considerable of a man.  I am some.  You are also some.  We
   are all considerable;  all are some. 
Put all of you and all of me together,  and agitate our particles by
   rubbing us up into eternal mash,  and we should still be some.
No more than some, but no less. 
O ensemble!  O quelque-chose!  O women!


Yes, women!
They look at me and my eyes start out of my head.
Women watch for me;  they do.  Yes, sir!
They rush upon me;  seven women laying hold of one man. 
O turnips!  O cucumber!  O beets, parsnips, carrots, O sass!

Geez, I'd kill to get a female model who could do poses like the one above.  The big butt is no problem. That's just pillows or towels stuffed into stretch pants. The hard thing would be to find a wig like the one above. Maybe a long wet rag might do the trick. Students can always make up the details of the long, funny hair, even if the real model's hair is short.

They can make the hands bigger than life, too.

Here's a pose that would require students to draw with a dark, "Sharpie"-type line...or, even better, a thick-and-thin capable brush pen. Charcoal or some other grey medium would be a great addition.

The idea isn't to copy the Olive Oyl reference slavishly but to make a funny, graphically stark and cartoony caricature of the live model.

A SAMPLE COMEDY MODELING SESSION / 2 MODELS

Start with a few normal drawings then drastically elongate the legs without elongating the body. Experiment with multiple station points.
.

Try the reverse. See what happens.

How 'bout a male model with disembodied legs and stiff, over-size BVDs? You simply don't draw the upper half. Do a number of sketches on a single page. Make it funny.

BTW: that's not my drawing above. 

The BVD model changes and emerges wearing two pairs of puffy pants so they get really thick.  The shirt, on the other hand, should be small and tight.  Glasses and fake nose if possible? 

The model should walk around in wide circles, presenting his back sometimes. On some excuse he should bend over and pick small things up. 

Another costume change. High stepping walking models would be nice for this exercize.

Some people are really good at this. 

I can think of some situational sketches using high leg walks. In one the girl does the funny walk into sc. and casually talks to her boyfriend, who's reading the paper. The doorbell rings and he gets up to answer it, doing an even broader funny walk of his own. 

Or...a lonely, alienated young man walks thru a crowd of extras (the same two models do all the crowd poses after the major poses are done) and everyone in the crowd does the same funny low-kick walks. He's the only one doing high kick steps...he's just out of sync with the society he lives in.  He thinks "If only I could meet a girl who was just like me." Well, he does meet her, and she's alienated from the crowd, too. She's a high kicker just like him, only...sadly...it doesn't work out. They can't abide by each other's hats. 

Well, it was just an idea.

Try some back shots. See if you can do some acting with the back. Make it funny. Be ignorant. See Jim Carey's back poses in the Elvis post I put up recently.

Try giving a female model the kind of proportions Freddie Moore used to like.

He liked thin women with slightly thick arms and short legs. If her skirt is thin use a fan to blow the skirt and hair.

Also try some low-rent, cheesy poses.

Make fun of classic art school posing. 

I might be going too far with this one...funny in-air running and jumping poses (short poses) using under-arm ropes to support the model. Hmmmm....Naw!...most ateliers aren't equiped for it.

If you do figure out a way to make this work, I recommend that the male model wear an old, thrift store suit. Suits wrinkle funny. Oh, and have a fan on all the time for the model's sake.