Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes Volume 1

134 Relationship of Character to Prop

Too bad we can’t have two models to work with in the evening class. It would give an opportunity to study relationships, which is something we have to deal with in animation. However, the next best thing is props and I try to incorporate them as much as possible. I am constantly imploring the students to build their gesture drawings around them because they tell what the pose is all about — what I call the “story” of the drawing. In animation you are dealing with the same thing. The only difference is the story has continuity to it. But the relationship between characters and props is exactly the same.

The prop could be an umbrella, which might suggest rain, or a parasol that might suggest an oppressive ...