Drawn to Life - Volume 2

45 Think Caricature

Walt Disney in his memo to Don Graham, that great drawing teacher, talked about studying sensation and being able to feel the force behind that sensation. I get more complicated and call it kinesthesia, the sensation of position, movement, tension, etc., of parts of the body, perceived through nerve end organs, in muscles, tendons, and joints. It’s the sensation of movement when a person performs or images an action. It’s a feeling (sensation) that runs throughout the whole body, not just a finger or an arm. Your mind requires the whole body to take part in an action.

In the same memo, Walt wrote, “Without the whole body entering into the animation, the other things are lost immediately. Examples: an arm hung on to a body ...