Force: Animal Drawing

Foreword

Many students of animation are understandably challenged by the convincing portrayal of animals in motion. The sheer number of different species alone can make this task seem overwhelming. Yet, there are basic principles that, when followed, create a useful roadmap in negotiating this territory.

This marriage of biophysics, gravity, time, and motion can be learned and expressed in different ways. For some, like myself, it is an intuitive process, from a lifetime, beginning in earliest childhood, of unconscious yet focused and intense observation on what makes each animal and animal group special unto itself—the beauty first of all of the anatomy and then the beauty of that anatomy in action. All animals, from the tortoise to the tiger, ...