Force: Character Design from Life Drawing

Chapter 2Space with Character

FORCEFUL FORM

I believe that the well-rounded draftsperson has the capacity to understand how to draw depth and understand the flat plane of the page at the same time. No matter how well you can depict perspective, form, light, etc., there is real power in understanding that you are still working on a two-dimensional surface.

The shape on the left shows us a flat circle; the shape on the right shows us the form of a sphere. This incredible change occurs because of the two orange, curved lines. They make our minds think that the flat blue circle is round. Of course the circle is not and never will be, but look at how deceiving some simple curved lines can be on this circle shape. Let’s look at some figure drawings ...