Hands and Feet

There's always this thing people say "oooo hands are so hard" or "oooo portraits are the hardest" - to be honest, it's all pretty hard, BUT it can be simplified, in actual fact, hands are a shape, made up of shapes, just like the face and the figure. It makes it so much easier to digest thinking of it like that. At iAnimate, we had a great lecture from Stephen Melagrano about appealing hand shapes, describing different poses like leaves, for example. Anyway, after watching Rad's old lecture yesterday, I found another on his blog "Hands and feet" and it's great, and i'm only a little way in. Check it out here.

I'd definitely recommend spending some separate time on studying hands and feet, as these are some of the most important tools in gesture. As stated in "Drawn to Life" - you can read a pose with just hands and feet, but the pose isn't as clear if you just draw the torso. I think it's important, as it can be a common thing in life drawing or gesture drawing, and you see multiple times the feet and hands are cut off. They are essential body language tools, and definitely one to keep an eye on.

I've started a small board on hand references

http://www.pinterest.com/indi_pops/hand-references/

and have a ton of different feet and hands and body l; language references on animpin http://www.pinterest.com/ejsu28/reference-feet/

Maybe watch one of your favorite movies and sketch the hand gestures, it'll really help if you're into animation too. Man, I need to go draw now.

iAnimate

iAnimate is a blast!! I highly recommend it.

If your interested in any of my progress, so not too bore you, I've started a thread of events here Anim pops. Or just click the navigation button just above the posts.

If you are feeling like your work is nearly there, but you really want to hone in on your skill and your education, iAnimate is a brilliant source. There is so much content, the students are great and the instructors too! Stephen Melagrano is amazing, he's really opened my eyes to things. I really can't believe I'm 4 weeks in already. Anyway, check out their latest podcast here, it's a doozy!

Any Q's, just shout!