A cartoonist does not adhere slavishly to anatomy, but rather, concentrates on creating a rhythm in his drawing, balancing shapes and directions of lines. Even when confronted with a realistic human or animal character it is more important to establish a flow or rhythm in the pose before working out anatomical structure.

The construction of your character, whether realistic or cartoony, should remain secondary to a feeling of gesture. Interestingly, though quick gesture drawing is a mainstay of an animation life drawing course, the beginning animator usually fails to apply this knowledge when he starts into a scene. Instead he is often too eager to start constructing the character and the resulting animation may be structurally sound, but lacks the illusion of life.

Again, returning to my example of the dancer, note how I have kept my rough drawings rhythmic and flowing. In order to capture this flow I allow my pencil to sweep through the figure with delicate curved lines. The movement is not harsh so the gesture must not be either. Straight lines and hard planes are practicallynon-existent as they would kill the rhythmic quality I am striving for.

Not until the cleanup stage am I concerned with outline. In the beginning stages I am more concerned with capturing the essence of the character-not what she looks like, but rather, what she is doing! Always apply a sense of quick gesture when you begin a drawing. After that, everything else will fall into place.

Peter Emslie, a former character artist at Walt Disney World in Florida, has also taught at Sheridan College and is currently teaching a Cartooning for Animation course at Studio M in Toronto.

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