She was drawing a Black (White-tailed) Gnu, not the Common (Brindled).
Her commentary focused heavily on proper anatomical terms for bones and
muscles and the importance of knowing where key points in the anatomy were,
places where things take a different direction.
I have no great expertise with gnus, but I agree that her drawing was, in
effect, too slender through the body, and horse-like, but she constantly
emphasized that it was just a sketch; I did not get the impression she was
suggesting it was necessarily all that accurate, but rather, that she wanted
to lay down something that one could build upon.
Mammals are, to my way of thinking, somewhat less variable than birds in
that fur and hair tend to be shorter and perhaps a little less mobile than
feathers. The same species of bird can be either round or rather slender,
depending on how it holds its feathers, but while there is obviously some
variation in mammals, it's not quite as much, generally speaking. In both
cases you have to know the direction they (fur or feathers) are going, and
in birds it is essential for most species (Kiwis and penguins excluded<G>)
to intimately know the feather tracts.
My own way of drawing is different. I do a rough sketch, and yes, I often
use the specific points (knees, wrist at the forward bend of the wing,
scapular placement, so on) to create a sort of armature, or framework, sort
of working from the inside out, like her.
But I don't keep working the same drawing. I then lay a sheet of paper over
top of what I've drawn and re-draw it, tracing what I've done before where
it "works", changing it where it does not look right. I keep doing this
until I'm satisfied, or until I decide the whole pose was no good and start
over. This is when I don't have a model (although I'm always surrounded by
photos, specimens, other artists' ideas, unless I'm just doodling).
If I'm doing life-studies (which I have done rarely in the last couple of
decades, but used to do before I started wearing glasses) I tend to be more
traditional, just lightly sketching the outside and getting the proportions
right before even thinking about adding any level of detail or shading.
Getting back to the video, I wonder if she was "winging it" or had a photo
or other reference off camera?
Anyway, I find both gnus and moose to be among the more difficult of hoofed
mammals to render if only because their proportions do vary so much from
most animals in the Bovids and Cervids, respectively, and both are species
that, to my eye, look best when not shown standing at right angles in open
space. I am more familiar by far with moose, and they look really weird
when they are standing out in the open, but somehow they don't look so weird
at all.quite the contrary, when in the bush, or belly deep in a bog or when
lying down.
Barry
From: SciArt-L Discussion List-for Natural Science Illustration-
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mieke Roth
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 4:56 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SCIART] Wildebeest Lesson
Hi,
I haven't heard the comment (I am sitting behind my work pc and it has no
sound), but although she is putting the emphasis on the anatomy, I have to
comment on this one: she is drawing a kind of horse with a wildebeest head.
The torso of a common wildebeest is much deeper, the neck also and has to be
strait or even bend down instead of upwards. All in all the common
wildebeest looks more like a very slim bison without the hairs than a horse.
The body of the much rarer black wildebeest looks a bit like a horse, but
more a bulky pony or even a moose than the slender animal she is drawing
here. I also have a bit of a problem with the head if she is trying to draw
the black wildebeest: the head of that one is mostly curved and not strait
with an animal that is old enough to wear horns of that size.
Sorry, sometimes I am a bit of a perfectionist..
Here, by the way, an excellent photo of a common wildebeest in (almost) the
same position as she is drawing:
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/mammals/ruminantia/images/73898314.yfOuI
xNo_327w.jpg to show the difference.
Pity though, because I agree with everyone that this is a really good way to
show how to draw. The quality of the film itself is excellent.
Mieke
Mieke Roth
Scientific and technical visualizations
Mieke Roth, Msc.
Breehorn 46
8223 CN Lelystad
The Netherlands
www.miekeroth.com
+31 (0)320-412117
_____
From: SciArt-L Discussion List-for Natural Science Illustration-
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barry K. MacKay
Sent: donderdag 4 maart 2010 21:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SCIART] Wildebeest Lesson
One of the things I say to folks about drawing animals (mostly birds in my
case, but also other vertebrate animals) is that it is usually pretty well
all curves and countercurves, which this lesson shows very well. She's a
great teacher.I love her commentary. Super indeed.
I once briefly met the late George M. Sutton, a bird artist from my youth.
I was just a wide-eyed kid but he looked at my drawings and said, "always
draw the skull underneath". Good advice for birds.you have to know the
placement of the eye, the ear, the jaw and so on, as well as the feather
tracts, and underlying musculature and bones, throughout just as in mammals.
Barry
From: SciArt-L Discussion List-for Natural Science Illustration-
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Linda Feltner
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 2:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SCIART] Wildebeest Lesson
Thank you for this contribution!
This is super!
Linda
_______________________
Linda M. Feltner Artist, LLC
P.O. Box 325
Hereford, AZ 85615
(520) 803-0538
www.lindafeltner.com
[log in to unmask] wrote:
Hi all,
I came across what I thought was an interesting video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLPcy3ciz5c
I always find it enjoyable and informative to watch others draw. This
artist puts a lot of emphasis on using a proper understanding of the anatomy
of her subject to render it successfully. Links to parts 2 and 3 can be
found in the sidebar.
Enjoy!
Alex
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