Solidity is the key to creating believable, three-dimensional characters out of your imagination.
I wanted to learn more about solidity during my studies at CalArts, so
one of my teachers recommended I take a look at this video:
Seems simple enough! Solidity is just about
imagining a 3D space, being conscious of overlap and avoiding twinning.
But in practice, I am finding this stuff
doesn’t necessarily come easy if I don’t make a conscious effort – which is why
I’ve been focusing so much on it. It’s not enough that I know about solidity –
my drawings have to really show that I understand how to use it.
Glenn Vilppu’s Drawing Manual and Walt Stanchfield’s Drawn to Life are two books that have really helped in this regard.
With these books, I am starting to better grasp how to easily visualize 3D space on a blank 2D piece of paper without
reference. It truly is a basic skill needed in drawing from the imagination.
Sometimes I get so frustrated with myself when I can’t draw what I intended in
my mind! But maybe that's a good thing -- because it spurs me to want to become better.
As well as these books, I have also found a
few online resources that I check back on regularly to better understand
solidity and structure in drawing. As part of my Teach Yourself posts, I have
shared these below. The idea behind this series is to use the internet to educate yourself about drawing.
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| (Source: radhowto) |
Sechrist
is a story-board artist at Dreamworks. His blog focuses a lot on teaching you
to see the structure underneath what you’re drawing. On his blog, he has also
shared some amazing video recordings from his online classes (radhowtoschool.com)
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| (Source: tobyshelton) |
A
story artist at Disney, Toby shares some advice on structure of, in particular,
hands (as well as some awesome storyboards from various films!)
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| (Source: robutic) |
Shinmoto has a post on his blog called “The Secret to Drawing” that is very inspirational. I have linked it above
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| (Source: willwestonstudio) |
A
good website for advice on structure, volume and anatomy
This
PDF file is a transcript of one of Eric Larson’s lectures on Entertainment. In
the notes, Larson goes over the principles that make up a good, solid drawing
Also, here are some youtube videos that explain the things that make up solidity, such as volume, foreshortening, overlap
and perspective.
Then in this video, Ahmed Aldoori explains how you can draw cubes to help you draw poses from the imagination (similar to Vilppu's approach).
Finally, these are some notes from Glen
Keane that I've hung up on my wall:
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| (Source: lindadornart) |
If you find yourself struggling with solidity as well, I hope these links might be of some help to you!
-Christine-