Last night I did something I hadn't done in a long time, I did what I call SNAP-SHOT DOODLING or MEMORY GESTURES. The basic concept is to capture a pose or "gesture" while watching a movement and then draw it. So last night while I watched my favourite monster movie...THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, I picked up my sketchbook and started to doodle some of the action. I know they are rough and not a refined image, but that is what they are supposed to be. Each little doodle was a captured memory of what I had just seen on the screen. The only intent of the drawings were to capture the gesture or moment of that memory of what I had just seen.
For me, this is a good way to incorperate a movement or to capture an action. No, they are not exact replicas of what just occured on the screen, but a flash picture of it. Once it is seen then draw it and try to capture the action of the pose.
I not only do this while watching the t.v./ movies, but when I go to some of our childrens sporting events as well. This is even better than doing it to the television........you cannot rewind a live action, so you must get that mental snap-shot and get it down right quickly to preserve the moment.
When I was in school we used to go to the zoo to draw the animals, and this is most likely where this concept originated for me. At that time zoos were mainly cages and the animals sort of just sat there bored and didn't move much, but nowadays with the advent of the eco-envirement zoo...........might be fun to do again if you get to see the animals at all you will get a good primer of animal movement.
Looks like we will be making a trip to the zoo at somepoint, and the sketches will be coming out. One example I have of this sort of thing is from earlier this summer when I did the llama doodles.
