“An artist must have imagination. An artist who does not use his imagination is a mechanic.” — Robert Henri, Artist
Art is almost all about seeing (and then creating). Sometimes, our source of inspiration lies outside of ourselves, at other times, they come from within. But all artists must be able to see what’s there in front of them in order to portray their artistic vision with clarity and truth. And when doing figurative work, the ability to understand and use planes, points and pins within the anatomical structure makes the artist’s argument that much more convincing.
Here we’ll look at how different styles of artists make use of such concepts to empower their art:
Planes:
Frank Miller is renown for his graphic brilliance and bold use of black and white. Aside from fantastic composition skills and a superb use of line and shape, what is not always evident is his absolute control of form in his creations. His dominant light and shadows wrap around the almost invisible forms, creating deceptively flat shapes that live on planes of the body and costume, giving them solidity and texture. The interplay of those angular shapes not only create depth but, more importantly, enable a jagged dance between light and shadow — clearly a metaphor for the interesting world of good and evil that is Sin City.
Master animator Glen Keane caught the attention of the world when his Beast became the prominant creation behind the first ever animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. The acting and sheer physical force of the character brought immense feeling to the screen — feeling that even the most novice of animation fans could recognize as unusually powerful. But what always makes Glen’s work so complete (among other things) is his use of planes; they add dimension and presence to his art. Although he’s working only in lines, we can see how the planes of the face, body, legs and arms all line up in a way that plants the character solidly in his own three dimensional space, making the illusion of life completely convincing.
Points:
Goya’s work is almost always loaded with emotion and story. It was part of his brooding nature and his interest to portray human upheaval, triumph and suffering — he was a true historian of his era. A master draftsman, he controlled his brush as he would a pen, giving immense detail in his creations with the simplest of brush strokes. Here, we can see the astute usage of points — lines of direction created to guide the eye of the spectator. Sometimes, these invisible lines of action lie along the edges of a form, while at other times, they emerge from within it, each with its own role to play. All great artists and filmmakers do this; drawing attention and bringing drama to the composition by aligning forms to create movement and aim. In this particular sketch, one can argue that Goya cheated by doubling up on the finger pointing by his two subjects, although it’s more likely that the parallel imagery is intentional.
A master of composition, color and drawing, Bernie Fuchs was (and still is) an inspiration to artists worldwide. Fuchs’ carefully thought out usage of shapes, both geometric and organic, create images so beautiful it’s hard to take one’s eyes off them; they’re always wonderfully balanced yet never static or even. A strong advocate of triangulation in his work, Fuchs’ compositions constantly moves the eyes from one color, one shape or one line to another. He’s not afraid to contrast other elements too, including light and dark, as well as detailed and open spaces. They all keep you traveling from one spot to the next, giving the eye a playful yet unexpected journey in many different ways and along many different paths.
Pins:
There are few artists in the world who have moved the art world as much as Michelangelo Buonarroti. Both his paintings and sculptures define weight and form. His masterful understanding of the human body, in all its details both in construction and mechanics (i.e. function) bring great believability to his art. Looking closely, we see he’s totally aware of both the location and action of the joints and intersections of the body’s bones and muscles; the hips, shoulders, ears and the joints of the arms all have relationships with each other. The annotated “pins” indicate both the angle and direction by which the various body parts aim and how they align. This is something many illustrators and animators today often ignore either due to their negligence (laziness) or lack of knowledge of body construction/mechanics.
We all love Chuck Jones for his comic genius. His work defies convention and brings real intelligence to the mere “cartoon short.” But Jones is an amazing draftsman — arguably one of the best ever to don the duties of an animator. His control of the line as well as the weight in his lines, have formed many wonderful moments of caricature and visual delight. But he, like the other masters listed above, make use of all the planar and directional elements that make his figures appear so full and solid. Here, it’s clear that nothing is ever flat nor even. His respect for the alignment of the solid structures (like the skull and hips) and various joints (like the knees and elbows) helps make everything work in harmony — a perfect marriage between design and anatomical structure (form). This is great animation posing.
Summary:
All great art obeys certain laws. When working with figures, building and using that knowledge relating to the planes, points and pins of human (or animal) anatomy can bring great power and believability to one’s work. We must see thru things and beyond the obvious.
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. — Michelangelo Buonarroti, Artist