Drawing for Animation - Paul Wells

I decided to look in the library for any books that would help me with my life drawing project and allow me to pick up any tips or techniques to use. What I found by reading this book was that drawing from life was vital in animation if you wanted to get better and wanted your animations to feel more natural. Wells explains the way we learn to draw in quite a scientific way, and he explains that we struggle to learn perspective due to an argument between the right and left side of the brain. When drawing a person, a good tip I have learnt from the book is to not imagine how someone should look but instead draw with no assumptions or preconceptions. I am definitely going to remember this tip for my life drawing, as even after this project is over I really want to get into drawing my surroundings to get a better sense of the world. I have also learnt that the brain only needs limited time when getting down the vital information into a drawing, if you take longer it will start to include lots of other details. This book not only explores life drawing but so much more and it's really helpful in the way it explains things not just in a simple way but also gives definitions etc. So, relating back to animation learning how to draw from life will help in every aspect of my animations. I believe that before going and animating anything or any action, it's vital that I go and study this first and this could be the way someone stands or moves their arms and how the body flows. If I am able to draw from life I will be able to record this action and focus on how the negative space changes with each movement. I have put a few photos I took of the books below and I particularly like the diagram showing negative space and looking at the figure as an abstract shape instead of a person.