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Rhythm and Flow (Patreon)

Published:
2016-08-17 07:22:14
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

An attempt at answering a Patron question (from Daniel G.) with some notes about rhythm in a drawing and how I try to portray motion in gestures and poses.

I'm not sure I've done a particularly good job of explaining rhythm here - it's sort of a novel length topic, quite related to line of action or flow - but it is definitely one of the more prominent things that distinguishes natural looking character drawings from more awkward ones. It's also something an artist adopts an understanding of with practice, and one of the reasons that life-drawing is emphasized in art curriculums.

Anyway, hopefully there's some useful information here for someone.  I've got additional notes about shape volumes, construction drawing and line of action here:

Construction Drawing

Poses/Line of Action

Files

Previews only

Comments

The 3D Synergist

I wonder if there is a finished drawing of those two?

Maklarr4000

'Slow Clap' This is AWESOME!

marwan abou jaoudeh

^_^ Very true, rhythm and pacing are two things i argue about in story telling as well .. because they are the thing that can put me off the most , oh and the follow through across multiple images, i've seen a few comics that have good flow in each individual image but it seems broken as you read along the comic because they did not consider the action happening previously. Rocky jump is a good example of the flow of action as well , a simple bell curve which can be enhanced with a roll after landing , i know this is about character development /gesture drawing.... but there is something to be said about considering the previous action is all . cheers

Larry Contrary

The little Felix-like character at the bottom of the page as the "perfect" facial expression for a kitty with rubber (tentacle?) arms! VERY funny!

Mae

Ava

Awesome - great tutorial! Thank you so much for sharing :-)

Legotti

This is exactly what I wanted know know about this, thank you! The one big question I still have, is how do you determine how the motion lines (rhythm or main) should cut through the forms? On the Popeye arm or the dancing Rocky, I might be tempted to use an S-curve cutting through the center of the forms, rather than enclosing or touching the contours. Or instead of enclosing the Popeye arm from under to over, I might make the s-curve over to under. The judgment you use in that is something elusive, particularly in the main line placement! PS, the Mitzi drawing is gorgeous here.

Mowen

Very good read, thank you! I've known about this concept for a long time but it seems so hard to "plan" to do it so to speak. Still, it helps to see more examples. :)

lackadaisy
>>2342987

Glad to hear you're making progress. If this is helpful at all, consider me thrilled!

lackadaisy
>>2344309

The answer here, really, is that there is no answer outside of your own discretion. Heh. A number of factors (how anatomically realistic are you trying to be? What sort of style are you going for? What characteristics are you trying to achieve with the design of the character and the specific pose?) will generally be under consideration. One rule of thumb, at least, is that curves that are too perfectly parallel will tend to look unnatural and especially cartoony. That's not to say it's wrong to use parallel curves, but, for instance, an arm or leg will start looking like they have more natural flow if the rhythmic contours of their forms are parallel in an offset way, if they taper in or out at one end. I'm on the road at the moment, but when I can, I'll sketch a quick picture of what I'm trying to explain here.

Doscher

This was a puzzle piece I'd been seeking for quite a while. I didn't realize it, but this was a big part of what I'd been missing and why my character designs never looked right to me. Thank you for sharing this, it's incredibly helpful.

Freya

i love the guide this is so helpful but damn that is such a cute sketch of ivy and freckle!

Danny Godo

I kind of ship Rocky and Ivy. However, Calvin and Ivy are cute together. But I ship Mordecai and Viktor too, so I'm crazy. Lol