40 Days of Art: Draughtsmanship vs Fine Motor Control

I was lucky enough to work with James Baxter for a few months, a few years ago, with a group of other young animators. If you are not familiar with his work ... well, you probably are, you just don't know it. Here's a short YouTube compilation of some of his rough animation. (Yes, that is rough animation.) He has a distinctive way of drawing (besides 'perfect,' I mean) in which the lines don't look like big swoops but like someone breaking a trail through snow, as the pencil scrubs its way along its intended path. You have to get in pretty close to see it, and the only high-enough-res example I've been able to find online is a drawing of Belle and the Beast, which doesn't show it quite as strongly as some of his work in The Art of Hunchback, for example. One of my fellow acolytes asked him why he drew with that distinctive 'hairy' line, and he answered that it was because he didn't have the fine motor control to make quick gestural strokes go where he wanted them to.

( On the Division between Draughtsmanship and Fine Motor Control )

Didn't get this up on Saturday, I apologise ... it's been a busy weekend.