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Nsio β Nsio explains: Dynamism
Published: 2013-10-19 16:06:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 494559; Favourites: 15992; Downloads: 11186
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Fourth part (if excluding facial proportions) in my tutorial series. Probably my favorite thing about drawing.Dynamism
Dynamism is what makes the drawings so lively. Even a drawing without any real action should be dynamic. Dynamism makes your drawings look more natural and interesting to look at. It can also make up for many mistakes and even make them look intentional and part of the drawing.
Line of action is the manifestation of dynamism. It's a sort of invisible line that (I believe) everyone can see subconsciously. I find that there are two types of line of actions: primary and secondary line of actions.
The primary line of action, like the name suggests, is the most important thing in your character. It gives the backbone to the whole pose. That's why it's really important that it's found very early in your sketches. Without this line, your poses will end up plain, boring and unjustified. The secondary line of action is more like a compositional guideline. It helps to justify the positioning of the sub-elements of the drawing, such as clothing, accessories, hair, limbs and shapes.
Regardless the role of the action line, it's main purpose is to add feel of flow in your drawings. This flow is then perceived as dynamic drawing. A good line of action is long, strong and as continuous as possible. These are prerequisites for illustrating dynamic action.
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Comments: 339
grizandnorm.tumblr.com/post/90β¦ hope it will help a bit
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This looks so helpful! thanks! I have trouble with dyanism
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Good tutorial! I have proplems making my drawings lively or/and dynamic. I try to do better next time.
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I will try to apply this in my works. Thank you for the tutorials!
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is it cool if i save these tuts on my computer?
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The writing is so tiny, I can't read it...
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Click on the image to magnify it, or download it in full size
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This helped me alot! Thank you!!
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fail in proportion when using dynamic line T_T,
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Yes, but how do you get a drawing to follow the lines of action, and how do you find a line of action that reflects the pose you want? Those are my problems.
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A drawing does not exactly follow a line of action, nor do you find a line of action to match a pose.
The line of action is an overall average of the motion and flow in a pose, the pose itself generates the line not the other way around!
The idea behind the line of action is that you already have a vague idea for your pose. So take the rightmost example of the girl, you'd already have it in your head that you want the girl to be posing with the victory v like that, so when you start sketching the first line you'd draw would be the general direction of the pose, which is the primary line of action. You'd then draw the gesture, and after that start to refine it into a sketch.
You need to pre visualise the pose to draw the line of action, so I'd practice finding the line of action usingΒ Pixelovely 'sΒ figure drawing tool. I'd also practiceΒ gesture whilst you're at it, as it's very closely linked!
These are very quick early stages where you're just trying to get the idea in your head down onto the page. But they're the most important! Without them, you end up with a stiff pose like that first sketch.
It takes practice to learn how to do this, so watch that video on gesture and practice with pixelovely's tools nwn
If you need more help, I'd have a look through my gesture tag ! There's lots more info in there.Β
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Thanks for this comment, i was always confused whether everyone just starts with a line of action and i kept trying to start with that while not knowing what my pose was gonna be xD the links are also very helpful, esp that figure drawing tool
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Thanks for elaborating this before me, you even included useful links!
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You are so helpful thank you
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Good work on this! It helps me out a lot!Β Β
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lines of action and secondary lines of action confuse me sometimes. What makes the red line the line of action?
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Line of action is the conceptual idea of the pose. If a drawing were to be simplified into just one single line, it would be the line of action. While secondary action lines are just as important, their purpose is to support the main idea, in other words the primary line of action.
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Another tutorial that could me. You deserve my thanks.
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Thanks!!! <3 With this tutorials I can improve my skillsΒ
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You are forevermore my hero for your beauTiful explanations!
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OMG! I just noticed that I drew like that all the time without even noticing. O_OΒ
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Love this tutorial! thanks!
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Hopefully I can use this info in the artwork after my current WIP one! I suck at posing!
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I cant do deees D<
either that my most encountered problem is actually thinking of a naice pose for the character im drawing; one that fits its personality o A o;;
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What kind of exercises would you suggest in applying what this tutorial gets across? I've known about the line of action for a long time, and despite tutorials like this I'm stumped on how to go about fully understanding it
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Some one asked me almost the exact question via note, so I'll quote myself
Dynamism can be rather hard to understand because of it's conceptual nature. It's something that only the sub-conscious mind notices. And once you know what to look for, then you can also see it consciously. It takes some time, but once you grasp it, it will all dawn to you. I remember having used the action lines for years without really understanding how it works. At some point I started to get it, but I still had some problems. Then one day, I drew this fav.me/d5lx9hi . I had troubles drawing the legs for the character on the left and at some point I just drew one single curve to represent his legs. That was the moment I understood how the action line works. Then, when I drew the character on the right, I drew this "S"curve to represent his arms. All I had to do was to follow the simple ideas to illustrate things in a way that they look justified and dynamic.Β In figure drawing, I suggest imagining the character as a silhouette, like here: static6.depositphotos.com/1072β¦ .Β For example, have a look at the lady on the top left corner. Note how continuous and powerful action line she has coming along her torso and all the way to the feet. On top of that, her head is tilted backwards which makes it look like the very same action line continues on her face. Even though the physical outline itself isn't one continuous curve,Β the core idea is.Β Then your job as an artist is to compose your drawing so that there are such a strong idea in the character posing. It depends solely on the pose you are going for how the action line affects it.Β Also analyze the works of great artists. If you see a pose that has a lot of impact on you, study it closely to find the underlying dynamism.
In addition to that, you can also try drawing few completely random curves and try to imagine what kind of poses they could resemble and draw them.
Of course, you can't ignore the anatomical limits of humans when posing them. In order to make use of the line of action effectively, you will need to know the limits and possibilities of the body. In other words, you will need to study, do research and practice a lot
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I'll study that quote. Thanks!
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My drawings are about as dynamic as a rock. Like, a rock you find in the driveway. I've known about the line of action for a while, but I've never been able to use it properly~ I'mma use what I learned here though, next time.
Great tutorials you have, by the way- really helping me understand the core concepts that I'm missing.
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Dynamism will dawn to you eventually as you keep drawing more.
Thanks. Indeed, my tutorials aim to explain the underlying concepts in drawing rather than tell how to draw. Without understanding the concepts and "rules", you will only draw something random. Once you are familiar with these, you can consciously build on that sturdy foundation
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This is very helpful, as I suck at poses and facial expressions x.x!Β
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Oh. My. God I needed this tutorial ;^; THAT'S WHY MY DRAWINGS LOOK SO LIFELESS ASDFGH I knew there was something wrong! Thankyouthankyou for making this tutorial!Β
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Hehe, you're most welcome! Once you understand dynamism, you are close to the proper understanding 
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ahahaha ;w;
i've always tried to do this thing, yet in the end, i always end up drawing the boring (first drawing you did) type in the end and be all like "OTL
thank you very much for the tutorial!
i'll keep on practicing and trying to do this! *^*
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Yes !
Thank You for sharing Your knowledge
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please submit this to LearnManga
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This is a very good example of Dynamism. Though I've always thought it was called 'action lines'. Of course, I could be wrong, since it's been a couple years since I've seen anything on the subject.
I should probably use these Dynamisms more often... Also, I really like the example with the ninja!
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Wow! This is so helpful! I've never paid attention to dynamism before. But it's essential, really. This tutorial made it obvious to me. Thank you ever so much for taking the time to explain it and for sharing
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I was looking for something like this for quite some time! Very useful to give that "OOMPH" to one's drawings. Thank you very much for these very interesting and complete tutorials!
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It's funny the moment here you realize a big issue in your art.
For sure I had seen this composition technique before but at that time I just don't care about fundamentals and simply wanted to draw like profissionals.
Now days I realize how much I was ignorant.Β Β
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Yes, exactly! I used to be just like that and thought I knew everything about drawing. And the moment I realized how little I actually knew... it was quite a moment xD
I have been using this very same composition technique for years, but I hadn't really understood how to use it right until recently
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