I finally found my passion in animation by accident when I was in my early-to-mid 20s. This was circa 1973. At that time, there weren't many schools that taught animation, but as I grew up in New York City, I found that the School of Visual Arts had a 6 week-long night time Summer Program. I took to animation like a duck to water. (It was also at that time that I met a very young Tom Sito...but that's a whole story in itself ;-))
Anyway, the point I'd like to make is that I learned to draw by feeling my way around a piece of paper with my pencil. To this day, I can't draw something if I can't feel it from within myself. That's why I enjoy animating emotions and action.
I draw my pictures by understanding the forces within the form I'm trying to capture, versus placing elements of the body on the page for a pleasing pose. I find that no matter what I draw, I need a running start to hit that pose---feeling where that pose is in the sequence of action. For me, a pose with the feeling of life in it is always coming from somewhere and going somewhere else. Even if a pose is at rest, it got there after it had gone through a movement of some kind.
If not, then it's a dead body that has been moved to that spot by "persons unknown".
Dear Mr. Celestri,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to let you know that it's an honor to be able to see your work and talk to you at the same time.
I wanted to thank you for being a key artist on Rock & Rule, it was a favorite movie of mine as a young child and yes lol, my parents let me watch that film. (they thought it was a Disney film because never saw it in full)
Rock and Rule was also one of the movies that inspired me to become an illustrator.
Keep being awesome, you're an inspiration to many.