Degas, the old man mad about art and Richard Williams

Just watched an 'omnibus' special about Degas.

It was interesting to learn about the varying approaches to line versus colour.
His mentor Ingres influenced his use of line,contour and shading (colour was considered nothing).
This is in stark contrast to the later boldly coloured work. (influenced at first by Titian)

I really like the sketches and rough studies rather than the finished painting. There are feint grids on the 'sketches' which i assume are for composition but i've not read about that yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Degas

I'm sure, for some people, this is all old news but not to me.
The only other time i'd heard of his work was from Richard Williams (another master animator) in the Animators survival kit animated dvds.

I've also been watching some of Richard Williams commercials (and listening to his splinedoctors podcast). I remember many of the commercials from Uk tv and some were new to me. Brilliant stuff. I really wish commercials were like this now. I'd recommend viewing them for anyone into animation or art.

Structure of Man Progress and more

I've just progressed onto the chest videos (Video 21) of "the structure of Man"
http://the-structure-of-man.blogspot.com/

I'm quite pleased with the videos and how they are helping me. At first i wasn't sure but the knowledge 'sort of' seeps in slowly. I've just finshed lots of videos on the skeleton mainly skull. All of a sudden I'm viewing peoples head differently! I find myself staring at people (in the street, at work etc) studying there faces.

I'm also reading the notes of Walt Stanchfield which have alot of tips/ideas regarding approaches to sketching. I like the notes regarding doing quick sketchs/poses rather than trying to do a master piece everytime you pick up a pencil or pen.
The notes are about to be published in book form:
http://animationpodcast.com/archives/2009/02/27/walt-stanchfield-books/

I've really only just begun with these teaching methods but already seeing improvements.

Also listen to the Glen Keane animation podcast. He spoke about 'Degas'. An artist who did lots of great sketches of figures. The first book i have, has a section at the back with sketches, brilliant and inspiring.

Glen also talked about michaelangelo and Rohdan
Artist who inspires Glen Keane : Augustus John
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_John

I'm intend to study some of their work.