Hatching: a fastidious technical exercise

Basic drawing techniques are essential for MoPA students to acquire and master. Students in the 1st year of their course in animated film have been working on a very specific technique: hatching.

Tomasz KANIOWSKI is a Polish artist who has been living in France for over twenty years. With numerous exhibitions to his credit, Tomasz has built up an undeniable reputation in drawing and painting, and it is with great pride that the MoPA animation film school counts him among its instructors. This year, he worked with our 1st year students on a technical exercise based on the work of artist Robert CRUMB: hatching.

The American comic book artist Robert CRUMB was a leading figure in the ‘comix’ or ‘underground comics’ movement, which emerged at the end of the 1960s as a movement on the fringes of society, opposed to what was traditionally done in the media at the time. For his drawing exercise, Tomasz KANIOWSKI decided to focus on just one part of the artist's work, concentrating on the hatching technique that made him partly famous.

The students then had to choose one of Robert CRUMB's most realistic drawings and reproduce it in felt-tip pen using the hatching technique. And if you think this is just a case of copying, think again! Our young artists are learning to analyse a technique, while letting themselves be guided by it. The aim of this exercise is to nurture our students' own graphic language, as well as adding a drawing technique to their skills!