ABSTRACT
A character that is rooted in realism, or even in a cartoony world, is only then believable when they are convincing in their physical presence and their body is consciously and subconsciously responding to external and internal forces, in short: showing the character’s weight and thus assisting with the illusion of life. There are various types of weight that affect the pose. One is the weight of the body itself, the other is the weight of objects/props the body is dealing with. Every body has a specific weight that you have to consider and feel when you draw its poses, as the weight of the body affects its parts and vice versa. A very skinny character does not need to carry around much weight; therefore, the poses could be showing the weight as clearly being light. This all deals with the actual physical weight that just follows physical laws. There is however also the weight that the character experiences or how they “feel.” Is the character feeling light or not? The dancing hippopotami in Disney’s Fantasia (1941) are most obviously heavy, but they do not look heavy in their dance, as they are ballerinas that feel light as a feather. So there is one more perspective that needs to be considered when it comes to weight: the felt weight. Additionally, there is the emotional weight the character go through. Someone that is happy feels much lighter than someone that is weighed down by emotional problems. Weight has many shades!
