Another new my Swan Lake drawing projects to share on today’s topic, as we’re moving up to the eighth post of the Animated Variations here at The Autistic Animator’s Desk. To refresh your memory by going back to the previous post a week ago, I have shared a full artwork of the ‘Dance of the Big Swans’, the companion of the ‘Dance of the Little Swans’ drawing I’ve also shared on this blog a month ago now, so if you haven’t seen any of the drawings, please go check them out. In the ‘Dance of the Big Swans’ post, to the end of it, I’ve mentioned about doing three drawings of the Odette Variation and save it as an upcoming topic to share for this month, as well as for Animated Variations, and here we are now.
As promised, today we’re going to explore my very first drawings of the Odette Variation, also known as the White Swan Variation in the classical ballet, Swan Lake 🦢
To any new readers out there and curious to know what this series is, Animated Variations is a fun ballet art series I will share only three drawings of iconic dance variation pieces from any ballets, whether it’s the Romantic era, the Classical era, or the Modern era. The last time I have shared variation drawings for this series was on Wili Giselle from Act II in Giselle, back in mid-January. Of course, way before that, I have done the Giselle Act I Variation drawings, and shared them in last November. All of the variation drawings from any ballet pieces are always drawn on Autodesk SketchBook in digital drawing medium at 1430 x 1080.
In the story of Swan Lake, Odette is a princess, who turns into a swan by Von Rothbart. She becomes a swan in the daylight but becomes human in the night, and the spell can be broken, if a man vows his promise to love her. She even becomes the Queen of the Swans, as other women were also transformed into white swans, under Von Rothbart’s spell. Odette dances her solo in the middle of the second act, and the choreography was done by Lev Ivanov for the 1895 version of the ballet, along with Marius Petipa, whom Ivanov teamed up with. The role of Odette in the 1895 recreation was danced by ballerina Pierina Legnani, and you have the beautiful music composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Later on in the third act, you get a similar variation away from Odette with Von Rothbart’s daughter, Odile the Black Swan, known as the Black Swan Variation.
The difference between the White Swan variation and the Black Swan variation in Swan Lake is that each shows the dance of each character has a representation of good vs. evil. Odette represents the good swan, and her variation provides grace and purity as a young woman who has been trapped by a curse Von Rothbart casted upon her at the beginning, and Odile represents the bad swan, and her variation is seductive and shows playfulness, but has to fool Prince Siegfried to make him believe that she is Odette, so he would forget his promise and not able to set Odette free from the spell.
Before getting started on this project, the first thing to start off with was by watching the variation on YouTube. The clip I watched was Russian prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova dancing the solo she performed for the Teatro alla Scala in 2005. I’ve seen it, and I remember liking it, and what helps is Zakharova’s beautiful performance. To me, she is Odette and Odile, and she has captured grace and beauty in the role as a ballerina. However, the goal was to draw the poses that’s based on Lev Ivanov’s choreography, the very same approached as how I worked on the ‘Dance of the Big Swans’ drawing, by watching Teatro alla Scala Ballet on YouTube, too.
Later on, after watching the clip, I would go back and pick and choose the right poses to draw for each three main drawings, just to capture the beautiful representation of Odette’s character.
🤍 Odette Variation Rough Drawings 🤍
The drawings were done in rough pencil on Autodesk SketchBook. Once that was done, I can work on cleaning up the drawing, coloring Odette in color, using the same color schemes for the white costume, tutu, and feather headpiece as how I approached for the white swan corps de ballet for both ‘Dance of the Little Swans’ and ‘Dance of the Big Swans’, and combine the drawing with the background. And then, go ahead and repeat the same process for the rest of the two drawings, one at a time.
The project was finished on February 8th, 2024. This took me a couple of days to work from start to finish.
🤍 Odette Variation Drawing 1 🤍
Here is the first drawing of Odette’s variation in Swan Lake. To me, this pose is the signature of her character. She is en pointe and holds her left arm up to create a graceful swan-like pose, like how a white swan is lifting up her feathered wings and trying to fly away to the night sky. The arm symbolizes the wings.
This was finished on February 7th, 2024.
🤍 Odette Variation Drawing 2 🤍
Second of the drawing of Odette’s variation, in the middle of the solo, where she hops up, and then leads up in the arabesque, but still makes her movements as very swan-like.
This was finished on February 7th, 2024.
🤍 Odette Variation Drawing 3 🤍
And finally, the third drawing of Odette’s variation, which is the final pose to end the variation. Odette is bend down and holds one more pose with her arms in the very straight angle, so they can look and feel like swan wings.
This was finished on February 8th, 2024.
So that is all on today’s Animated Variations post, and I hope you all enjoyed the Odette variation drawings! Just for saving another fun Swan Lake project in the future, I think we should save the Odile Variation as the ninth Animated Variations project for next time, which I think that would be fun and exciting.
Do you have a favorite Odette Variation drawing? If so, out of the three, which one is your favorite? Please share one in the comment box!
The next post coming up is going back to the world of George Balanchine of New York City Ballet, and it’s going be on the first ballet he made in the United States called Serenade! Balanchine choreographed it for the students at the School of American Ballet in 1934, and this year marks the school’s 90th anniversary celebration. I’ve done drawings of Serenade, but I only did two early drawings from five years ago, and they are available to find in this blog.
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