OCA D4: Gesture

Capturing the poses

For the first standing pose I had my model stood with her hips jutting out, upper-body leaning over and a tilted head to even her balance and make for a nice pose. This drawing was rapid and drawn boldly and did capture the essence of the pose. I see a sense of movement in the spine and the hips and the extended neck and vivid neck muscles exaggerate the twist of her head to counteract her weight. I think the line could be comparable to an Egon Schiele drawing, albeit, not quite as expressive.

One of Egon Schiele's more natural line drawings, but with comparable line...

For another of my standing poses I had my model hold the back of a stool (drawn as a bar) and shift just a little of her weight on to her right side. She lifted her left foot off the ground. The quick reference points are actually drawn with a marker that was running out of ink. I am happy with how I've captured the slight shift in weight, the raised leg, upper-body twist, slight push of the hips, arched back and tilt of the head to counter her balance.

Sense of energy

I did capture the poses and I'm quite good at quickly memorising posture and gesture. I made some quick sketches of work colleagues and sketches of my son dancing around my living room for this exercise. I am reasonably happy with the drawings, but not with the sense of energy I was trying to capture. The figures are balanced, but my line just isn't dynamic enough to capture movement. I think because I was so focused on trying to capture energy I became stiff and lost all sense of rhythm in my movement. I've actually captured more energy in some of the drawings that weren't completed for this exercise. This is something I will likely attack during my next life drawing session. In fact, reading through the figurative section of the next assignment; these new drawings will likely be something I will submit. Perhaps drawing on a larger scale with broad strokes will help.

Drawings of my son...

Some more gestural drawings of my son...

Quick update...

I've just found this drawing on Saatchi-online...

Not an original idea by any means, but using the same drawing for various dynamic positions is something I will experiment with. I will credit the artist for this picture when I locate their name.