Solid Drawing

The first task was to produce twenty figure drawings focused on motion or action. To start with, I sketched ten two-minute poses with gestural lines and little detail to get down the core shapes and proportions. I found that these were a little too tight and lacked movement so I also filled a page with quicker sketches of dancers, allowing myself to play with more angular lines and exaggerated proportions. After that, I made five fleshed out sketches that have more details and stronger lines. The first held more energy as the looser texturised lines helped break up the permanence of the pose but as my sketches became more defined and detailed they lost the sense of movement and strong line of action. With the two black and white watercolour drawings, I used texture and direction of my brush strokes to help show the action. I also wanted the hands to be more blurred as they are caught mid swing in both poses. Looking back on my five fleshed out sketches, I picked two to experiment with; using spot colouring, I broke up the solidness of the form to show where the body moves to (particularly focusing on the hair). Finally, I painted a fully rendered pose.

I think that my overall figure studies have good proportions and stylisation. With the use of texture and loose lines, the motion of the pose is clearer as the sketch becomes more dynamic and gestural. I liked the use of clean, angular lines that retain the motion by being exaggerated. I think that the final sketch is the least successful. Similar to the last fleshed out sketch, the pose lacks motion which would be fixed by an exaggerated line of motion like in the early dance class figure studies. To improve I am going to keep using gestural lines and stylised proportions to give my poses energy and maintain a strong line of motion.