Ex.1 Single moving figure
I went to various outdoor and indoor locations to draw figures in a French town and in nearby Basel. Frustratingly, I was struck with how alike everyone seems to dress at this time of year. Males and females were generally wearing puffy jackets with hoods and trousers, and were often carrying a backpack. When people were walking, there was almost a formula for the legs protruding from the big jackets.
Consequently, I was drawn to look for figures wearing ‘different’ outfits… long coats, skirts, less mainstream clothes, but around here they seem to be particularly conventionally dressed. It would be interesting perhaps to revisit this task at the height of summer where there might be more of a variety of clothing and an increased awareness of different body shapes.
This first page of pink people were observed from a car in a car park, looking across the road to a tram stop. The people were arriving, leaving and waiting for the tram in a nearby village.
The people on the page drawn in orange and biro were observed in a supermarket coffee shop.
Similarly the next four pages were people observed from a coffee shop in a small indoor shopping complex.
I was keen to supplement these figures observed from life with some moving images from the internet.
The first drawings of a moving figure, were started with the video playing, and then after the first few, I froze a frame of the video for 10-30 seconds to create a feeling of the character moving as I progressed down the page. It was quite odd how I started the drawings really loosely, but with each one I wanted to add a little more information in the next one. It seemed a natural progression rather than a stated intention. Still, the time spent on each image was about the same, but as my familiarity with the figure increased the drawings contained more information. Looking at them now I can see the sensitivity of the line and awareness of through lines and angles also took more prominence.
I then came across a parcours video and wanted to try some poses with more action, energy and tension in them. Initially the sketches were ‘sausage style’ people, but I felt these were very primitive and did not capture or indicate any of the traits of the characters I was seeing on the video.
So, again I decided to freeze the frames for 20-30 seconds to draw each figure. Swapping to a coloured gel pen I was keen to create images with simple lines rather than lots of sketchy ones. These worked well when seen on mass and created a sense of a cartoon strip of the movement. However, seen in isolation and without background for context, each drawing on its own does not necessarily represent the motion and energy of the activity being performed. Indeed a single frame on its own looks odd and many of the poses would be considered quite bizarre.
I felt the green series of sketches were particularly interesting as they worked against the left to right flow and were more challenging to draw for that reason. I like how they unintentionally overlapped and also arched without any deliberate intention for them to do that. I have noticed as a right handed person, I often prefer to draw figures facing the left.The next page were drawn from a moving video slowed to half speed. Without intending to, I resorted again to the ‘sausage-style people’ again as it was the only way I was able to catch the movement.
The next couple of pages were of a model who was doing repetitive ballet movements, and I was more able to capture the essence of the repeated poses because of that. With many of these sketches I found my first mark for the drawing was a ‘line of action’ to attempt to capture some of the energy of the pose.
This next sketch was from a freeze frame in one colour and then revisited with a second colour for the same time period again.
This image tried to capture a beautiful powerful dance by two dancers, and the central red image was added from a 30 second freeze frame of the video.
Whilst these latter drawings are not pretty or a conventional representation of a figure, they do capture the essence of the movement. I also like the parcours images, but as stated before, they work as ‘a strip’ and are less effective at representing movement individually.
References
Ballet Class For Beginners | How To Do Simple Ballet Moves With @MissAuti. Nov 2018. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy67yin1ylI [Accessed: 6.1.19]
Figure Model Drawing Animation & Motion Reference – Female walking angled view. Figure&Art 2017. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HgGyzNpPdw. [Accessed: 6.1.19]
Highspeed camera + parkour, 2008 Bendik Raam. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ-pj-KFN1k&list=PLTqnwrldLtRB8XRLfJKQZ3RFupxJ_QspE&index=29 [Accessed: 6.1.19]
Sylvie Guillem e Massimo Murru – Petite Mort, 2018. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORK3SHj4KHw [Accessed: 6.1.19]
Ex.2 – Groups of Figures
Standing in a busy place like a train station, with the notion of drawing moving groups of people is just so overwhelming. In the previous exercise I tried to capture the essence of moving individuals in real contexts. However, apart from the building and fixed aspects for this task, everything is too fluid to capture. It is stressful.
Working from a photograph, capturing just one fraction of a moment in time, allows more scope for observation of how the people relate to the environment they are in and how they move en-masse at any one moment. I found a photograph of a crowded Liverpool street station. I wanted to emphasise the static background contrasting with the buzz of movement below. The building is rendered with a silver gel pen. It echoes the industrial setting.
The people are created with water-soluble graphite pencils. I wanted to show that some people are standing, waiting or watching, and their form is more static, solid and recognisable. Others around them are almost indefinable blurred shapes as they move, shadows of themselves. In the distance the shapes blur altogether and become indefinable.I was conscious to use darker tones near the foreground, and lighter tones and diminishing scale for depth. We are looking down, from above, on this world so the characters are all very small scale.
Once I had completed this drawing I remembered seeing a similar type of drawing in the Kaupelis, ‘Experimental Drawing’ book. This drawing was made by a student (Bernstein) looking down on people below from the 13th floor and he dipped his fingers in ink and smeared shapes to create the essence of the moving figures he was watching. These marks are very effective and ensure he was not distracted by detail.
This vitality has encouraged me to consider using ink and explore different tools to apply it, for subsequent exercises.
I was keen to try a second scene where the characters were larger and found an image where it appears as if we are looking up towards the characters. They are walking on a glass and metal bridge and I loved the reinforcement of the movement in the shadows and the distorted shapes of some of the characters. The second figure on the left for example is moving so quickly he looks ghostlike and transparent. The upper part of his legs looked stick thin, but overly large and flared at the flared at the bottom. The woman on the left looked as if she had no left foot and part of her upper chest was a blur as she carried some white shape beneath her left arm.
I found the soluble graphite pencils were very effective at suggesting movement. I liked the grey colour as in movement in these reference images, darker tones are moderated and less extreme. I enjoyed working in a quick and spontaneous way to mimic the essence of the subject. It kept the images fresh and energetic.
I was not able to hold any images from life of a crowd scene as it was just too overwhelming. Drawing single characters from life is challenging, and one I will try to continue to practice and develop. I always carry a sketchbook and will try to remember to use it in more challenging contexts. Airports might be a good place where whilst there is lots of movement, I can be seated comfortably, and relatively unobtrusively and capture an essence of the environment and some of the characters who may not be moving quite so purposefully, fast, nor energetically as ‘out in town’ or at a railway station.
REFERENCES:
123RF, (2019), ‘Stock photo – moving crowd’, [online]. Available at: https://www.123rf.com/photo_5104952_moving-crowd-motion-blur.html. [Accessed 10.1.19]
KAUPELIS, Robert (1980), ‘Experimental Drawing’, Crown Publishing, New York
Liverpool Station, (2017), Saffron Interactive. ‘Let’s get physical – how user experiences from the real world will make your learning better’. [online]. Available at: https://saffroninteractive.com/lets-get-physical-how-user-experiences-from-the-real-world-will-make-your-learning-better/ [Accessed 10.1.19]
Cathy's OCA Drawing 1 Blog 