The Expressive Figure: The Expressive Figure 10_28

The Expressive Figure Assignment

Concept: Gestural Movement and

Lost Edges

Materials:

Materials

Vine or Willow Jumbo Charcoal, Graphite lead, ball point pen
90 lb drawing paper 12" x 19" or similar sketchbook
Faber-Castell Kneaded Eraser

Starting with Vine or Willow Charcoal, quickly sketch draw a gestural mannikin of the pose with the emphasis on proportions and action. This should take fifteen seconds or less.

With the template of the mannikin as a guide, scribble a gestural tangle of lines to describe the volumetric mass of the torso, emphasizing the peanut shape of the thorax and pelvis. As you move out to the limbs, visualize them as cylinders: adapt your lines to wind around these cylindrical volumes, like a helix.

Edges of the Figure

Conceptualizing the volume of space that a figure occupies is key to understanding how to calibrate the pressure that our hand applies to the charcoal or drawing media when drawing edges. One precept is that fuzzy and sharp edges are a result of the two overlapping cones of our eyes which are aligned along a horizontal axis. Correspondingly vertical edges appear slightly out of focus because of two different focal points on this axis. In addition, horizontal edges, which are parallel with the axis, are more in focus and hence, sharper. This technique is helpful in that it acknowledges the turning planes of a form as the volume recedes back into space. These turning planes advance and recede with found and lost lines, as muscle tissue and ligaments “spiral” around the cylindrical forms of the bones. Learning how to visualize the occupancy of space of these cylinders and how they hinge and the constraints of their movements, allow us to construct a mental holographic simulation of a moving figure in space. This is the template that your brain will project on any surface and you have free reign to apply any form of media on this projection.

Draw at least three poses emphasizing the "wrapping" of the cylindrical masses of the torso and limbs. - more if you feel so inclined.