The Expressive Figure: t he expressive figure

The Expressive Figure Assignment

Concept: Movement, Rhythm and Angles

Dance and the pose as Symbol

Materials:

Materials

Vine or Willow Jumbo Charcoal ( Generals, Coates, etc.),
Compressed Charcoal ( Sooty Black)
Dry Media Sources: Hard Pastel sticks (NuPastel, Creatacolor, etc.) Conte Crayon, Stabilo Pastel Pencils or equivalent, Soft Pastels (Neutral colors) for toned paper fabrication
Canson Mi Tientes toned paper or Strathmore toned 90 lb drawing paper 12" x 19" or similar Ledger or any similar 60 to 90 lb paper
Faber-Castell Kneaded Eraser or Chamois cloth

Any Media that is appropriate to your creative impulse!

Suggested Methodology to Begin the Drawing:

Starting with charcoal, use a collection of sweeping inverse radial arcs to describe the action /gesture of the figure. Visualize these arcs as defining the "envelope" of the figure, ie. within the overlapping arcs is the area that the figure occupies, and outside of these arcs is the "flux" or everything that's background or negative space.

Then within the interior space defined by these arcs/envelope, quickly and lightly sketch a gestural mannikin of the pose beginning at the pelvis. This mannikin is geometrically analogous to a "doll" with a peanut-shaped volume approximating the torso, cylinders for limbs and neck, and an ovoid for the skull. Orient the mannikin in space by drawing a "medial line" through the center of the front and back of the torso as well as the center and back of the neck and skull.

Assignment: Continue our exploration of the foreshortening of the human figure through the visualization of structural analysis as well as volumetric primitives. Consider the human figure as a manniken comprised of simple primitive volumes such as cylinders, ovoids, and the peanut-shaped volume that is congruent with the torso. As these volumes orient themselves in space, their direction- receding away or advancing toward is considered their "aspect". This aspect can be considered equivalent to a planar perspective grid that orients with the sagittal and coronal planes that divide the volume into four quadrants. Where the sagittal plane bisects the center of the body, dividing it into two symmetrically mirrored halves, is known as the "Medial Line".

These volumetric primitives can be described using concentric rings that revolve the volumes around their central axis. These concentric rings become closer together as they recede into space much as the horizontals on a perspective grid recede into space toward the horizon. The challenge is to revolve these rings so that they accurately match the aspect upon which these volumes align themselves.

Using a forgiving media such as charcoal or similar, revolve these rings as if the volumes are transparent so that the concentric reflect most accurately their aspects and each other. They are in fact approximations of cross-sections and are euphemistically known as cross-contours. Using the "ghosting technique", these cross-contoured primitives can then be lightly dusted off revealing their "ghost" or pentimenti, and can then serve as a guide or template for the final drawing.

Matisse

Degas

Diebenkorn

Ted Seth Jacobs

The Expressive Figure Assignment

Concept: The Meditative Composition

and

Light & Structure

The Cameras Influence

Part III

Materials:

Materials

Vine or Willow Jumbo Charcoal ( Generals, Coates, etc.), Graphite lead and holder
Dry Media Sources: Hard Pastel sticks (NuPastel, Creatacolor, etc.) Conte Crayon, Stabilo Pastel Pencils or equivalent,
Canson Mi Tientes toned paper or Strathmore toned 90 lb drawing paper 12" x 19" or similar Ledger or any similar 60 to 90 lb paper
Faber-Castell Kneaded Eraser or Chamois cloth

Any Media that is appropriate to your response

Suggested Methodology to Begin the Drawing:

You may use any pose, with or without props. What is important is that you must bring yourself to your work to develop it beyond what you see. While drawing from the model, look for aspects of the model or the model's attitude that you could dramatize. Allow for changes as you progress and continually and aggressively rework the media, erasing or adding multiple layers if required. The gestural action of the drawing is an important part of the drawing. Direct the work toward a more potently charged statement, following intuitive hunches but also stepping back and evaluating what you have drawn, not in terms of its realism but rather in terms of how effectively it gives the figure a heightened presence that is realized through the drawing process. The final drawing should be as much about you and your expressive action as it is about the model's pose.

Assignment: Using the quick compositional exercise as a guide, sketch out a few small thumbnails of the pose you wish to portray and explore how placement and croppping enhance the dialogue with the viewer. Be aware of those concepts as tension, mood, narrative, and sexuality, as well as how positive and negative space provokes and/or assures the viewer. It's not enough to just "plunk" the figure in the middle of the page and render it. The larger drawing should not just be an enlargement of the smaller sketch more a complete and more developed idea. In Brown and McLeans' "Drawing from Life", they remind the artist that, "you are not just drawing the figure, rather, you are using the figure to construct a whole composition." As Degas once explained, "The dancer is only a pretext for a drawing."

In the following photo stills of Mikym. These poses emulate the pastels and paintings by Degas of a woman at her dressing table or at the bath.