Inspired by “Applying Structure to Gesture”

[Tanmay Shah]

[Jack]

I’m always impressed when artists can use bold outlines without it feeling heavy or oppressive – like Cezanne. My attempts always render the form flat and lifeless, but you’ve managed to keep the gesture and the liveliness of the model. I think the foreshortening of the arms and hands is very well done, achieving a lot with line/shape alone. The bend of the shoulders reads convincingly and the turn of the head is almost cinematic, like an old film, you’ve captured the expressive pose really well.

Only two points I might mention are (1) proportions – the lower half of the figure seems too short or the torso too long? It might be that she’s crouched, but the foreshortening of the legs isn’t reading? The left leg is clearly bent but the left hip is higher than the right hip, but the right leg looks straight? Maybe there’s a bit too much length around the hips? Unsure. (2) half-tones – on the one hand, the bold shadowing creates a really dramatic pose, it suits the gesture, but on the other hand it might be appealing to introduce more half-tones to blur the edges to guide the viewer away from some areas,  leaving contrast elsewhere to aim the gaze at specific points. The strong shadow/light separation might be  what’s making the hard outline work though.

A lovely drawing, keep it up!

[Tanmay Shah]

Thanks for your careful observation and points that I might’ve missed while I was endeavouring to get a feel of the pose and trying to put it onto paper.

The figure is crouched but from the photograph it seems that the model is tall and has a good figure. I do feel that I should have emphasized on foreshortening than to make it look closer to pose itself.

Regarding halftones, I trying to figure out how to achieve them especially on toned paper.

Thanks alot

[Tanmay Shah]

As a working person one looses track of how much they are practicing and it always feels good to take a moment, grab pencil, start laying simple forms and mould it into a figure. Here’s a sketch that I made today.

[Tanmay Shah]

[Carlos Perez]

Hey Tanmay, The first one looks Rubens ish with that quality of gesture and all those egg forms , I like the shadow shapes, pretty good.

However ,  at the second drawing, I’d pay attention specifically to the gesture line of the side, it feels too “Nessy monster”,  I’d make sure the gesture is long and consistent and on top add the ups and downs of the little forms .   Something went wrong at the breast but that’s minor.

 

[Author]

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