Today we're going to go over rhythm. We're going to - we're going to look at the
different poses. And we're going to look at not just the gestural analysis of what
the figure is doing. What I really want you to look for is look for near
alignments of actual shapes, not just an implied kind of access line, but we can
start with that. But then when I want you to do is I want you to really look for
and build upon the actual shapes that will be moving your eye and creating near
alignments, which I'll demonstrate and to move the viewers eye, to build a and to move the viewers eye to build a
more rhythmic
movement and more dynamic drawing. Okay, so let's get started.

I want to go over rhythm and rhythm as it relates to our visual language could be
expressed in various ways. Rhythms created by lines or dots that sit on a surface or
divide a surface
creating intervals that build relationships along the surface those
working in a 2D manner. Okay, you can think of musical notes on a chart or
rhythms
of this nature can be monotonous like they can either be like musical notes or
they can monotonous like
fence posts
with equal distance between or distance width of the other pieces. They
can become dynamic or chaotic. When sketching the figure one may look to find
an axis or rhythmic line throughout the throughout rhythmic line throughout the
stance or the motion of the figure.
And this is an implied line. Okay. So that axis isreally works as an implied
line. We're really looking for rhythm
and your composition rhythms can be created by arranging shapes to create
near alignments that move the viewers eye in and around your image. These rhythms
can work in a 2D level and
or make us
you make use of the illusionary 3D space
on a 3D level. This is most easily achieved when you consider your marks and
shapes and create abstract forces that that move the eye.
So that's really what we want to do is we want to really look at at the
pose but then also look at how we move the viewers eye through that image.
There's a couple compositions I want you to look at first
and these are Andrew Loomis.
So this is the case in these images.
What I want to do is I want to pull these out because you can see what he's done
here is he's created these bees rhythmic patterns, right? But these rhythmic
patterns are just gestural shapes. And that's the difference. These are just
they follow along the axis and they're just just drill shapes. But then when you
look at the actual illustrations, they all sit pretty flat. Okay, and that's
something that's unique to these they just sit flat and so that's one thing that can
happen. If you're only looking at the just the gestures or the axes of
these
of the pose it can still remain fairly flat.
Okay.
But what we want to do is we want to create a pathway. Now even in these I'm a
little critical on these as well because as you can see
with a situation like this, the boy up in the upper right,
you know, he's supposed to be looking up in the sky, but because the ground
and the distant ground get dark right by his feet, we get a little bit of tension
right in there and
it really flattens the space a little bit and this becomes very very flat as well.
Same as the bottom image, the bottom image there's like a near tangent that
occurs with a near Mountain the water and the guy in the boat, you know, that
creates visual tension and your eye will go to visual tension, that's not necessarily a
good thing in this situation. It's that near miss, that tension
between the guy in the boat and so close to becoming tangent with that
background that
it draws your eye in but it also freezes your image. It freezes this image
and freezes you in this image. So that's not the strongest way of composing. The
middle image at least gives you some stepping into your 3D spatial depth. The
foreground bush on the right, then the guy towards the middle and then he's
framed by the
the front porch behind him and that gives you you know, a foreground bush, then the
man, the bushes on the left side on the same
depth plane, and then the the porch sits on the next one back and so you get these
three layers of spatial depth that's not flattened like the other two, okay.
These are from Edgar Payne and in his books he's writing things to avoid in
composition.
Equal halves, you know cutting it in half, equal spacing or masses, too many parallel
lines that are near the edge of the picture, you know, you might think you're
framing a subject or something. But if they get too close, they associate with
the edge or the frame and when things start associating with the frame, they go
flat.
Equals, excuse me, equal spacing for centered objects.
And the interesting thing is the one
on the far right, third one down from the top where it says centered
objects, the tree is in the middle, but he uses three other elements to create
some closure on that that actually gives it a little bit more dimensional
space. So if he didn't have those elements, like the element in
the lower front, it would be very symmetrical, but that takes us off it's
not too long and it actually turns it into more spatial - creates more spatial
depth by closure.
Scattered objects centered on the horizon.
And then three equal divisions. A lot of times you hear the term of
dividing by thirds or threes or whatever. Here's three equal divisions.
Now the thing is working on threes is fine but if they're all equal
you're going to get this kind of a flatness to the symmetry of it.
Equal masses, like the one on the right hand side next to the bottom. You see the
clouds are all equal in size as they go back into space, again that flattens your
spatial depth and then in crowded design the bottom, so these are things to kind
of avoid. Now this - I want to call your attention this image. This image has great
depth and I want to start with this so we can draw this.
So you guys can follow along with this too, you know, as I draw this.
And what I'm going to do is yes, there's two figures in here, but I'm going to
really be drawing the directional forces that are created. Real strong this wing up
in here.
Creates a strong directional force in this direction and another one comes back
over here like this. So this is aiming up here and this is aiming up there. So those
are real strong forces then we get his head in here.
Okay.
And
then on his on his head here and his shoulder up in here. Now you're going to shoulder up in here. Now. You're going
to see there's a lot of overlapping going on in here. Okay, there's a lot of a lot
of overlapping of different shapes and so on that occur.
His arm is back and then comes back around.
I have his head a little bit big so we can use that.
Now even the way the band on his head turns, it goes in kind of layers. This
is little hitch in here is important as well.
And then there's his eye, the bottom of his eye.
And his cheek his cheek overlaps his eye there
when it comes down in front.
His nose is coming out here.
And his jaw comes down in front here like this.
So his jaw's and in front of this and then keeps going back and back and back and
wrinkles in his in his neck pushing you back from his shoulder over
here.
Okay,
fabric coming down this way. Again, these are different directional shapes that are
moving your eye up and around, you know, on him.
Then we have her.
We have this really strong foreshortening coming forward like this.
And we get little overlap there.
And we're going over and over, these fold over the knee and then swoop down like
this.
Because it wants to pick up the outside of this frame and come back to his toe
over here. Bringing you back up around here and then up or under his buttocks down
this way and up around there again. So all of these things are coming
into play and all these shapes roll into one another and their back the back foot goes
back this way because their fingers turn up like this.
Okay.
And again, his arm now comes out his hand,
fingers,
and then we get more of the -
get the different color on the feathers, feathers coming out here.
Okay.
And from here we got her -
from her clavicle here we got long line on her neck here of the material coming
down at
an angle like this and then going over her shoulder here,
going back into his hand here, and then up and over.
Out here like that. So his arm is tucked back going back here, coming down and
under hers is going over
like this.
Then again
pointing down, bring your eye around. So these are the things I'm looking at is
like is like near tangents and things that are near alignments.
You know that help move our eye up and around
and throughout the image.
And even in here from her neck and here we're going to see under her
neck and then under her chin and then over her chin.
And
she's kind of an axis like this do from her chin we're going to see the bottom lip,
her upper lip like this. It's going over and then from there her nose is going up
here and it's overlapping here and going back
in space and then her cheek coming over, her cheek over here,
top of her eyelid,
her eyebrow, see how everything is rolling over and over and over.
Okay.
Even her cheek comes in front of here down in here.
And this side is a little bit straighter because the material and stuff
and here we get a little bit more curve. So this is more active over here.
Like this.
Again reinforcing this shoulder here and then around here.
So all of these things are all moving,
you know, in space.
And we're creating these rhythms, these patterns that go from from the contours,
you know to across to other areas, maybe from the inside here,
to the inside here,
to overlapping here
to there.
Now I made him a little too small. It's like a little kid.
So these strong rhythms. And now we could say -
we could say that there's a strong axis. Okay, so you can see that there is a
strong axis here. But what I want to do is I really want to focus on what are the
actual literal shapes that are actually moving your eye and turning and creating
those rhythms. What are those shapes? Okay, not just the general generic.
Okay, so it's the actual things that we want to really look at in terms of
building those rhythmic shapes, you know contours and actual shapes er
want to do, want to look at, okay?
All right.
One of the best people that does this is Dean Cornwell. Earth is Dean Cornwell.
Of course, there's Tieplo a lot of classic artists do but what I want to do
is I can look at these because every shape in here, whether it's the shadow,
whether it's a contour, whether it's a pattern,
everything in here all leads your eye and moves your eye around these images and
that's one of the things that he was really really good at. Whether it
starts with your eyeline, the direction of surfaces,
you know, all of that stuff. Everything is leading your eye , elements of contrast.
They all move your eye around and here's another - here's an example of this. This
is like almost all horizontal. Okay, except for the
you know, the eye line or the two men's heads are all like right on top of
one another and there's a bit of an angle there. Okay, but everything else is
pretty much horizontal, there is a diagonal on is on the guy that was laying down his
leg, diagonal on his tie. And the diagonal on his tie really kind of aligns with I guess
it's a rag or something that the bartender was holding onto, it aligns with
that and goes right up his arm and follows up around his arm. Okay, here's
another image where all of the shapes are all leading into and around
the characters. And it's so it's more than just drawing two figures in an
environment, it's really designing the world about these guys. I think I have a
drawing here, you can see here there's a lot of stuff going on here. Okay,
and
now I'll mark on here. Actually I can draw on this too, even this there's
this guy over here, right and he's got a strong eye line, and he's
looking down at the other guy over here. So this is one of our main things I got
here. Our wounded guy down here like this and his pillow clearly frames his head.
Okay the folds into here, they really frame his head here and this goes
over and really pushes back in space, below him is really straight here and
then we get over and over. Okay again leading up into him and then around.
See these shapes will bring you down this way and then this is going to
bring you back up here.
And then he's even giveing you the corner of the bed in here, right? He's given you
that to keep your eye in here.
So he doesn't want you to go outside the frame, he wantsto stop you right there.
His boot.
This is broken up here and pulls up there. His knee. me.
And he gives you some folds that will keep you in this area.
His cuff.
Going around his leg.
So it's -
he's giving a lot of form, but he's also giving you the design of
these directional shapes.
Under his jaw here and his neck.
Around his head.
All of these things are all important because they frame and frame and then you can see
the top of the pillow, these lines that come down, and then this
framing him here.
Curls that pillow right around so that you feel the weight of his head sitting
in that pillow.
It gives you a little bit of material back here, gives you a light shape that
will go like this and then gives you other elements down here on the ground.
That's going to keep moving your eye around here.
Another fold in here that's going to be a strong directional shape
the moves your eye right in there.
His arm goes down then a little bit of his sleeve showing up just to keep that
closed there.
From here there's the dresser.
There's a shadow on that. It's also helping the echo that shape of this.
There's a shape of that and then this goes back.
And nothing is really straight. If you look at it, you have this going up but
then you have this other shape coming down and it's all there to move your eye.
The real purpose of this stuff is to move your eye around this image. And
you see they even closed - he closes the top up here, closing that off, closing this
off. And then if you look at the direction of all of this stuff, look at
all this stuff, bring your eye around here. It's all purposeful like there's a
coat that has a fold it like this that goes up this way, right?
And then
kind of a pipe fold that goes like this.
And then there's buttons, look at how the buttons are laid out.
Okay, and this gives you closure as you move up there like that.
Okay, then from there there's a hat.
The hat brim and then the inside of the
hat band coming down and then something hanging on the hat band.
Oh, hanging underneath it. I guess it's his holster with a gun in here and it's
coming down this way.
Framing here and then something else like this
coming up this way.
So all of these shapes are all working into moving your eye. It really is the moving your eye. It's it really is
amazing that if he's not just drawing stuff. Okay and cluttering a room with
stuff. He's drawing shapes at actually move your eye and that's the main purpose
of all of these shapes.
I have his head a little too low.
And this being the case, he's getting a lot out of
these shapes.
Okay, where you can come down in here, come out here around his his cheek.
And he's using that shadow in there to actually move your eye down in there.
Shadow from his nose. These are strong shapes to move you down in there.
Okay.
Even in here he's got all this going around like this and then he gives you
the hair which is really pointing you down right towards all of that and then
back and this is going to be pointing around the other side. This is pointing
out here, all this
is really there moving your eye all around
in the exact place he wants you to look.
Scarf
coming around, coming around.
Up high here.
Hat band, even the shadow
following along that shape that he wants to give you, move that along there
and move that along there. Bring this down here, bring this down in here.
Around. And that one finger sticking out, holding
his hat on the outside, you can see it turns turns that shape, the shape
is coming down of all his fingers here and then that one
turns.
Okay. Watch what happens from his cuff up here. He's pulling his shirt. You see
that? He's pulling his shirt over here.
His belt is coming out creating a big arrow that goes down like this and then
his pocket like this and then his chaps come out here like this and then down.
Okay, so he's moving our eye over here. But watch what happens with this hand
from his cuff here.
His hand
coming out.
Okay, so he's pulling his shirt but look at the folds on this. at look at the folds on this.
There, there,
there.
Allows him to get another arrow in here pointing down.
And this coming in.
And this makes another change in there. This keeps coming out here at this angle
and then he's got his gun out this way and there's some shadow that
plays along this angle. So we get a little more directional shape in there.
The side of the holster and it comes down and then his belt comes up and meets with
his other belts over there. So it's all of this activity just going to kind of
sweeping over here like this and then his vest comes here and completes that.
Outside it there.
Back.
And then around this way.
His shadow,
kind of a shadow on itself.
Back over and then back around, again it's Shadow down here.
Folds.
And then back, these folds go around here.
So, so much of this - even a shadow coming up here - this creates a passage. Okay,
and the passage softens that edge. So what happens is your eye will move down
this to shape.
Okay.
So all of these things are really unique even like his side burn here is helping you
move your eye up and around and up and around his ear, you know in his ear and
then under his ear.
Even his shirt, look at his shirt. Look at the little
arrow on his shirt, you see that?
These aren't accidents. Okay, they're not accidents. This guy was brilliant at
designing this, this is what he did. Okay, and this is why you know, they kind of
coined it is that the dean of illustration because he wasn't drawing
just stuff. He was designing how the viewers supposed to look at his work.
Okay, you know along the lines of Tiepolo and and some of these great below and and some some of these great
artists that were moving your eye. He's doing it with the illustration now,
I put a number these in here and I put some drawings in so I'm going to suggest
that during, you know, during this week take a look at them and draw through
some of these. Okay, we'll practice when we're drawing from the model. But I want were drawing from the model. But I want
you to also draw from from some of these that you know - here's an Edwin Austin Abbey
where it's very very flat space but you see everybody's vertical and either flat
or horizontal or either flat to the screen or sideways to the screen and
then you get the two laying on the ground which are the focus.
There isn't great movement. I mean these guys ties, there's got to be a
huge wind in this room for them to have their ties blowing around like this,
right. And look at the movement of these this
suitcases on the lower left. They create an arc that goes right up the guy's leg.
Okay, and the framing of the architecture that will arch that just happens to be at
the right level to move you back in and give this kind of an alignment with the
foreground guy as he's leaning back, okay.
And again, like we were talking earlier this happened throughout time. This this same
thing has recurred, you know all through time. There's strong rhythms going on in
these images as well.
Okay, there's some strong images going around. Now, this is more of a 2D
rhythm because everything is like so on the nose aligned, it seems a little bit
flatter than the others but there's a rhythm in there. Nonetheless,
You know here again, we've got a lot of movement moving in and out and around and
even the sail is framing them at
you know to a certain degree.
Steve's got to go on in his drawings to where he's using the muscles to create
these alignments and rhythms that move your eye in and around and keep you
compelled to look at this painting.
This is a John Asaro and this is what I would say is a bit more
like musical notes, you know, where these sheets and towels are on this
clothesline, you have these simple dark shapes, but you know, the windows aren't
all plum, they aren't all flat. They have a little bit of a bend to them. And
so he's kind of directing your eye to move in a certain way so it's not just
doing wobbly lines. The lines are actually
creating little forces that move you in a certain direction, the poles that certain certain direction the poles that
are holding up the clothesline, you see they lean up to the left and then they -
and then your eye kinda swirls up around.
It's pretty important.
This image too, you know, if you look at how the chair is actually bent,
you know, and her arm goes through the chair. There's - you know, he's
kind of twisting space a little bit in here, too.
This image down below here. You take a look at the dynamic rhythms in
there as well. Okay.
And like near alignments, you know that happen
in and around and throughout her figure, if we just take a look at this, at the
table,
right, and some of the folds coming down
from the table, then a couple secondary folds coming in here. So if we have the
table here and folds here and we see where her leg is,
okay, along those, and then her other
coming up here.
Right? Take a look at the shadow
as it comes down
from the upper leg comes down in here like this and then the top of this
shadow comes like this.
So this area of light to shadow here goes right up into this and then gets carried
over the top of this. So he's moving your eye and then it goes to the top of the
rib cage.
Again, moving your eye all along there.
Okay, so he's bringing your eye up and then bring it up. This is why I talk about
like near alignments that come along here and then bring your eye around and then
under here, over here, you see and then over here. So all of these things are all
moving your eye around and wrapping your eye around. This one comes.
So those are what we want to look for. We want to look for these things that that
that will create these near alignments so that one shape leans into the next and
be deliberate about shapes as we're drawing them.

So I might look at an axis, the overall axis, just to begin with but then look
for how things are going to going to actually connect.
Offsetting angles.
And I might even just take his
back collar and flare it out a little bit. I'm exaggerating a little bit out
there.
Just kind of pushing those things out
so I can get a little bit more direction on those.
And I'm looking at one shape and then I'm going to try to see how I can
accent that shape.
Now I'm going to look at this shape over here. Maybe I'm going to lower this just
a little bit because what I want to do is,
like I said, I want to make a
near alignments across the form. So I'm going to take this part of his coat from
under his arm this way,
bring this like this,
and then I'm going to follow that down here and I'm gonna bring his coat down here.
So I have kind of a bit of a mannequin, but I'm going to also see that I'm going
to start pushing some of the folds that I see
to move your eye. I'm going to look for the ones that are important
to move your eye
and I'm going to accentuate those.
Even the buttons and now look at the direction of the buttons. I'm going to
see are they moving in ovals or circles or can I get any directional value out of
those?
I can find any kind of rhythms that are going to help kind of push your eye. It
doesn't matter if it's going to be the edge of a shadow or it's going to be
the edge of a form.
They're all going to work together.
So again, I'm going to be looking in here to find the folds and the
larger rhythms in here, you know, just through these shapes as they go across
turn.
All these things are going to say a lot about what's going on in the pose even
just pulling from the inside up here. If I can get this coming down like this
and then underneath I see a little bit of a
of a fold in his vest, that
tells me that there's a little bit more movement that all pulls from his shoulder
out here like this.
So I'm looking at the contour out here, bringing this in, reinforcing that in, and
then bring it all the way down into here. Okay, so that way I can kind of surround
this
or you know, create a shape
that doesn't just define what it is, but it leads my eye - leads your eye in here,
over his are
and into his hand.
You can see that from the brim of his hat down here.
Okay, so if you have the brim of his hat you get a little bit of his eye,
right,
and then since he was hanging his head down forward to get a little bit of his
eye in here. And then you get the inside of - there's kind of a shadow on the
inside of his cheek. Okay from the weight of his cheek next to his eye.
Because his cheek as volume comes out here like that and you were starting to
see that it also comes in here and starts to get a little shadow on the inside, but
the outside is like this and then it tucks back, goes in here then tucks back
to his jaw back in here somewhere.
Okay. Now this falls into shadow in here.
But from here we his nose down in here and you see it, I can
see that you see it, but you're just kind of running through it. That's all you
going - it's kind of, its kind of like this. Okay. It's kind of like that but
actually look for it and actually just put it down. Okay, so that you see how it
goes in and then you're going to see how
his cheek is actually folding over there, right, and then underneath there folds
over again
and then it goes
to his upper lip here and it comes back.
Okay.
And this is the corner of his mouth here, but it's going to be -
it's covered because this is folding over here and then down in here.
There's going to be more but then it goes into a shadow
quickly under here.
All right.
So all this goes into the shadows now, then you're going to end up with.
I find when you get - when you have like small areas, small small areas,
you know little small marks in here next to some of these these larger shadow
shapes and stuff, those become very very critical. We got to get you know, you
have to make sure that you're very careful with those.
It's all good.
Because I can see that you see it, but it's just a case of just following it
through that's all.

I'm drawing this, his finger going back.
So I want to get the full - going over to counter that and this other one coming
back this way.
That'll make this whole area
react to his finger.
Okay. So once I get the - as I'm going down here, I know I'm kind of kind of skipping
from one area to another but I'm trying to look at how one fold will roll into
another or how things will wrap around, how this line will go into here.
I've been doing that through the whole thing. I've been a little quiet but
that's what I've been looking for is how one thing will fold into another and
leave your eye moving into another element. So that
makes everything relative in here. So, you know again like every mark you make
has a consequence and what you want to do is you want to make sure that the marks
that you're making
lead you into the next the next element or drive your eyes somewhere.
Like if I have this I want to push this direction up. This is not a strong line
there, but there's folds here. There's folds across here. An arc here,
something up here, and then this high one up like this that's going to move me up
into here and bring me across here.
So I'm going to look for things like this
that are gonna be bringing me up here. I'm also going to be going beyond that and I'm
going to be looking for something that's going to be hanging from here.
And maybe I'll bring this down even farther.
Bring it out and just bring it down even a little bit farther yet.
And the reason I do that is you can see I'm pulling this out, pulling this out, and then
down this way if there's kind of a fringe hanging down it's going to go this way. I
pulled it down a little bit farther just to kind of bring my eye back down into
here.
See, I'm going to get a little higher in this area up here.
And you can see how this, his
vest folds around or rolls around the back of him.
And I can see a bit of a crease back there, too.
First I'm going to start with his head.
All right, and I'm going to see that he's got a strong direction on his head back
here. So there's this
movement that's going back in space
up this way.
So I'm going to look for the shapes that are going to actually tell me a little
bit more about what's going on. So.
I'm gonna go from one side to the other
look for those
areas.
I'm gonna go back from his cheek, but then come.
Maybe looking for things that are going to be moving my eye around
like this
and then terminate, I want to bring it back around.
If I bring this like this like that, I can bring this around and just make sure
that it terminates in there like that.
Okay.
Then I'm going to look for this kind of a shape that's going to come across here.
You see this comes in front.
So coming from this,
look for the big shapes, find like the distance from the shoulders.
And I'm going to go from one side to the other, this might be underneath some
kind of drawing through here.
Drawing
this trapezius back here and as it comes through his vest comes through like that.
This pulls up from his chest in here. Then I'm going to get some pull that's going
to come down this way, this way, this way, and pull out here.
It's going to go over his clavicle there.
And down there like that.
Once I get a handle on his
Overall kind of dimensions here then what I can do is I can start looking at
if I'm kind of dealing with a silhouette first,
I can look for the silhouette first.
This is like this.
Okay, so now I've got pretty much a silhouette. And so now I'm going to
really look for the things that are going to really move my eye or how I'm
going to want the viewer to look, I want them to look up around than his neck
here. So I'm going to be pulling from from this point here
like this
and I also see that there's another fold that comes like this way
that's going to overtake that like this.
That's going to kind of transition this into this shape that's going to come up
here like that.
I can play off of that, get a little bit more pull on that collar up there.
Okay, I can tell that the fabric's a little stiff because it goes out from the
shoulder here like this
and hangs.
This feels a little straighter over here and this has a little bit more curve
on the inside here.
And then this has to come out this way. We can just feel that there's some volume is feel that there's some volume
underneath here.
Wraps around there like that.
The smartest thing to do is to,
you know, is to really look for the silhouette, you know of of how things are
first.
You know once you get the silhouette,
you know, then you can build up the silhouette.
You know and you can see how things are pulling from one side to the other.
That kind of a thing.
There's much more activity going on down there like that. And even in here if this
is kind of pulling here, I noticed that you know, it might be coming from the
outside because he's kind of pushing out his legs out like that. It might be the
outside and then it comes in here and then we get this
this wrapping around
like this and then back out around. So it goes in here and then out to the outside
and then the outside up here. This goes up here. If we get anything coming up here
it's going to go up
this way.
Does shat makes sense? So that you're always kind of moving through.
You know, you're going across the form. This is going to be some things like this
goes up and around this way.
And that way you'll always get that movement going around, wrapping around like that
from one side to the other. You're going to be going around and up and down.

Just make sure that if you get a chance to draw from life, or if you want to draw
from the images online, go ahead but take a look and really look for those long
lines that are going to be moving across your form and look where the origins are,
where they pull to, and see if you can't build a kind of longer near alignments
with those shapes and you'll get more rhythm and flowing
shape throughout your figure drawing.