The Movement in Stages Drawing Assignment is an introduction to thinking about arranging the figure in space using gesture, line, shape, and some hatching and cross hatching (as desired) to create a dynamic composition that implies movement. It also helps students understand how to utilize longer drawing times while keeping mark making fresh, and drawings open to change and insight throughout.
Objectives:
- Student should complete their drawings in their large drawing pad paper using graphite pencils or colored pencils.
- Drawings should contain the model/figure moving through a series of 2-3+ stages of an action.
- The completed drawings will imply motion and the process will allow the student to work on composition of the page, the figure in space, bringing emphasis to areas of the composition, creating variety through line quality, and creating a sense of narrative/time in a 2D work.
Process:
- The instructor will work with the model to define a motion/action into multiple staged poses.
- The model will move through these poses in a cycle, holding each one for 5-15 minutes apiece and returning to the same pose at least 2 times.
- There will be a minimum of 3 total poses in the drawing, each held for 5-15 minutes at a time, and each pose will be repeated at least twice.
- That means that there will be 3 total figures on your page (student choice as to whether to focus on whole figure, portrait, overlap the figures, space them, etc.), each drawn for a total of 10 to 30 minutes each (in 2 drawing sessions/stages).
- The final drawings may be a mix of gestural line, selected more studied contour lines (not just outlines, but interior contours, too, showing edges of shapes/planes in the body), and you may choose to add some hatching and cross hatching.
