sketch day 2

[olmue]

People using the computer is another setting where it's easy to draw (and uh...we see far too much of this at our house).



That and people stalling for bed:


Images copyright Rose Green

You will notice that neither one of these includes a frontal face view. When you draw from a picture, you can often get distracted with getting the face just right, and forget that a person shows character in all of their body movements, not just the face. (This is especially true when the photo is posed.) Think of little babies. While they can vary quite a bit in size and features, it is nevertheless easy to tell what age a baby is by their body language/proportions. The way their oversized heads loll when they're looking at something with clumsy fingers totally identifies them and gives them a sense of motion and permanence. (Someone who is particularly good at this is Helen Oxenbury.) Forgetting about body motion in drawing people is like describing things only in terms of sight and neglecting all of the other senses when you're writing.


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Comments

[kathys-shadow.livejournal.com]

That's really cool -- about not getting too caught up in the faces so that you can register the full body movement. I shall have to try that some time, though I haven't drawn anything in years.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

When you draw from life it sort of forces you to look at things differently, and notice the big picture. It's looser and harder, but really good exercise for the brain.