Figures in Motion

Pablo Picasso, "Girl Before a Mirror," oil, 1932

Drawing a moving figure is one of the more difficult tasks facing an artist. Drawing the figure is difficult enough, drawing a figure in motion with correction proportions and perspective plus expressive gesture and line is a supreme task. In the golden years of illustration, a century ago, such skills were passed on and honed in magazines and advertising while modernists like Picasso were making cubist abstractions. Abstract art diverged sharply from realistic representation, so much so that for a time it seemed as if representing a figure in a real way would be lost. Perhaps without illustrators it may have been.

But today figure drawing is still an essential skill for much art. Animators and game designers still must be able to draw the face and figure believably. Moreover, giving faces expression and bodies believable and expressive postures is also useful in traditional arts like oil painting. Like any learned skill, fluency comes with continued, extended practice. While the 10,000 hour theory may or may not be the explanation, there is little doubt that directed practice improves skills, whether the pursuit is golf, piloting an airplane, or painting. Here I include drawing as part and parcel of realism.

Andrew Loomis, Male Proportions

When one begins drawing the figure, like the head there is a framework that provides a way to begin. There are many diagrams of the "ideal" figure, but of course human physiognomy varies widely. For anyone interested, an Internet search will turn up many diagrams and photos. Basically, using the head height as a ruler reveals that the average male figure is about 8 heads in height while the female figure is somewhat less. The nipples are at the second head height downward (two head heights below the top), the belly button is the third, the crotch the fourth. The kneecaps are about 5.5 heads down from the top of the head, and the bottoms of the feet 7.5 to 8 heads down, depending on body type (see Andrew Loomis drawing, left).

Hoff, "The Hurler," graphite on paper, 2015

My own work has featured much practice with figures, ranging from live models, filmed references such as dancing, or still photographic images. While I've spent a lot of time trying to isolate motion using photographic images, a great deal of my work has included sketching from life in various public settings. Events like concerts, athletic competitions, state fairs and animal shows and many more have given me the chance to practice. Games like baseball provide opportunities to sketch because many movements are repetitive. In the sketch to the right, I began by trying to get the gesture (leg kick, body turn) first, then added details with each succeeding windup and delivery. Alas, the lad was pulled after only two innings so I finished this from memory and snapshots.

Hoff, "Dancer," digital, 2017

Movements can also be drawn from sources like video stills. Sometimes I stop an online video, intrigued, and sketch. In the digital drawing of a dancer I stopped a tangoing female in mid-shimmy, interested in the gesture of her legs as she danced and the folds of her frothy dress. This was done by sight using a digital tablet, but I exaggerated the less a bit. Most challenging was drawing the right leg despite the covered knee joint. The trick is to sketch the legs first then draw the clothing in an over layer. I kept the drawing basic and didn't attempt adding highlights or darker background, choosing instead to work on dimensionality of the dress and body.

Hoff, "Windblown," digital, 2019

Sometimes a still image is an inspiration. The famous paparazzi image of Jacqueline Onassis was the trigger for a digital interpretation, "Windblown." The original shot was made by Ron Galella who was an intrusive (some say worse) presence in the life of Ms. Onassis after she moved to Manhattan. Here my interest was her striding gesture and windblown mane of hair. I didn't try to get a likeness, but inevitably the face is familiar. Here the added highlights give more substance and form to the figure, but the approach is more graphic than pictorial.

Moving figures require practice. But then again, so does almost every worthwhile skill.

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