Gesture is Life and Movement

10/7/19 Timothy (20-min. pose)

I’m reading The Artist’s Complete Guide to Figure Drawing: A Contemporary Perspective on the Classical Tradition, by Anthony Ryder. An instructor at Gage Academy, Ryder works with many media and subject matter, but his figure drawings in graphite have captured my attention like no other. I am working through the book slowly, trying to grasp his intriguing methods and concepts.

So often I have looked back at my sketchbook pages and seen that I have drawn mannequins. Even if they are relatively well-formed and well-proportioned, many appear lifeless. More often than not lately, I see some life in the figures, but capturing that essential life (however it is expressed with ink or pencil) is a constant challenge. The following passage resonated through my mind while I sketched Timothy at Monday’s life-drawing session:

Gesture is life and movement. It is the energy inherent in the form of the model, a living energy coursing through his or her whole body. This isn’t called life drawing for nothing. We must literally and figuratively draw upon our own living energy, and that of the model, when we draw the figure. The people in our drawings should appear as if they are breathing, as if their hearts are beating. . . . Even if a model is posing very quietly, and is keeping very still, she’s still sitting in a particular way – this is the manifestation of her body language and tells us a lot about what she’s like as a person. And beyond that, the model isn’t just sitting. She’s actively living. Life is expressing itself in every part of her body, visible in each part’s unique shape. All living forms have this quality. . . . The form of the body is like visual music. It ‘moves’ even when it’s perfectly still.

– Anthony Ryder

10/719 10-min. pose

10/7/19 10-min. pose

10/7/19 10-min. pose