Sketching-People

Chapter Six
BODY LANGUAGE
Drawings begin to take on a life of their own when a figure begins to act out
emotions. The viewer no longer notices the lines, forms and shades that create the
drawing, but instead gets involved with what the character is doing and thinking.
Because the body reacts more subconsciously, it may reveal feelings in the
subject that the controlled face conceals. It becomes quite obvious what a person
is thinking when, for example, the face is smiling but the arms and legs are crossed
and the body is turned away from another person. This unwelcome message
wouldn’t be detected by just looking at the facial expression, and it adds depth
to the character and gives a sense of a story. What caused these feelings, and
why are they being hidden?
Most poses are not held for very long and are one part of a chain of motion.
The pose to pick in any fluid action by your subject is the one that is most iconic
for the emotion being expressed.
“The foulest, the vilest, the
obscenest picture the world
possesses—Titian’s Venus. It
isn’t that she is naked and
stretched out on a bed – no,
it is the attitude of one of
her arms and hand.”
—Mark Twain,
A Tramp Abroad
BODY LANGUAGE REVEALS EMOTIONS
This wistful pose is expressed through the woman’s
facial expression and her body language.