I already shared the Meetup life drawing group I joined led by the wonderful figure artist Michael Newberry a few weeks ago. We took off a week, but last Sunday, I went back for my weekly workout. Our compact lanky model posed in quiet stances but as you began to follow her structure, her lines were very expressive. Movement is one of the essential structures in life drawing and key in fashion.
Beginning with the “S” curve, my initial gesture line wraps around the figure expressing the total balance of the pose.
Contrapposto, is a term used to describe this stance in which one part of the body twists away from another part, the weight of the body being balanced on one leg rather than two. First achieved in Greek sculpture of the 6th century BC, contrapposto was revived in the free-standing statues of the Renaissance, notably Donatello’s David and Michelangelo’s David.
As I began to translate my style using Illustrator, I’ve emphasized these natural attributes to keep the figure relaxed.
every aspiring fashion illustrator should realize that the best understanding of body movement is to look back to the classics like life drawing in order to understand emotion and mood that the body can posess in it’s poses.