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Empathy: The Key to Effective Figure Drawing
I love to draw in figure groups for many reasons, but one important benefit is the opportunity to see how other artists interpret the same pose. As I walk around during the break, I notice that the sketches all combine characteristics of the model with the features or personality of the artist. When I go to the museum and look at master drawings, I see the same thing. All of the Madonnas, infants, Saint Annes and kings by same artist have a mysterious something in common, like the under-note in the output of an outstanding winery or the underlying fragrance in a designer line of perfume. Why is this so? I have given it some thought. Long ago I noticed that it was difficult to draw a model who was ill. The drawings took a great deal of effort and left me drained. Then, I started to observe that when I draw, I get "inside" the pose. It is like acting, or creating a character in a novel. You have to feel which leg is carrying the weight, and which wrist is twisted. You have to feel the tilt of the head and the angle of the hips. You have to find the center of gravity and exaggerate it. Not only that, as an artist drawing the figure, you must play with your subconscious judgements and incorrect assumptions. You must stroll past the way you usually look at a person to see what is really there.
I take photographs also, and photographers do have distinctive styles, but they do not hold a pencil or a pastel in their hands. They do not insert as much of themselves into the representation. The soul of my figure drawings and paintings lies in their distortions--their imperfections. They are about movement of every kind, and about what each of us shares with the other. Gravity This is serious.
It holds us all down.
Can we fight it,
Spun to the ground,
We are poles apart,
Yet endlessly drawn
to one another
like planets to stars
or stars into the vortices
of black holes.
Although you are a stranger,
I see you in my mirror.
In so many ways, your life
is an exotic land I can never visit,
but you look up,
and I see through your eyes.
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Contributor's Note
I am a freelance writer and painter. The men and women in my pictures are professional models drawn in group sessions. My first book of contemporary free verse, "Early Tigers", was published by Bellowing Ark Press in 1995. I still have a few copies, if you are interested.
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Pencil sketch
Reclining Figure in Watercolor (sold)
Lady in a Chair, graphite
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