Movement Studies

Now that I have finished with the research section of my project I am moving into the development of a theme and focused idea. As I had quite a lot of research and themes going on I decided to trim them down and focus on the ideas of movement, and how this can communicate a narrative in itself. I've done some development of my own motion studies and will focus on this before linking back to my starting point and the idea of movement within animation devices. With these movement studies I feel I have improved my technical drawing as well as my observational skills, all of which come in handy not just when trying to produce a high quality project but also in life.

I started my development simply, just using an artists mannequin and moving it around to study its movements and I have also decided to begin attending life drawing classes to help me explore the ideas of human movement. They are now every Thursday after college in a studio round the corner from me. Varying models every week there will be a mix of clothed and life modelling. I will update this post with additions from my classes as the weeks go on:

Pencil Drawings

Ink and Pencil Drawings- 2 mins

Pencil Drawings - 5 mins

Pencil Drawings- 5 mins 

Oil Pastel - 10 mins

Charcoal- 15 mins

Charcoal - 15mins

Pencil - 15 mins

Pencil - 40 min

Pencil - 15 mins

Pencil - 15 mins

Charcoal - 15 mins

Pencil - 20 mins

Ink and Pencil - 2 mins per pose

 I really enjoy life drawing and feel the work I have done in classes so far is very useful. Whether we are drawing several poses quickly next to each other to get a sense of movement, or stationary poses, it is helpful in learning about the human body and how we interact with it and our surroundings.

With these new skills and understanding I am now thinking about methods of representing movement in a single image, and so have experimented with layering drawings:

Pencil

Pen- Blinking eye

Pen - Dancer

I am pleased with my work so far, though now need to link it back to my original ideas and start to think more about the final product and fashion influences. I also think it would be helpful to start working more outside of my sketchbook. I could start experimenting with stand work in order to break up my research and development work with something a bit different. Now that another week has gone I feel a bit more on track with my project. Also, now that we are three weeks in, I feel as though my project is gaining momentum  as I have been able to immerse myself further into the idea.

Also as part of my motion studies I experimented with some photography, trying to capture a waving hand. I liked the idea of focusing more specifically on one part of the body in order to have more detail to the study. Also, by adding photography to my research and not just working from drawings and am meeting the criteria I set myself at the beginning of the year. Subject of the photographs is Nicolette Jones (i.e. my Mum):

Waving Hand Study - Author's Own

I feel that although my work is still lacking in work that can be seen to link easily into a fashion garment, I am pleased with this area of my research and development as it picks out a key theme from my original premise. It has also widened the range of media that I work with, using several skills and has given me a lot of raw material and themes to further explore.