Life Drawing- Emotions and Body Language (Week 5)

This week in life drawing we were having our models move their bodies in a way that would show emotions through their face, movement and body language. I wasn’t able to make it this week again so I again looked onto youtube for some close ups of models, presenting a portfolio of a range of emotions.

Looking on youtube for life model sessions was something that was easy to find, however trying to find a niche search, such as models showing a range of emotions, was something that was more difficult to find. In order to achieve what I needed to draw an accurate representation of what we were tasked to learn in life drawing class, I was able to focus in on models naturally posing and how they moved their faces as they relaxed into a pose. This meant I captured the models honest emotion to what they had felt once changing into that body pose and language.

The next set of drawings are of two different woman and the natural emotions which they showed with their facial expressions, although this was not labelled as the required goal of their modelling session to depict emotions. This allowed me the freedom to study the models body language and to state what I naturally believed what the model felt within that moment.

The first emotion I decided to capture was a model doing a relaxed pose that presented her body language in a calm state, where she seemed to be looking off into the distance and in a content mood. I think during the session the model was changing into a pose were she could take a moment to pause for a while before moving into another pose that may have made her feel more uncomfortable or tedious in tension. I thought this was a nice moment to caption as the model seemed almost content within the moment and just that she was happy doing her job and at peace in her life. I set up this study by drawing a cross of two lines for the alignment of her face, nose and eyes. This helped me keep her face in proportion and made the study easier to draw, so that when I added in details it was easier and more accurate to the live model.

The second drawing I have done was of a different woman, as I had little choice for life drawing models showing their emotion. I think with the way the models expressions are being used here and the stillness, but almost slight concern upon her face. The models emotion could be both a calmness or a appearance of worry or concern, the models expressions almost seem quite lifeless and monotone, but without the presence of wrinkles or tension within her skin. I do also see a model who is tense within her body and cant quite relaxed, for a quick drawing of a persons emotions, I think I document well how the models emotions were showing and was able to draw a accurate representation of her face and features.

The third study I did was the same model as the first and this time she was laughing throughout her pose and made a conscious effort to keep the laughing expression as a still, so that the audience could perhaps draw more emotion within their portfolio of work. I think this drawing isn’t the best example I could have created of a person showing the emotion of their happiness and laughing through their body language. I think although I did the same set up of having a cross of lines to set up my drawing, so that I’m able to correctly document the proportions and features like the eyes and mouth. The drawing just doesn’t seem realistic to me or is drawn poorly and overall presents a quickly but not accurate study.