Life Drawing- Weight Distribution and Tricky Areas (Week 6 & 7)

This week in life drawing was showing how different forms of weight can be distributed onto the models body and how it can change with their movements and fabric choices. I googled some examples of life models wearing different weights and styles of clothes and tried my best to focus more on what the model was wearing and how it fitted their body.

I also focused on how the clothing situated around the models tricky areas such as the creases of their shoulders and how the weight would change their shape. Clinging to the certain parts of their bodies that located the most movement such as their arms, legs and even within their slight torso movements.

The first model I had chosen was a girl wearing a simple set of shorts and a t-shirt, I tried to keep the same style throughout my drawings and just focused on drawing the weight upon the persons body and having the model themselves appear as a simple, almost stick figure. Once I captured the movement of the relaxed and dance like actions the model was making with their arms raised and leg positioned gently behind her, I payed attention to how the movement which her body was making allowed the fabric of the shirt and shorts to crease up around her shoulder and neck as she raised her arm. The curves of her back as she made a slight twist within her body and her shorts as they naturally fitted to her shape. The tricky areas of ones body is were most of the movements center and are where clothes would tend to cling onto or bunch up with the constant movements of our body. It was simple enough to draw the tension and where the weight distributed on this model as her back was the main focus of the pose and held the most weight and movement.

Searching through the catalogue of models I tried to find a varied rage of poses that showed tricky areas of the body within movement and ones were the models wear wearing a number of different outfits with different textures and weight upon them. There was a number of models with simple, body forming clothes like short tank tops and I was thrilled to have stumbled upon a life drawing class were the models wore different clothes for their students. It was a difficult find but I thought drawing a model wearing a old style western outfit was a great contrast from my previous and minimal models clothes and varied across my other drawings. Immediately it was noticeable how the heavier weight of this models jacket and trousers, allowed for their weight to be increased and showed more tension upon their shoulders and arms. This is were the most tricky areas would appear as with the shoulders of the model holding the brunt of the weight and the elbow creases showing the most movement.

The next model was doing a flowing demonstration of a dress, that looked like it was a mix of the material silk and velvet and which can also be seen upon all the ruffles as the dress falls from the models body. The more weight distribution can be seen as the heavy material hangs with tension and creates creases from the models arm as she poses. There was a lot of choice for showing how the weight had fallen upon the model and even with her slight movements in the bend of her arm and when raised. You can clearly see how the silk had fallen gently onto her body and ridges but the velvet almost hanged onto her and dragged down her frame, as it is a heavy and rich material. These two mixes of material then worked together beautifully as they fell together at the bottom of the models legs, allowing for a little of the models actual shape on top be seen and then had created waves of fabric as they layered upon the ground.

The last pose was nothing too heavy in fabric but I thought it would be interesting to show how weight can be distributed differently when a person is spreading their weight more evenly by resting on a chair and by creating little tension with still legs. The model had also moved their body more effectively by raising their arms, but the tricky area of the models elbow are not too much of a tension focus as the material is medium to light density and does not hang and create creases like the other more heavy fabrics. There is slight movement across the model but as the items of clothing are light in weight, across the knees and even when the coat is hitting the floor. The weight does not all immediately gather and fall upon each other as the model is helping the fabric lift up and remain crease free by straightens it out and giving it support. There is also less tension drawn around the models bent knees, as the light fabric causes minimal creasing and has the softness and flexibility to conform to the models knee bend and almost appears as a natural fit to the models own body.