Figure Drawing Upside-Down Gestures and the Face

 

In Friday's Osher class, our model, David, was also our technical support.  He figured out how to flip the camera's image of himself upside down so that we could have upside-down gestures.  

When drawing familiar things like the human form, a part of our brain thinks it "knows" how the final image should look, and tries to "help," leading to a struggle between what we see and what we think.  When we turn the familiar on its head, we free ourselves up to see & draw what's really there.  

Below are gestures that were drawn from an inverted image. I notice that I was more likely to capture the line of action rather than try to divide the body into my usual segments.  Sometimes things got out of proportion, but it all felt fresh and exciting.  And,turning them over at the end felt like receiving a gift -- a delightful surprise!

After gestures, we talked about the proportions of the head and face, and finished up with a long pose focusing on the portrait (first image).