Observational figure drawing

To start off this project I wanted to study human mannarisms such as body language.  Sometimes I tend to draw in a rigid style and miss out important details. This time I paid extra attention to the details and tried to use a looser line in order to capture the variations in different people and the way they behave.

These are some of my observational drawings from Cheltenham.  I mainly used pen in order to practice my confidence with drawing the human figure. I spent the day observing the public and trying to capture the situations with quick sketches. When I got back I added some water colour to some of the drawings from memory and tried to capture certain moods. This is something I need to do often as it will help with my aim of capturing mood and atmosphere in order to convey emotion. Also, just as importantly, my ability to tackle the things I find challenging when drawing the human figure.

Cafe - observational drawing - pen

Most of the people in these situations are quite relaxed. I tried to capture body language and the way they interact with each other. 

Cafe - pen

 

Cafe - pen

Pub - pen
 

The drawing below obviously portays a mother and her son. He seems curious and unaware of any time restrictions. His body language shows that he is interested in looking else where as his mother walks ahead of him, pulling his arm as if to hint at him to hurry up.

Arcade - pen

Cafe - pen

Town - Pen

Cafe - pen

Cafe - pen

Cafe - pen

Arcade - pen

Cafe - pen

Cafe - pen and water colour

Cafe - water colour and pen

Cafe - pen and water colour



Cafe - pen and water colour

This was a useful exersise that has given me practice with drawing people and the natural, every day poses that people do depending on how they are feeling. I was hard to capture any intense emotion so quickly and with an outside view, but the way people move and interact always shows small signs of how they are feeling. And this is very useful to my project.