ONCE THE FORM HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED, its shape decided upon, its controlling mass determined and properly lit, the student must come to a further decision concerning the exact position of this form in space. There is a further complication: the artist must also decide on the position he himself occupies or wishes to occupy in relation to the form. Though he stands upon the floor of his studio, he may, if he wishes, observe the model as if he were in the cellar or hanging from the chandelier. In other words, he may draw the form in any position, or from any position he chooses to fulfill his expressive intent.
The student must learn to decide on the exact position of the form in relation to himself, as well as its direction, or “thrust” as the artist likes to say. A form can occupy only one position at a time, and can be pointing in only one direction. An aircraft, for instance, is naturally in a certain position at a certain time. At the same time, it is headed in a certain direction; or as the artist would say, it has a certain thrust.
In drawing, it is not too difficult to decide on the position of an object; but to remain consistent in this decision seems most difficult for the beginner. The student will often draw a head facing one way, with the nose and mouth facing in totally different directions. Again and again, when he draws the upper torso, the direction of the front will not be consistent with the direction of the sides. In drawing hands, the problem of thrust or direction is all-important: with all the wrist, there can actually be sixteen individual problems of thrust or direction that must be solved in drawing a hand. You know how hard hands are to draw.
Now the head and the upper part of the torso are complex forms, full of details which are most distracting to the student. Determining the thrust of these forms is difficult, but this can be readily solved if the complex form is visualized in terms of simple mass. The head has eyes, a mouth, a nose, ears, eyebrows, etc. But these may be forgotten if the head is thought of as a simple block, and it is very easy to determine the direction of a block.
If you think of the head as a block and run a line down the center of the front plane of the block, you will have determined the direction of the head, to a certain extent. If you then think of the head as a cylinder and run a circle around this cylinder, you will have determined the full direction of the head. Both these construction lines have been used by artists for generations.
Think of the rib cage as an egg, and run a line down the center of the egg, from the pit of the neck through the point between the nipples. Then think of the rib cage as a cylinder and run a circle around it through the nipples. Thus, you will have determined the direction of the rib cage.
Arms and legs may be thought of as cylinders: the moment a circle is thrown about them, their direction is established.
Through these conceptions of mass and direction, the really difficult problem of drawing hands is simplified. Straight fingers may be thought of as long blocks or cylinders. If a finger is bent, it forms itself into three blocks or three cylinders, each with a different direction. Having visualized the form and thrust of the fingers, you must then try to form a mass conception for the body of the hand. It is not wise to include the metacarpal of the thumb in this conception.
In coming to a decision as to the position and thrust of a form in space, the student will face many problems. If a form is in motion, he must decide on the one phase of that motion which he wishes to draw. Tones often depend upon the direction of the form, and the direction may have to be altered to improve these values. Lines that move over a form vary as the direction of the form varies; therefore, the direction of the form must be decided before the lines are drawn. Frequently, forms do not reveal their true shape unless their position or direction is altered. The student must decide on the thrust of forms over which drapery falls, in order to give character to the folds. Finally, the student must decide upon the positions and directions which will be acceptable to his composition as a whole, and which will be compatible with the final effect he wishes to produce.
Let us first examine the problem of forms in motion. Traditionally, a form cannot be drawn in two or more places at once; therefore, a student must decide upon and seize a single phase of the motion. Luckily, most action has a repetitive quality and there is a moment of rest at the beginning and end of the action. These moments of rest are the phases that are drawn, as they are usually most suggestive of the action. The woodsman is rendered with his axe raised or buried in the wood.
The problem of representing continuous or unrepetitive action has never been satisfactorily solved. Usually, the artist seizes a random phase of the action, accompanied by such obvious symbols as wind-blown drapery or trailing hair.
When drawing the nude, beginners invariably complain about any visible movement of the model. At times, they suddenly discover that the model is breathing and demand that the instructor put a stop to it. To the advanced student, a movement of the model makes little difference; he has already come to a decision as to the direction of the forms.
But beginners seldom complain about the slower movements of the model, which are far more insidious and are liable to last throughout the duration of the pose. Often through fatigue, the model’s shoulders slowly drop; the weight shifts; head, rib cage, and pelvis slowly rotate. It soon becomes apparent to the sophisticated student that if he wishes to express the vitality and well-being of the model, he must decide to seize the bodily thrusts existing at the beginning of the pose. If he wishes to express fatigue he must seize upon the thrusts he anticipates at the end of the pose. If he wishes to express other emotions, he must be prepared to create the thrusts these emotions might involve.
If the sources of light are fixed, the tones upon a form will vary as the direction of the form changes. If a door is closed, for instance, it will retain the tones of the wall upon which it is hinged; if it is opened, the wall side of the door will become lighter or darker than the wall, depending upon how the light falls. Similarly, if two skyscrapers have equal tones on their front planes, and if one of the skyscrapers should suddenly lean forward a bit, the front plane of the leaning skyscraper would be darker than the front plane of the other, assuming that the light comes from above. Thus, if the model stands with her legs together, her legs will have equal tones on the front planes. But if the model poses with one leg forward and one leg back, the forward leg may well be lighter in tone than the other.
Such considerations of thrust may well be the most decisive factors in suggesting the tones to be placed on head, torso, arms, and legs, as these forms change direction, each to each.
The student soon discovers that he cannot draw a line over a form until he has decided on the form’s exact thrust or direction, for as the thrust varies, so does the line. Since one function of line is to explain the shape of the form over which the line moves, the thrust of the form must be determined exactly so that the line will be exact.
As the thrust of a cylinder varies, circles about the cylinder will also vary. Since we can think of a straight finger as a cylinder, this means that the lines at the joints will vary as the thrust of the finger varies. On the palm side, the body of the hand is crossed by two lines of great importance: the head line and the heart line, which are of particular value in giving the illusion of the shape of the palm. Usually, these delicate lines are too far away to be seen distinctly; they cannot be copied, so they must be created. The artist must decide exactly on the thrust of the body of the hand before he creates these lines.
Actually, all the lines on the human body have a direct relationship to the thrust of the form over which they move. A consideration of thrust must always be in the mind of the artist when he draws.
In order to present the true shape of a form, its position or direction must be altered at times. A cube copied head-on gives the illusion of a square plane; it must be moved so that its two sides are brought into view. A cylinder copied head-on gives the illusion of a circle. An egg copied head-on gives the illusion of a sphere. They must be moved a bit to reveal their identity.
Thus, an artist seldom attempts to render a finger pointed directly at him, he moves it a little this way or that. He also avoids direct front and back views of the figure, as sides are subordinated and there is little movement of the center line to reveal the shape.
At times the position of a form must be altered when the form is partially hidden by other forms which prevent the hidden form from explaining its identity and shape. Sometimes the head is turned so that only a mere sliver of the ear remains. It is better to leave out the ear entirely; otherwise the ear may look like a strange growth on the far side of the head. Or one can turn the head a bit to show more ear. Sometimes one breast will almost completely hide the other breast. Or one buttock will almost hide the other. Don’t be afraid to leave out the hidden breast or buttock, or to turn the figure in your mind a bit until these shapes reveal their true character.
Folds of drapery must have strong character and to a certain extent they may nicely reveal the action of the figure. Changing positions and changing thrusts of shoulders, arms, legs, and other parts of the body will strongly affect folds. It should now occur to the student that since he has the power to change the position and thrust of bodily forms at will, he also has a good deal of control over the character and rhythm of folds.