This week we will be taking a deep dive into Gesture at the life class I teach at the Royal Queensland Art Society upstairs studio, Petrie Terrace Brisbane. I still have 3 places available, bookings at: https://www.scottbreton.com.au/class-enrolment/lifeclass-2zrks
Here is an excerpt from the section on Gesture in my online book “Form, Gesture, Anatomy”
“Gesture could be defined as a general movement, intention or alignment of elements. It is the implied pattern of energy that connects things throughout nature, from clouds to trees to water…
Gesture is particularly applicable to animals since we constantly organise and reorganise our parts according to the intention of our actions and emotions. So, in this case, there are not only the physical forces of gravity and interacting objects, there is also the force of our will, to perform certain actions, or relax out of them.
Emphasising active, less balanced relationships tends to add dynamism and drama (see Rubens, Michelangelo, Gericault), and at an extreme becomes the caricature of action seen in animated cartoons. On the other hand, emphasising the opposite, ie stability and balance will magnify these qualities, as seen in the regal dignity of some ancient Egyptian sculptures and hieroglyphs. Yet even in more stable poses, a certain amount of animation is inherent in natural form, particularly living things, and without it they can look quite odd. Gesture exists in the whole figure and in the parts of the figure, eg a leg, foot or even toe.
study of Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne
In the images below we see a beautiful hieroglyph from the Temple of Hatshepsut, with its frontal, non-foreshortened viewpoint, has a grid-like rhythm that unifies the complexity into a stable, dignified gesture. This is contrasted to the painting by Rubens, in which he took the writhing vital energy of his figures to an extreme in this depiction of the Massacre of the Innocents. He uses anatomical biodynamics, spatial movement, as well as dramatic abstract sweeps to express the tortured drama of the scene.
Capturing gesture, to me, is the ultimate goal of free hand drawing. The other qualities of accuracy, form, anatomy, and design relationships should be unified by the central melody of the intuitively felt gesture, a vision of the overall story arc of the piece. Developing sensitivity and facility in this field is the goal of the activities contained in this lesson.
If you’re in Brisbane and would like to attend, book in here:
https://www.scottbreton.com.au/class-enrolment/lifeclass-2zrks