Well here we go, some new topic content for my blog. As a way of developing this blog so it can remain fresh and hopefully interesting to visit and read, I am trying some new topics to explore and see if they work in regards to making it an interesting experience for YOU, as you visit!
SEX
Yes I thought that would grab your attention! A cheap shot that has been used over and over for many years but it still works, I bet you still wanted to read the first few words of this because of the title 'SEX"?
But what has SEX got to do with my post today? Well it has something to do with understanding how you go about drawing people. Yes, really!
What I mean to say is, how do you interpret what a certain body pose is telling you?
Commonly known as 'Body Language' but I like to think of it as, 'are they standing in a sexy way?'.
Let me try to explain. If you go to the shops and watch people walking around along the street or in the Mall, you will people holding a normal body pose. They are going around in an everyday manner with lots on their minds and they may or may not stop to window shop or go into a shop.
If you observe women who have gone into a clothes or shoe shop, you will see their body pose change and alter to a more relaxed pose. They can even get into what I would call a 'sexy look', where their pose becomes more angular and almost softer to look at. This is most evident when women are looking at dresses, they will hold them up to themselves to check if they look OK and might fit them. But their body pose changes when they do this. They become more sexy in the way they stand.
So imagine a straight vertical line that would represent a normal pose for the body. It is rigid and gives no sexual connotation to it.
But imagine a vertical line that is on the angle so it is almost on a slant, then you can see that it has some sexual element to it. It conveys a different message to a straight vertical line.
Cartoonists have used such line and still do to add more life to their drawings and characters. A slanted line also indicates movement and many other aspects to what a person may be doing at that moment in time.
For example, you probably have seen a lot of cartoons. In many, when there is a chase scene and I'm thinking of the classic Tom & Jerry cartoons, when a chase has to go around a corner, the characters will make a turn after they seem to over shoot the turn, almost frozen in time and motion for a split second in time, THAT is when you will see the body pose at a slant. It enforces the movement and laws of physics about trying to turn a corner to fast!
So sexy lines can help when drawing a female. I apply this to my caricatures, I try to draw a woman at a slant to show an element of strong feminine 'feel' to the drawing. It helps to make the drawing communicate the 'female essence' and even 'sexual sense' that this is a woman to be desired.
So drawing sexy is good! If you see what I mean!
This was in Eindhoven almost a year ago now. We had a get together with other caricaturists from Holland & Belgium. It was a great day and evening. That's my beer belly standing up and pouring a Dutch beer!
