Life Drawing Video Workshops: Gesture; Life Drawing Video Workshops: Getting A Handle On Proportion & Foreshortening

Artist Ruth Block is the instructress for these two entries from the 8-tape "Life Drawing Video Workshop" series. Gesture, the opening tape in the series, begins with a general introduction by Block covering materials, related books the viewer might want to read, and her overall philosophy toward drawing the figure. In the workshop, Block explains "gesture" or capturing the essence of the pose, and she demonstrates the "meaningful scribble," a 30-second drawing. Using both female and male nude models, Block, her in-class students, and viewers are given many opportunities to work on "gesture." The other program we watched, Getting a Handle on Proportion & Foreshortening is the fifth program in the series. Explaining how to use sight, plumb, and level lines with a pencil, Block demonstrates techniques for getting the feel of physical objects in space. In one exercise, for example, students draw in the negative spaces--that is the gaps around and in between the various parts of the body. In another, viewers are taught to think of the body not as a set of limbs and appendages, but as a collection of shapes--a human jigsaw puzzle, if you will. And there's plenty of time to work since the models hold poses for as long as ten minutes. Since not everyone has someone they know who will pose for a sketch, these tastefully done programs are ideally suited to the video medium. Block is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic instructor and the quality of her teaching is evident in the student examples shown on the tapes--excellent figure studies, many of them done by students who had no prior experience in drawing. The other programs in the series are: Contour, Weight/Mass, Structure and Anatomical Considerations, Shading and Drapery, Expressive Drawing & Composition, and Expressive Drawing & Putting It All Together. In addition, two Supplemental Model Poses tapes are available for $29.95 each. Highly recommended. (Available from: Artists InterActive Video Productions, P.O. Box 9615, Berkeley, CA 94709.)