ABSTRACT
From time to time it is good to go back and take a fresh look at basics, for as they say in tennis “The first rule you learn is the first rule you forget.” So starting from pose number one (so to speak) take the normal upright position. It is not what you ordinarily think of as an action but actually to stand is an action. Stand is a verb. Just think what you have to go through to remain standing. There is constant muscular adjustments and according to our individual physical structure, our attitude and the conditions around us causes everyone's “stand” to be slightly different. It is utterly impossible for a person to do nothing. So in effect every position a person gets into is a pose. There's a challenge for you whenever you are drawing – though the figure seems to be doing nothing, this isn't the case. You must sometimes seek out very subtle nuances to capture the pose or gesture. When you begin to radiate out in all directions from that upright pose into the millions of variations of poses and gestures the human figure can assume it seems to get easier. It seems like instead of shooting an arrow at a tiny target, it is more like shooting it at the “broad side of a barn.” But it just seems that way. There are as many if not more subtleties in a broad pose as there is in a subdued one.
