ABSTRACT
For instance, here are two attempts at a pose that are in themselves attractive, but there is no feeling of life or movement in them. In my accompanying suggestion sketch, I show how the left elbow is pulled back, causing the arm hole in the dress to stretch out of shape and the cloth to fold and wrinkle as a result:
But more than just pulling the elbow back — which happens in this kind of a move — the head comes forward, stretching the neck in front, while squashing it in back, and the back bends forward, allowing the dress to hang down from the shoulders in front (the curve of the back against the straight of the hanging dress is a nice touch). The point is you are drawing an action (gesture — same thing) not a head, a neck, a shoulder, a back, etc., as such. The parts may be many, but the action is one.
