Starting Points

1. Dance

Svetlana Zakharova performance 'The Dying Swan' 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW3GAjAKges

Analysis #1

Ballet is a brilliant example of  how dramatic poses conveys action and emotion to the viewer. There is no speech to convey emotion and so the dancers must use their entire bodies to portray emotions and action. During the dance performance the dancer portrays a swan dying, where the swan is a metaphor for purity and grace. To establish this the dancer uses her body to create a resemblance to the animal.    
                               
Her arms are lifted up to form the neck of the bird the hands bent in a head-like shape with the skirt and legs stretched behind to give a sense of the gliding body. This dramatic pose helps to establish the premise and also forms a quiet moment in the dance where she stops to form this pose and the emotion communicated is a realisation that there may be something wrong. 

The action of her arm movements is the flapping of the swans wings this starts slow and elegant the calm contented gesture of the swan at rest. The dancer extends her arms gracefully to show the shape and form of the large wings. When the swan is in peril the flapping becomes faster and irregular with the bends of her arms more exaggerated to convey the stressed emotion of the swan and contrast harshly with the previous grace.
Her tortured pained expression in the last pose along with her body folded in upon itself expresses the succumbing to pain and the end of the swan, the grace purity and innocence. The pose is very inverted compared to the extended graceful form of the swan at the beginning the limbs look unnatural and at odd angles which emphasises the loss and suffering.


By looking at ballet I consider more carefully the shape of the body in dramatic poses and I could try to do some figure drawings with simplified shapes just showing the movement off limbs and motion to express feelings and action. I quickly experimented with some of my previously drawn figures and tried to exaggerate where the weight and main action of the pose would take place with simple lines. I will try this with sequential imagery when I undertake the research project fully so that there can be a continuous flow of movement through different images.

Experiments

2. Music Video

Stills from 'Iron' music video from Woodkid

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSkb0kDacjs

The dramatic poses in this music video help to communicate the themes and emotions of the song. The song is anthemic with a constant drumming beat so the actions are imposing and dramatic.

Analysis

The use of black and white in the video help to emphasise the shadowing on the body as the pose is pulled, this adds drama and emphasises where the weight is distributed. The hand on the hip and the bend of the knee make the character look strong and portrays an emotion of defiance.

The movement of the leg coming down is a visual metaphor for

  making a stand, for not taking any more. This movement is nicely timed within the music of the song which adds emphasis to the action. 

The leg movement has her shifting her weight to lean from her left leg to her right which helps the action to flow. This shows confidence there is no hesitation in the movement and it is followed through to the ending pose. The right knee is the major body part that controls the action and is emphasised.

The music supports the actions to show emotions of strength defiance and confidence and vice versa. To acheive this in my own work I could experiment with animations of my figure drawings to have music fitting to them or even just as simple as listening to music whilst drawing and trying to get a sense of this.

                                             

3. Kabuki Theatre

Kabuki a 'tachiyaku' (young male) character performing  a 'mie (pose)

Kabuki Theatre is a Japanese performance art with exaggerated dramatic poses to express actions in the story. The poses are held for a long time to allow the audience to absorb the action preformed and how this changes the story. The facial expression helps to communicate emotion and the face paint the actors wear help the audience see this better. The patterns of the makeup describe the type of character portrayed so that the audience know what sort of actions and story to expect from a particular character. In this way Kabuki focuses on communication, there are no subtle actions, indeed the movements are over acted and the characters larger than life.

   

In Kabuki the costumes are ornate and elaborate inspired by the Edo period of Japan. Here the cloth exaggerates the pose as the shoulder padding is further back making the character look broader, he looks as if he is leaning into the pose more, his head lower ready for action. The long straight sleeve also emphasises this curve of the shoulder. The wide legged elaborate trousers have many folds that follows the shape of the leg and trail to show the past movement and where the leg has moved from.The clothing makes the movements look more continuous in the performances with more power behind it, the clothing is like movement lines around the character.

Experiment

I tried to apply some of the aesthetic features of Kabuki to one of my quick observational drawings. I exaggerated the gloom of his features in the style of Kabuki make up and added flowing voluminous clothing to the figure to exaggerate the weight leaning on his legs. I think this will work better for more dramatic powerful poses where I can show the action more in the clothing.

4.Comic Books

'I Kill Giants' by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura

In Comic books dramatic poses tell a lot of the story through action.As the images are static the poses and movements need to be clear so that the story can be clearly communicated. 

The emotion communicated here is of feeling small, pathetic and defeated.

 This emotion is shown in the characters expression. Her glasses are shown as opaque which gives the appearance of large innocence eyes and this coupled with the down turned rabbits ears gives her a look of innocence and animalistic submission. Her expression is simplified which makes it easy to understand and strips away any unnecessary detail in her face like the character is stripped of her bravery. 

Her pose also looks defeated with hunched shoulders and a curved back. The hammer weapon looks too heavy for her and makes her look smaller and more insignificant by comparison. There is a lot of white space left around the character to make her look more isolated and vulnerable. The shading on the character adds dimension and drama to the pose as well as the shadow under her making the image more contained and closed.  

The pose and its placement on the page help to describe the action. As it is an image alone it is a sudden action where the character has just stopped. This helps emphasize the action as there seems to be a pause where she puts down the weapon.

Experiments: I used one of my observational drawings and converted her into a cartoon style. I wanted to convey an overall emotion of sadness in the pose and so brought her limbs in and had her looking down into the cup. I copied some of the elements of the 'I Kill Giants' character like the opaque glasses to make the viewer curious as to what she is sad about underneath them and also to simplify her face.

5.Sculpture                                  

'The Thinker' Auguste Rodin c.1902

Statues often portray the human form in dramatic poses to appeal to the viewers and imply exposition. The emotion shown is of deep thought and concerned contemplation.

Posture and shading

The figure is hunched over as if his whole body is put into the thought process. This makes the viewer curious as to what he is thinking about so deeply. The figure is muscular, the details of muscles and tendons in his arm make him look more rough and rugged then a highly polished statue so he is more relateable as more on a normal person's level then a highly polished marble god.
The rough texture of the casting also creates shadowing on the figure. The shadowing adds to the realism of the figure as it makes him look more human where the light and shade hits him. The shadowing adds depth to his pose making his thoughts look deeper and darker in the shadows and adding an air of mystery that makes the viewer curious.

Expression

An important part of the dramatic pose is the facial expression. This too is exagerrated in the statue to convey the emotion of deep thought. Rodin acheives the drama by the rough bumby texture of the face. This is similar to wrinkles and around the eyes and cheekbones which are heavily defined a lot of marks are worked into the statue to add emphasis to the movement. Such as the lowered brow causing wrinkles above the eye, to the side, in the middle of the forehead and the dark shadows underneath the brow because of the deeper set eyes. In this way the expression is magnified as it effects the texture of the entire face. It means there is a lot of tone on the face making the figure look more serious and brooding.





Experiment: I went back to a character of mine in a dramatic pose and tried to amplify the emotion and drama using the same shading that you can see on the highly textured statue. This added a sense of dramatic lighting to the figure. I think the result is quite scary making her face look skeletal and older but think it would work if the rest of the image was drawn in the same way. It is more dramatic than the original and shows her expression of fear better which is what I wanted to communicate. The next step would be 3D experiments where I mould my characters in dramatic poses out of clay or a similar material and try to get the drama in the pose.