For this exercise I was asked to draw moving figures in my sketchbook. 

This felt like the perfect exercise to do with three moving children. I did however find this exercise hard. 

I discovered that my children never stop moving! 

I literally managed to do a line or two at a time. Doing anything more would involve me making it up. 

My first page is a collection of drawings of my just turned seven year old son. My second page is of my four year old son and my third page is of my eight month old baby.

The main benefit I feel I got from this exercise was my looking and observing the lines and angles of my children rather than the actual drawing of them. However when re looking at my drawings later, I am able to recognise small traits of my children in these lines, I think it would be impossible for someone else to see these, but as their mother I can. 

As I felt like I did not manage to create a sense of the moving figure I decided to try to find some inspiration in artists who do manage this. 

The first artist I looked at was Richard Hambleton a Canadian/ American street artist. Below are some examples of his work: 

https://maddoxgallery.com/artists/richard-hambleton/

These drawings  manage to show movement very effectively and when observing these works I really feel like I’ve encountered a moment of speed. These works show high energy in their fast brush strokes that seem to echo the speed of his figures.

The next artist I looked at was Don Gale. I was attracted to his work as he captures a wonderful element of energy in the movement of his figures. Below are some examples of his drawings.

Drawing

These drawings look like they could almost start with a line of movement and then the rest of the body parts and features are added after. These drawings appear to have rhythm and capture the moving figure beautifully. Don Gale uses quick exploratory lines to express this rhythm and flow and manages to capture the figures energy  through stance and mark making. 

As I don’t feel like I succeeded in creating a sense of moving figures so far in this exercise I decided to start again, this time under the influence of Richard Hambleton and Don Gales work. My aim this time was to try to capture more of the figure than just the two or three lines I managed in my original drawings. My aim also was to try to show fluidity in my marks in order to show movement.

I started with my (now 9 month old) baby, Bertie. I tried this time to draw even quicker and try to capture his energy as I drew. Bertie moved constantly- every split second! so when drawing him I found he was moving so quickly I was almost imagining where my lines would go. This page of drawings however was a significant improvement of my two lines a portrait in my first attempt. 

I then drew my second son Teddy who is four years old. He moves just as quickly and just as often as his baby brother. I tried to use quick lines to show his movement and again I didn’t worry if he had already moved before I had finished drawing. 

My third set of drawings were of my eldest son, 7 year old Leo. By this stage I had gotten into the flow of drawing quickly and I started to really enjoy it. I took away any worry of trying to capture anything but movement and energy, however upon reflection I do feel like I captured his character in my drawings too. 

I feel like this exercised allowed me to loosen up, I couldn’t worry about mistakes or try to get a perfect reproduction as my children move so quickly. However in the future if I was to attempt to draw any of my children again I think I would be better off drawing from a photograph.