Motion (physics), any movement or change in position or place

Before we move onto more complex and time consuming armatures I though we should look at what we can do with the basic armature.  Most of us will never need to use another more difficult armature than the basic armature we covered in past blogs.
Lets take a look then at how we can use that  armature and still get some interesting results.
All of these design concepts come back to adding movement to our work in order to bring the piece to life for our viewers.

IDEA ONE:  Contrapposto is an Italian term used to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs. This gives the figure a more dynamic pose and makes the viewer want to follow the spiral of the body to look around the piece. In this way you engage the viewer and encourage them to study the flow of the piece more closely. "Madonna of the Fields"
In this case the weight of the figure is shifted to one foot, the torso has a slight twist to it which is exaggerated by the flow of the clothing. The hips and shoulders are slightly twisted out of alignment with each other and the head is turned as if she is looking away. The general flow of the piece is a spiral which (I hope) makes the viewer want to follow the curve around the figure.The result is a relaxed, natural pose. In this way, we can add movement to a figure even if it is standing perfectly still.

IDEA TWO: Tension (physics), a force related to the stretching of an object (the opposite of compression)
This concept is exaggerated in the following example:
"Reaching for a Dream" uses the same principle of contrapposto but creates more drama and movement by adding tension to the form. Notice how the body twists in the fore-mentioned spiral by the slight shift of the shoulders and hips out of alignment with each other but adds the arch to the back and the off-centered stretching of the body. Again, this is a simple standing figure but adding contrapposto and tension to the form give us movement.

IDEA THREE: Push the figure off balance. Even a static figure like this one of "Sweeney" can be made more interesting by pushing him off balance. In this case the figure leans forward while his razor holding hand is pulled back as if he is getting ready to swing his arm in a forward arc.You will notice the contrapposto of the body and the outstretched arm adds tension.

These same ideas can be applied to kneeling figures.

And ultimately applied to the most complex figure groupings.
I hope you find this information helpful or at least thought provoking.
Have a great day!
Mark