Drawing with Body Movement

Have you ever tried to draw using the principles of rule based art combines with body movement? Check out the results and give it a try yourself!

First of all you need to set some limitations. Rules are actually the best incitement for creativity. It might sound like a paradox but within constraints, creativity thrives. Rules can include: a limited set of materials or colors, a specific size determined by an external factor, a restrain on body movement or technique, etc…

Here the materials were limited at first to only charcoal, plus one colored pastel. The size of the paper was determined by the height of the artist.

Two student artists worked as a pair, and they had to decide together what rules would limit their possibly movements. Tying their feet together, not bending the arm, etc… the marks made were the result of the constraints they imposed on each other.

For this class of the Mixed Media Workshop we used body movement as a drawing technique. After an invigorating warm-up exercise, led by student and dancer Marina, we were ready to start! See the process in the pictures below. We used the entire range of motion of the body to create marks, resulting in abstract process based works.