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pavethra

Body Language

I'm sure we have all experienced a time where we have been in a middle of discussion or argument and have found ourselves bringing our hands towards our chest or using them to point. Or started nodding to suggest that you agree. Maybe there was a time where our answer to a question was revealed instantly through our facial expressions. Perhaps it was the way your mouth downturned and how you looked down or how your smile broadened and raised your cheeks. You may have figured out that these situations relate to communication and whilst, 'words' are closely associated to this concept, it is interesting to understand how our conscious and unconscious actions speak for themselves.

Eyes - Colour pencil drawing

In many of my artwork I have focused on facial expressions and this is merely down to how it can allow us to reflect on a time where we felt that particular way. So, we're more likely to engage with details such as the colour within the portrait. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, communication and therefore social interaction is becoming a growing interest of mine. It is this interest that has allowed me to recognise that this involves more than words and facial expressions.


High-power poses. As it says on the tin, these aim to make us feel powerful. I was reminded of this concept by one of Amy Cuddy's talks. Cuddy is a social psychologist and much of her work is focused on how we are always trying to read other people; we often forget how our nonverbals, namely our body posture can influence our mind. And consquently, our thoughts and feelings.


Hearing this instantly sparked a thought.


I have been trying to understand the concept of communication without considering the importance of communicating with myself. This sounds relatively odd, but looking through images of low power poses I could see that I have unconsciously been making myself feel small. As I dwelled on this thought, I realised that this occurred particularly when I was asked to share my work. The concerns about whether I had done the work correctly rushes through me and for the next few minutes, I become trapped in a cycle of self-doubt.


These thoughts started to bother me.


I continued listening to the talk and understood how taking as little as 2 minutes to adopt high-power poses can lead to hormonal changes and so increase the chances of me feeling more assertive. I instantly loved this idea ... but I knew this was going to require practice.


Determined. Ambitious. Fearless. These were some of the words that constantly reoccurred in my mind as I scrolled through images of high-power poses. I felt eager to share these thoughts and this power belonging to body posture in the form of sketches. So, I picked three reference images that spoke to me the most about feeling confident.


And funnily enough, a worry started creeping its way through my mind.


I felt completely out of practice of drawing the human figure. And what felt like a monstrous thought at the time made me panic. But luckily I was able to configure a different thought: I need to try.

So, these are my attempts in drawing figures. I tried to keep in mind the technique of simplifying the body into simple shapes. For example, I started with circles to represent the joints and rough lines to demonstrate the relationship between the various features.


For these sketches, I felt that it was important that I didn't use pencil. Purely because I knew that I would be inclined to rub out areas that I was not satisfied with - as opposed to working around those 'mistakes'. The bold lines created by the fine liner reiterates ideas around confidence and therefore, provides a better representation of high-power poses.

Fist bump - Graphite pencil drawing

While our body posture can provide a bulk of information on how we see ourselves and act as a response to a situation, gestures such as a wave, thumbs up or fist bump is recognised as a more direct form of communication. It's also interesting to understand how these gestures have been brought into society and the certain ideas that they bring with them.


The fist bump is particularly traced to sports such as boxing and basketball. Since, it was overused to mark wins. Whilst sports played a great influence in bringing this gesture into society, leaders, and strictly speaking, Barack Obama's fist bump with Michelle Obama after his nomination in 2008 allowed everyone to see the power behind this gesture. Its power is associated with how it carries ideas around companionship and triumph. Both of which which makes us feel lucky. Where this gesture is commonly used to greet each other, it's amusing to see how this simple gesture can arise from deeper thoughts of togetherness.


This combination of body postures, facial expressions and gestures form one poignant category: body language. This language can allow us to relay messages and ease communication in situations that we find difficult to explain.


This further understanding on how we share ideas and view ourselves motivates me to explore these thoughts and various subjects, including the human figure, in my future artwork!

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