You might like to do a lot of these exercise with your eyes closed as you count a rhythm or listen to a piece of music.
The first lesson of this section asks you to work with a rhythm that you are familiar with, perhaps a dance like a waltz or fox trot, or a familiar song that you can identify a strong rhythm – something you can hum to yourself or count to the rhythm of it’s beat, perhaps as you listen to it.
The waltz for instance will be a 1,2,3 with a pronounced and elongated first beat followed by the quicker ‘two’ and ‘three’ –
ooonnnne…..two, three, ooonnnne…..two, three, ooonnnne…..two, three, ooonnne....two, three...
See how difficult it is to describe it with words, but perhaps the marks on these pages below will illustrate the beat more clearly?
Use any markers you like – perhaps ones that reflect the character of your dance? Colours could be chosen for the same reason. Remember that this is the sort of line my brain thinks of when I think of a waltz; your line might well take a different shape. I also enjoyed thinking of the colours that I see when thinking of wide frothy skirts with layers of net. Again, you might like to make these marks standing up and let your body sway in time to the beat!
Where do you place your lines of rhythmical marks on your sketchbook page? Does your rhythm suggest a continuous line, so maybe you make parallel lines across your sketchbook page?
The rhythm of this dance below is one that I’m learning in my belly dancing class and it’s done to a strong drum beat which ‘looks’ like this ------ perhaps the curved shapes represent the shape of rotating hips and the straight lines the steps.
Two pages of lines that represent a familiar dance rhythm which you might recognise? The lines of rhythm on the left page are drawn downwards; the lines of rhythm on the right are done across the page, both based on the same rhythm.
The same rhythm again but this time in a different colours and different crayons and water-soluble pencils.
Maybe your dance is one that is done around the edge of a room so you could choose to draw your rhythmical lines around the page? The rhythmical lines on the pages below are based on the drum beat of the belly dance; the left one that is done around the dance floor and the right one back and fore.
Perhaps your rhythm increases or decrease at different stages in the dance? How could you suggest this – by leaving spaces between the lines? By making larger marks in your lines? The neat, fine lines in the page above here suggests a similar rhythm but the larger marks made with a wide paint brush suggest a similar rhythm but looks much more vigorous and energetic.Try to respond to the rhythm you have chosen and make your own decisions.
Try making your rhythm look stronger by cutting your page into bands and shifting and shuffling as below.
So, put your dancing shoes on and make a start!
Lesson 13 will be published on Tuesday 5th August.
