Some years ago, a relatively obscure French art theorist by the name of Horace de Boisbaudran wrote a treatise on the subject of training the memory in art. One of its principal tenants was to study the figure intently before drawing. The idea being that the harder we looked the longer an image would remain in our mind after it left our eyes.

Everything in nature has a gesture, a body language. A tree sweeps down or up, an animal has a specific way of placing it's feet on the ground and the human form, male, female, young, old or impaired has a unique way of moving through space.

The figure and others move fluidly. Our bodies are carefully balanced to keep us upright. The more the artist 'looks' the more he/she retains. Unfortunately, our hand movements are not often in tune with the gesture we see. The hand tightens, limiting the fluid movement of wrist and shoulder that are necessary to convey the action and body language of the subject. In essence we over think the pose!