Looking at the sketches I submitted, those that show a clear line of action read best. They guide the viewers eyes giving a sense of motion running through the character. The relationship between the hips and head helped to show either a control of balance or movement of weight. Those that have a driving force from the knee or an arm leading the pose give a much greater sense of intent from the character.
My first vaulting pose with Stella I really enjoyed working with. The position of both legs created a strong line of action and a little overlap in the toes helped to sell that motion. Positioning the hips and upper torso I had trouble with and should have looked at more reference. The body should bend more from the belly instead of the shoulders which would give a much better line of action up the spine along with a less hunched posture . The rotation in the shoulders was another tricky choice. I think I should have tilted her left shoulder down more to give that feeling of thrust after pushing off the wall. The right arm i decided to keep behind the body, otherwise it cluttered the silhouette.
My second pose of Stella swinging the bat gave me a lot more difficulty in conveying a sense of motion. I think the main fault lies in the twisting from hips to shoulders. In a correct baseball swing the hips lead the motion, so they should be turned into a far more open position and kept the shoulders closed to the camera. Doing this would have shown far more strain in the pose and conveyed that unwinding of the body as Stella swings into the ball. The pose required her arms to be at max extension and keeping parallel to each other. This meant Stella's left arm would clash with the mesh of her chest which limited how far I could rotate the arms back. The hands could have been better positioned better but I'm unsure how I would go about it. They just look to be at too much of right angle to the wrists.
Looking forward to getting feedback from my mentor, I feel pleased with my sketches but the poses should have been finished sooner so that I could have gone back over a fixed some of the more glaring issues with their anatomy (that hunchback looks so weird). Onto walks for now and battling the terror of popping knee joints.
