WHAT IS A LINE OF ACTION
Start out in a neutral, emotionless pose. Now show some of these emotions:
Purposeful
Confident
Shy
Aggressive
Relaxed
Giddy
Nervous
Waiting
notice how the body changes as you act out these emotions, it changes direction.
Emotion has direction.
If there is Direction, then there is a Line of Action.
Using a Line of action is not only for animation or action drawing, it can also help strengthen your character Designs. while some character designs may have quite a bit of energy and action in the pose, others will need to convey a quieter emotion or personality. whichever is the case, Line of action can be applied. IF THERE IS EMOTION IN THE BODY, THEN THERE IS A GESTURE OR LINE OF ACTION.
Mark Kennedy - A Line of Action helps organize what you're trying to say into ONE THOUGHT. A good character design should be a swift simple read – It should only try to say ONE thing. - It's hard enough to draw a character doing ONE thing and put it across clearly.
If you know your line of action, you can accentuate and strengthen the emotion by your line work.
Push every line on the figure in the same direction as the gesture, while minimizing any lines on the figure that go against the gesture.
For some examples of this, see Mark Kennedy on Line-of-action
A Line of Action or Gesture shows DIRECTION AND FORCE.
The best lines of action are often simple. The strongest lines are a Straight Line, a Curve, and an S curve
These follow the Movement of the body, not necessarily the spine or limbs. what direction is their movement or force?
If the body is completely neutral, then there is no line of action. But lines of Action don't always have to be big sweeping dramatic curves. look for Direction and Force in even a relaxed pose. All parts of the body react to each other, so even in a relaxed contra-posto pose, look for opposing forces: legs and hips pushing against the ground, The torso and shoulders thrusting against the hips in response. the hands and arms digging into the hips.
BODY TYPES
Not all body types will have the same kind of Line of Action. Think about it. A very large, bulky character is going to move differently than a tall athletic ballerina. If a character isn't Lith, dont try squeezing them into sleek and flowing gestures … unless you are trying to say something about a large character being graceful.
Similarly, Short or squat characters are going to have less room for long movements and stretching in their forms. You may find that their Line of action is more contained. But they will still have a line of action.
BALANCE -
If you push a line-of-action too far, or in the wrong way, you can sacrifice the structure of what's underneath and you're left with something that feels like it's made out of jelly with no skeleton - that's not good.
