There are several things you, the model can do to help you work out the best use of your hands and arms in your model portfolios.
First, collect forty or fifty full-length photographs of models from magazines.
Now, shuffle your pictures into examples of: 1)Bold hands 2)Tapered hands Do you notice that tapered hands of women are used frequently? And that bold hands rival the expression and importance of the face? Can you detect any picture in which either hand is displayed poorly but could have been improved by a simple movement of the wrist? The second step is hand-stops, or where to let your hand rest.
Reshuffle and separate your illustrations into hand-stops.
Which pile has the most variations of hand positions? (Do not count positions as different that are duplicates in reverse.
) Get in front of your mirror and see if you can originate at least five different hand positions at each hand-stop for which you found an example.
In your collection of pictures, have you noticed ...
any display of the broad inner elbow that could have been made more attractive by bending the elbow slightly and rotating it so that the narrow side faces the camera? ...
any display of unnecessary tension, sprung joints or distorted flesh when the arm supports the weight of the body? (Double joints at the elbow or on the fingers also appear to be sprung in a picture unless arranged to look normal.
) ...
how the majority of arms and hands crossing the body are usually in a contrasting tone or color so they do not appear as part of the body? ...
the casual, yet expert placement of hands and elbow to preserve waistline profile? ...
any picture of the arms crossing the body at the waistline? If so, do they seem to cut the silhouette in half and make it appear heavier than if they crossed above or below the waistline? ...
that a hand extended toward the camera looks like a stub at first glance? ...
how much faster you can detect what a figure is doing when the hands and arms are separated from the body with air spaces? Taking direction...
is an important phase of your being useful before the camera - particularly where arms are concerned.
You, as a model, are composed of many individual parts.
However, you also must be composed when given direction as to which part to move.
Becoming flustered may result in the loss of a perfectly wonderful picture which could have been added to your model portfolio, should you change a whole arm when all the director asked you to do was to break a wrist or twist a forearm.
Therefore, complying with direction accurately is of utmost importance.
You must know how every part of you is capable of moving camera-wise.
When given a correction, of arm or hand placement, think before you move, 'Does he want me to move my whole arm or just part of it?' 'Should I twist it completely or just slightly?' Then move that part naturally into position without looking at it.
And one other thing, so simple we hesitate to mention it, but it is also so important, that we must ...
do learn to tell your right from your left.
When the director says right he means your right.
If he says left, do not move your right! A very worthwhile way of learning to take direction is to practise giving direction.
Pretend you are the director.
Take your pile of pictures, with a friend for a model, and one by one, see if you can give directions for reproducing the arm positions of the subject to the finest detail.
Take the time to practise using your arms and hands to the best of your ability.
This will result in more beautiful pictures for your model portfolio.