Announcing My New Series - Drawings of Tap Dancers

I am very excited to announce this new series because it combines two of my loves – art and tap dancing. I mentioned my love of tap before, but at the time I was not dancing. I started dancing again about a year ago, and in the fall joined a class offered by the Tap Ties company.

Not long after joining I started thinking about combining art and tap. Since the ladies who make up Tap Ties are all incredibly nice, it didn’t take too much guts to ask them if they would mind allowing me to take reference photos during their practices. Lucky for me they said yes.

I now have over 300 reference photos and the ideas for drawings and painting are coming so fast I often find myself scribbling them down in my own strange short-hand. My biggest problem so far has been deciding which ones to start with because I want to start them all right away!

I have a lot more to say about this new series, but for now I want to share the first drawing.

I decided to start this project by focusing on the dancers feet. One of my goals is to convey motion, because so much of tap is about the movements the feet make to achieve the desired sounds.

tap dancing feet

9” x 6” graphite drawing on Canson paper

Stacy L. Rowan

In this drawing you can see that the front foot is moving fast and probably making multiple sounds, while only the heel on the back foot is moving. I loved the interesting shape of the front foot combined with the realism of the back shoe.

I currently have two more drawings started and a third planned. So stay tuned!