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Chris,
The action, or potential for action, is not in the stance of the subject, it is in my perception. I think the action. I don't tell the subject to lean forward in his chair, my reference material probably looks much the same as the ones you use, but by thinking about potential action, thinking about weight shifts and pressure points, I can make minute shifts that show up in the painting.
(As an aside, one of the most profound insights I've ever received came when Cedric Egeli said that when drawing my seated model, to think all the way around the model. The first thing to do was "know" where the tip of her scapula was touching the back of the chair, and draw forward from there. To draw completely around the figure. This body knowledge of the subject is what makes it possible to make the weight shifts. I just feel in my own body where the subject is in space, and feel the weight shifts in my own body, and paint that. Is this making any sense? I've never tried to describe it before....even though I've been painting this way for two or three years now.)
So to your question about live models vs. photographs, you can animate the restful sitter in the same way. Sometimes the potential shift is as minute as a weight shift from one buttock to the other. People are rarely truly at rest.
Peggy
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