Trying to measure angles and proportion using negative shapes, relating joints to each other, repetition, tracing, & blind observation. Some of the better gestures are on the first page. Working on getting the initial structure set up more quickly and accurately. Thinking about where weight should be emphasized & focusing on movement.

Here's some gestures from the past week that took about 15 min. I traced some poses in blue to try to get a better understanding of some of the foreshortening when my gestures didn't look right the first one or two times. I'm trying to apply the force drawing principles to capture the pose more quickly and to show more energy. I'm also trying to think about the horizon line & how the perspective of the figure changes in relation to that.

This was an intense 12 days of challenge. It was enlightening to dive through a broad set of methodologies. Doing that helped me see connections I think I would have missed just focusing on one course. Specifically, Marco Bucci's explanation of the horizon line when drawing 3D forms and applying it to the figure helped my understanding click into place. I think I sometimes slip into trying patch 2d shapes together when I draw rather than thinking through things in 3D. What I realized after hearing Marco's explanation is that the bean is like a quick cursive placeholder for the 3D structure of the rib cage and pelvis. I superficially knew what the words meant but not how to apply the meaning in a drawing. Here's the idea that clicked for me: Gesture is like drawing in cursive once you understand the body really well. I noticed that when drawing quickly, my proportions were off, probably because I haven't built up a mental repository of poses and I defaulted to trying to capture the flat shapes. Using a flat 2D bean shape, I often get a container that doesn't fit over an accurately proportioned body, even though what I've drawn looks like a bean. When I slowed down enough to draw in the 3d shapes of the rib cage and pelvis 1st, then drew the bean over that, I had a better understanding of the figure and could draw the gesture a lot better. I think it's sort of like trying to draw kanji without knowing the radicals or an Asian language. If you don't have a well organized mental modal in your head beforehand, it takes a really long time to get every piece right and it's easy to go wrong. Plus, it's confusing to see someone correctly whip out a cursive gesture of the full character in a few seconds. Skilled artists can do that because they understand how the body looks in 3d in relation to a horizon line and located in the viewing space. Another way to put it is that you can draw the 2d stick figure but not understand how the body exists in space. It's the difference between copying a shadow and understanding what creates the shadow. For example, the 3D kinnect body tracking software draws a stick figure but it's trying to detect the body's location in 3d space. If you remove the context, the stick figure can look distorted because of the foreshortening. I think you have to build your understanding to the point where you can map back from the flat shapes and understand the figure as it exists in space. When your understanding is one dimension behind the true form, it's like seeing the projection of a hypercube. All the angles are at 90 degrees in space but it's a real mess to try to interpret what you're seeing without knowing what causes the distortion in angles and proportions. P.S., It was also really nice have an active community and to see how other people applied their skills and problem solving.

My second time trying out digital and my hands are hurting. Never happen with traditional mediums...interesting. I tried to do it in 2 minutes but it took longer sometimes with everything being new. I was able to watch some of the live stream. Great information. Merry Christmas!

A little over 10 min

On the 12th day of Proko, my true love gave to me... Comics! Which is all I ever wanted, really.

Best of today. sketching 5 min workout 15min.

20 min