Gesture Practice
2yr
Pat
I just started the Figure Drawing Fundamentals course, and I'd appreciate any constructive feedback on my gesture drawings.
The first image was some 30-45 second drawings from yesterday. The second image is untimed (around a minute or two), but trying to think through the lines to simplify my gesture. And the last image is 30s drawings from tonight.
2yr
these gestures look really solid. You are at a point now where you need to do more of the longer drawings and see how your gestures helped/hindered your construction process- once you have that information, you will be able to go back "improve" how you do your gestures for the sake of using them as construction lines for yourself. (for example- you haven't really touched on making your pelvis's 3d boxes or using landmarks, although your use of the collar bones at this stage is excellent!) Every artist ends up developing their own approach so you'll notice how your gestures differ from other artists.
Pat
2yr
Thanks, that's helpful advice!
2yr
Practice from today - untimed, around 1-2 minutes each, but trying to pick good lines to draw.
I can really see your growing confidence. I am going to start the gesture course soon - do you have any tips?
2yr
Thanks! I've done some beginner gesture before, but it never really clicked for me. I've always been torn between "draw a curvy stick figure" and "try to draw the contour as fast as you can", and so my end result was always messy with a lot of wasted lines and bad detail. Proko does a great job explaining how to balance the "feel" of the image with the contour, and watching the examples really helped it make more sense.
Since I still feel like I'm a beginner with gesture, I don't have many tips to offer -- but what seems to help me is to not worry as much about time. If your 30-second drawings end up taking you 45 seconds but you get better lines out of it, then do 45 seconds. If you feel like 30 seconds is far too quick (it zips by for me), try some slower practice without worrying about time, but shooting to capture the essential lines you think should be in a 30s gesture. Eventually you can speed it up and hopefully get closer to what Proko does in his videos (or at least I hope I can!).
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