How to Draw Gesture

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inFigure Drawing Fundamentals

4.5M

Mark as Completed

Assignments 2.2K

Lesson Notes

Downloads 2

How to Draw Gesture

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Figure Drawing Fundamentals

4.5M

Mark as Completed

Assignments 2.2K

Lesson Notes

Downloads 2

In the next lesson, I’ll show some examples of gesture quick sketches and guide you step by step through the process. But, I suggest you attempt to practice these concepts on your own before watching the step by step video. You’ll have an idea of what it’s like and will be able to pull more information from it because you know what to look for. You’ll have questions you can focus on, and you can compare what you did with what I do. If you need reference photos, I have some pose file sets you can get in the proko store.

Crimson The Kitsune

31/5/2023 I’ve been practicing this for a little while now, and I’ve feel like I’ve gotten a little bit better using @Jesper Axelsson’s Example.

Samantha Maggard

Gestures. Any suggestions are welcomed

Samuel Sanjaya

Doing some 2 minute's gesture. I don't know why but I feel it's more natural to do these traditionally, maybe it's the overhand grip. Looking forward to some critiques and feedbacks. I have trouble applying gesture to foreshortened figure.

Samantha Maggard

Nice job. I would like to give you my suggestion. I feel ike you are focusing on the contours too much. Focus on only using CSI lines to present the force and rhythm of the pose.

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Lenserd martell

Marco Sordi

2023/5/31. Good morning everybody. Some hi-lights from my daily warming up exercise. Thanks.

Crimson The Kitsune

30/5/2023 This time I was practicing something @Jesper Axelsson gave me to help with learning Gesture drawing. Criticisms are welcomed.

shinyoppai

11d

i draw 20 pose in 45 second, i need feedback and tips, to get better on gesture. thank you

joaz

11d

Some 30 second drawings from today. I've done a lot of gesture drawing over the past 6 months, mostly digitally but also some in person figure drawing sessions. I feel I'm still struggling a lot. I think I struggle with picking the important parts of a pose in such a short amount of time, so I end up just focusing on the same things regardless of the pose. I think I struggle with showing tilt and lean with so few lines, this is probably also exacerbated by the previous problem, I can't find the important part of the pose that will show the tilt or lean. I might also still be focusing too much on contour. I've tried sometimes to just not focus my eyes and look more at the whole of the pose, or focus on the center/inside of the body, and sometimes it might be helping? It's hard to tell. Do you think I'm focusing too much on contour on these?

Memori 0

11d

Hi, just a quick reply here. I think it would help a lot if you also give the head a quick sennse of direction, right now they all look like a straight front view which ends up not capturing the idea of the gesture. I've not done much figure drawing lately, so I will start from the very beginning of this course. You might see me post my own works.

Bubble Gum

13d

Gesture drawing for today using the poses from this & the next video

Noe Luis

14d

Day 3 in studying gesture drawing I'm trying to get the flow with my drawings any tips

John Harper

13d

Here are my tries. I slowed down a bit (about 10 minutes). Careful, intentional practice will make you better much faster than the quick stuff. That said, you need to do the 30 and 60 second poses as well. But, if you stick to the quick ones all the time, you will end up forming bad habits. Instead, do some quick, some medium -- like the ones I posted, and some long. When I'm in the studio, our models know the cadence. Typically, we do a 3 hour session. The first half hour is split into 5 minute poses, the second hour is split into 10 minute poses, and the remaining time is for an extended pose. We tape the model's outline so they can easily get back into position. When you do your photo-reference practice, it's a good idea to follow that same pattern.

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John Harper

13d

Proko does a super job of gesture. Have you tried following along with his videos? I will try your first and fifth pictures and post them tomorrow. Good luck on your journey. Oh! remember to have fun and enjoy your happy little gestures ** Bob Ross' Voice **.

Crimson The Kitsune

15d

21/5/2023 my last Drawings for the Figure drawing course before departing for the basic drawing course. I think I’ve improved a little and my overall joy for drawing is what I think matters most. Criticisms are welcomed.

Bubble Gum

15d

2022/05/21 Gesture drawing for today. There's no time limit because I want to apply the information from both the bean & landmark videos. Also no revision as well ;)

Bubble Gum

16d

Another section of 2 minute drawings. I'll post my revisions for some poses in the reply section. Hope I'm not flooding the page with my posts

Jesper Axelsson

16d

Nice work! The long axis lines shows understanding of a flow connecting the parts. Next: - Think of the flow as a river and not as a stick figure. The river curves back and forth. A curve going one way is followed by a curve going the other. This flow connects the piece, makes the pose look natural and full of life, and leads the viewer through the drawing. Take on the challenge of making everything flow together. For now, I would focus on the "internal" flow, but this idea will also apply to the design of the contours. When drawing the contours, which is more what Stan does, make sure they flow nicely like a river. When practicing drawing the internal flow, try different levels of detail, as I did in my first paintover to you. I think it would be beneficial to do some where you really go crazy and try to find even the smallest curve in the river. I attached some Heinrich Kley studies I've done, as inspiration. In short, be in the gesture mindset with every line when doing these. Hope this helps :)

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Bubble Gum

16d

Here's my revisions:

Marco Sordi

17d

2023/6/20. Good morning everyone. Until today I have favored female models. But this impaired my ability to portray male musculature correctly. That's why I decided to draw men and women alternately. Since I would like to create interesting fantasy characters it is likely that I will use photos of very curvy women and muscular men. Maybe every now and then try to portray even less stereotyped bodies. These are some sketches I made this week. Thanks and have a good weekend.

Bubble Gum

17d

Today's 2 minute drawings. I'll post my revisions in the reply section

Anna Sch

17d

hi :) the overall looks good i think. you make clear sketches and i can see whats going on. I think you may try a bit to hard to connect all contour lines together. so the direction of the gesture gets a bit lost. maybe focus more on movement than contour lines? im not sure how i could describe it better^^ but hope it was helpful

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Bubble Gum

17d

Here's my revisions

Bubble Gum

18d

Going for 30 second drawings today. I try overhand grip for the first time and the result is pretty wack. I got so puzzled by the new grip that I didn't finish Pose 1 in time XD. Is proportion a concern for drawings at this speed? I don't have enough time to think about proportion at all so some of them are pretty stretched out

Jesper Axelsson

16d

Nice work! "Is proportion a concern for drawings at this speed?" It depends on where you are on your are in your drawing journey (For a master, then yes, you are expecteded to nail the proportions, but for the master it comes almost automatically) and what you need to work on. If you're excellent at gesture, but bad at proportion, then you would think about proportion when doing these, but you probably would not measure since you don't have time for that. Usually this exercise is assigned as a way to improve gesture specifically, so that should be your main concern! The proportions in your drawings are pretty good👍 So I wouldn't worry too much about that. But it doesn't hurt to every now and then, note your tendencies: "Oh, I tend to make the legs too long", for example, then try to make them a bit shorter next time. - Great to hear that you're applying the overhand grip. Don't be discouraged! It feels weird in the beginning. If you stick to it, it will start to feel more comfortable after some time. Just try to be quite relaxed when you make the marks, and let the movement come from your shoulder. Focus on having the right technique. The right technique probably won't give you controlled marks in the beginning, but eventually it will. What paper size are you working on? Defenitely recommend using a large drawing pad such as 18" x 24" (A2), to encourage good technique. Hope this makes sense :) Let me know if you have any questions!

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Noe Luis

19d

Day 2 in Gesture drawing sorry if you can barely see the drawings

Bubble Gum

19d

2 minutes gesture drawing. I'll post my revision of these poses under the reply of this comment. Sorry if my lighting set up is wack.

Jesper Axelsson

19d

Hi @Bubble Gum, nice work! There's some good stuff going on in these. Nice shapes and structure, and the flow looks pretty good. I'll try to point out some things to work on: - If you aren't already, remember to draw through the forms (lightly), to make sure that things are connected. In the bottom drawing of image two, I would connect the line of the belly, with the front side of the stretched leg. - I can see that you're going through drawabox XD. Studying gesture is a great complement to studying structure👍 I think you would benefit from working more inside out, trying to first draw the internal flow that connects everything, then flesh it out to the contours. There is room for A LOT more gesture. Think of the gesture as a river flowing through the body. Practice drawing that river. Drawing the shape of the contour and body parts is a shortcut. A gestural shape contains a good flow. It's a good idea to practice drawing the actual flow since that will inform you on how to draw your shapes and forms. Glenn Vilppu is a good role model for gesture. You might want to check out this Drawing Demo by Glenn Vilppu. Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work! PS. You're not rotating the page when you're doing these, right? If you want some instruction on markmaking, check out this video How to Hold and Control Your Pencil. The Drawing Basics course, gives you even more complete instructions on line, like in this video Intro to Lines.

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Bubble Gum

19d

Here is my revision of the poses above

Crimson The Kitsune

21d

15/5/2023 Just some more gesture practice today! Think I’m sorta understand a little better about the… width and proportions? Actually, I don’t think anything’s been changing much in reality, but it feels like it.

Crimson The Kitsune

22d

14/5/2023 I think I’ve been making some steady progress, Although I don’t think my shapes are getting any better as they still look distorted. Criticisms are welcomed.

John Harper

21d

It is much less important to do a million gestures as it is to do a few and then evaluate what you did. At the beginning, I found that slowing down Proko videos (and other videos) and carefully following his pencil strokes helped me much more than continuing to draw many, rapidly created drawings. Oh! one other thing that helped me. I got a bunch of newsprint and started drawing one or maybe two gestures on a single page. The bigger size forced me to use my arm and shoulder instead of my wrist and fingers. I hope that helps.

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Stan Prokopenko

Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.