How to Draw Gesture

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How to Draw Gesture

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Figure Drawing Fundamentals

124K

Mark as Completed

Assignments 2.5KLesson NotesDownloads 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.

@chinanoahli

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19h

pell

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It looks like you started getting into the flow of gesture when you got to the three drawings on the right. But I'm not sure the ones on the left were even meant to be gesture drawings.

@clownseuche

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23h

Please give me some advice. I'd be much appreciated.

@clownseuche

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23h

The coming months I want to focus on figure drawing and anatomy. Here are some of my attempts of the last few days. 30 sec poses I have the most trouble with. It's hard to not just draw a stick figure but to try to get the essential movement and flow. Please feel free to critique my sketches. What do you think of them overall? How and what can I improve? I do spot a few flaws but maybe there's a lot I don't see yet. Thank you. :-)

pell

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I think those 30-second gesture drawings on the 29th are your strongest. We'll eventually get more comfortable with gesture if we keep plugging away at it.

@chinanoahli

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I think I understand something.

pell

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Hi chinanoahli. There are a couple of really nice gesture drawings in here that let go of the surface details and communicate the flow of the pose. They are in the drawings of the double figure pose. The light, loose sketches that indicate the "other" figure are, I think, what we are aiming for in our gesture drawings. I'm looking forward to the next ones.

@chinanoahli

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Rachel Dawn Owens

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If you would like to draw more gesturally, maybe try more timed drawings. Keep the gesture drawings under 5 minutes. This will force you to cut down the number of marks and give the drawing some more energy. It’s cool how you are pushing the proportions. Keep going

@chinanoahli

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@chinanoahli

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11d

@chinanoahli

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one more time

@chinanoahli

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11d

Samuel Sanjaya

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20d

I re-learn the gesture again, but focusing more on the torso area this time, since I think it's easier to do the limbs once I got the big torso shapes done. Also i tried to visualize the squash and stretch this time. I hope I can get some feedbacks or critiques on these.

@pmirko

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24d

did a 2 minutes session over lunch break....this is absolutely though, literally panicking through the whole thing...i'm pretty sure i was adding too much details on the figure for that amount of time...oh well i'll watch the demo and try again

Rachel Dawn Owens

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24d

I think these look great for 2 minute drawings!

@localmare

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1mo

First time doing gesture drawing in quite some time. Poses were roughly 2-5 mins from Line of Action, done in an A4 sketchbook with a stick of willow charcoal.

ANX804U

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2mo

just tried

@magnumexpress

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3mo

First attempts at gesture in over a month, and first time uploading any. The Yoni and Sekaa poses were 30 seconds each, and the (5) Marcia poses were 1 minute each. Any critiques or tips would be very much appreciated.

Rachel Dawn Owens

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3mo

These are so good! I can see your hand getting warmed up. You nailed those poses on the last page. Keep it up!

Rivelle

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3mo

First attempts at gesture drawing. Am I on the right track?

Martha Muniz

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3mo

Great start! The silhouettes and energy are really strong!

Paul Williams

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3mo

Look good to me!

PEARS

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3mo

I drew these for about 1min 30 seconds each with the quick start timer. I had some trouble in the middle of the session with the automatic urge to focus on details and making it perfect. I had to step back and re focus on gesture and the feeling. After that, it was a little easier. I very much want to push myself with this course. Thank you for having me!

Rachel Dawn Owens

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3mo

These look lovely! Thanks for sharing! Most of these are well balanced drawings, but some could use more straights. This will give them more structure. Here’s an art tip:

@rcruey1027

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3mo

I had about ten minutes to do these. That's not quick I know but, I did but a limit on myself somewhere.

@sabersnail

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4mo

The first four are all from references during the course video. Some are doubled up. For those, I drew once when the reference was first shown and once after Stan showed his gesture drawing. Apologies for the low contrast. I'm still figuring out my best practices for digital work. I think I need to do my final lines a bit stronger. I was really pleased to look back and see some improvement from the first page (and older work from before the course) to the last page. I'm working to try and improve my line quality. I am happy in places with how it looks. I'm still having difficult with pulling a long line. Partly I'm still getting used to the digital pen, and partly I just need more line practice. I think I am often doing too much outlining and not enough capturing the action... particularly on the last day where I frequently found myself wanting more than my allotted 4 minutes. That said, I'm really pleased with how some of the figures on the last page turned out. I'd be thrilled to receive any feedback.

Melanie Scearce

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4mo

You are absolutely on the right track with these. It is very motivating to notice improvement, so hopefully you can use that to your advantage. You mentioned having difficulty pulling long lines and focusing on contours instead of action lines, which I agree with. I wanted to highlight an area where Stan did this really well and why. He took a complicated piece of anatomy, the arm, and simplified it into 4 lines. He is indicating the anatomy, but it's not the main focus here. The emphasis is on that curve that runs from the end of the deltoid to the wrist, and is counterbalanced by the angle of the elbow. The angle puts tension on the curve, and the result is dramatic. In your drawing, this moment is broken up by a few different lines and the effect is diluted. Look for areas of movement like this and figure out how to simplify the anatomy to clearly communicate the essence of the movement.

@robot0906

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4mo

Hear my gestures. The ones from the book are from today but the ones done digitally are from yesterday. you think you could help me out @Martha Muniz?

Martha Muniz

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4mo

Hey there! It's a great idea to practice both digitally and traditionally, I see it helping approach gestures in different methods. I think overall what I would recommend is incorporating more variety in your lines, thinking back to CSI lines. I see a lot of C curves currently, which is great for getting fluidity in the gestures, but finding more areas where an S curve could emphasize a change in direction or a straight I line could highlight a sharp turn or edge in the figure would help balance the fluidity and also help bring out the energy and direction of the drawing overall.

Ty Rogers

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5mo

2 minute poses using the Gesture Reference Sampler images off the proko timer.

@dropfeeling

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5mo

First day of gesture drawing, it's much harder than I thought. 😆

Martha Muniz

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4mo

It's already a great start! I love the fluidity and clarity of the energy. The thing I'd recommend is going for longer, more confident strokes, especially keeping an eye out for CSI lines (which are lines that resemble the shape of those letters, more info can be found here along with some great warm-up exercises: 6 Habits for Good Line Quality). By bringing in clearer strokes, it'll help reinforce the great expression you already have in these gestures -- keep up the good work! :)

Rachel Dawn Owens

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5mo

Some students asked me about gesture this week. I love gesture drawing. So made this to explain my thoughts a little bit. Posting it here to hopefully help more students.

Ivan Calitz Crockart

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5mo

This is fantastic, thank you!

Jason Lankford

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5mo

This is my first two days of attempting gesture drawings on my own (I've only watched the first video); I'm using YouTube videos for timed poses. I haven't drawn in a long time and I've never drawn people. I'm looking forward to learning techniques.

Makeda Sylvester

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5mo

It will definitely feel more fluid over time. Good to share them and not be afraid.

Melanie Scearce

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5mo

Nice! Learning to draw people is a challenging and rewarding endeavor. These are looking good. Your lines can sometimes get a bit scratchy -- try to practice using longer, lighter strokes when making gestural lines. It's a good habit to get into and I believe you end up drawing how you practice, so establishing good habits when starting out is the way to go. I really like the figure in the bottom left on the first page. Good luck with the course :)

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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.