How to Think About Gesture
How to Think About Gesture
This lesson is premium only. Join us in the full course!
26:05

The Gesture Course

Intro to Gesture

How to Think About Gesture

999
Course In Progress

How to Think About Gesture

999
Course In Progress
Michael Hampton
Let's break down the nebulous concept of gesture—it's about conveying ideas and emotions through abstract lines and shapes in your drawings.
Newest
Val
1d
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm so excited for this class! I didn't spot your head and figure construction courses until they were already over, but I am determined to do this one live. Gesture is an at times frustrating subject to me, but the way you break it down simplifies the complexity and emboldens me to push further.
Noreen Long
II am geriatric & wanted to draw a Geriatric model.
Noreen Long
Pencil on smooth newsprint. Took more than 10 hours to understand these simple patterns of design & complete 3 sketches correctly! I feel very good about completing this project & more confident about shape & structural support. Thanks, Michael.
Lesley Rawlings
I’m loving this course but legs are not right, and not sure what to do to fix them.
Stevie Roder
Watched the video last night. Really insightful first intro lesson Michael. I actually pretty much learned the basics from it on what to think about gesture drawing and how to approach it. I am looking forward to the upcoming lessons now. I also loved the in-depth of having us think why n how were doing it as well. Very fun things to take notes on.
Michael Hampton
Glad to hear that!
@andy_essayer
the subtitles between 11:04 - 11:32 is empty, please have a fix.
Aritra Das
10d
When can we expect the next lesson?
Sean Ramsey
The next should go out today!
Michael Giff
Greetings and salutations to all. I'm a great big comic book nerd and really want to learn more about figure drawing. I've been struggling with it off and on since 2016 through books and hoping to find some greater sense of understanding, which will hopefully lead me to more productive and regular practice. I've been spending 30 to 90 minutes a day on attempting to draw gesture from comic books this past week and.... well... you can clearly see I need help XD. https://www.proko.com/community/topics/gesture-drawing-from-comics Looking forward to chatting and working with you folks in the near future. Somewhat unrelated note: Mr Hampton's character breakdowns reminded me of this image from the Disney's Aladdin, that I came across a while back. Some may find it interesting.
@gaetanam
30-90 minutes is amazing! Since this course is ongoing, maybe go back and check out Proko's figure drawing fundamentals playlist on YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y&list=PLtG4P3lq8RHGuMuprDarMz_Y9Fbw_d2ws Before signing up for this course, I would watch a video/ day before a 30-min figure drawing session (and if it was a step-by-step, I'd pause, do it myself first, follow along with Stan a second time, and then do it again a third time). It took about a month and I saw some real improvement! I think because the videos gave me concrete concepts to focus on. For references, I used New Master's Academy's figure drawing series on YouTube (free, ~30 minute timed sessions with high quality photos - nude and clothed, varied poses, etc.)
Paul
11d
Tried to gesture draw and its really fun to do and a nice change from the basic drawing course that Im following. Still lot of practice needed on my side but Im quit pleased with this attempt. :-)
Michael Giff
The figures do read nicely.
@carrot
11d
Michael, I’ve been looking forward to this course and think it’s a brilliant way to help people consider what they actually want to convey or create, instead of just jumping in and starting with pencil to paper. (Which can be frustrating when you spend time on something and it’s just not as expressive as you’d like it to be). Terrific 1st lesson, and looking forward to the next!
Michael Hampton
Thank you! So glad to have you.
Ari a
12d
When are the videos published?
@struppsi2
12d
attempts to put some gesture into the cast…
Ali Ali
12d
Is It 1 lesson a week?
Sean Ramsey
It's 1-2 lessons a week depending on how stand-alone/connected the lessons are. We're also giving people a little time to do assignments and the goal is to get the critique videos out the week after the assignment is given.
Malt Hitman
I guess we'll know on Monday. One lesson each week would make sense if feedback and critique videos are being included in the course. It would give people time to submit things for review.
Malt Hitman
Here's a sample of what I'm starting from gesture-wise. I learned gesture from Stan's Figure Drawing Fundamentals course a few years back by this point. I've been doing 20 -- 30 second poses and 20 -- 1 minute poses every day for the last three months. Consider these two pictures my 'before' this course. I hope to learn and improve a lot learning and applying the lessons from this course!
@anthonyjllopez
Any recommendations where i can find great poses for gesture studies? Also i am having trouble with my gesture on laying poses, especially poses laying in more extreme perspectives, will we cover how to handle these poses?
Michael Hampton
We will cover that!
ahmet yavuz
https://www.bodiesinmotion.photo/ I recommend this site.
Ron Kempke
14d
Michael, how do we learn to express our ideas with lines and shapes? Is this a skill artists possess innately or is it something they've had to learn and, if so, how and where have they learned it? I find this aspect of gesture drawing to be an unlearned foreign language, so maybe I'm delusional to believe I could someday communicate ideas and emotions through drawing. BTW, I've had a long career as a working technical illustrator which has probably influenced my confusion with communicating feelings through drawing because I've associated the act of drawing with reporting tangible facts. How do I unlearn that mindset if that's what's required to express with gesture?
Michael Hampton
Hey Ron, great questions. Don't know if I have the capacity to answer them here. I guess it just depends on how you choose to see drawing. I see line, shape, and value as components of a language. As such, while some may posses an innate familiarity, the rest of us develop proficiency in being visually literate with said formal elements. From there the question is to what end do you use it. You already concede that drawing communicates tangible facts. To me this is an idea about what you see and how you choose to convey it. Gesture in the way I discuss it here conveys tangible facts about the body and it's design through rhythm and asymmetry. Maybe it's a matter of how we frame it?
@georgiosnt
Nelson Wiegman
srt file does not open VLC player.
@georgiosnt
Anthony DeGennaro
Loved the first lesson! What kind of assignment would you recommend doing before the next class? Also, at what point in the gesture would you go into the straight lines? Thanks!
Michael Hampton
There will be an assignment video posted shortly!
Full course
You will be given unexpiring access to watch the videos online .
View course details
Give a gift
Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.
Or gift this course:
About instructor
Educator, painter, writer, and art historian. Author of Figure Drawing: Design and Invention.
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!