The Gesture Course
Intro to Gesture
Proportions
Learning Gesture
Difficult Poses
The Gesture of Limbs
The Shape Method
Beyond Gesture
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
@xsamhainx
9d
All i gotta say is the constant blinking back and forth between zoom levels on the video whenever he's on camera, very distracting and annoying. Pick a zoom level and stick with it already, Proko :)
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9d
My bad
Mario Ulloa
3mo
I came here expecting to learn about the body. but learning so much about archetypes, story stereotypes and how sometime you can use shapes to break conventions in visual story is such a plus in this class already.
Fernando Gomez Sancha
3mo
Your first lecture is a joy to watch. Impressive work. Congratulations Michael, it is already worthwile having purchased the course.
Lin
3mo
I am currently doing his head course and have his figure course in the queue (while doing Marshall’s perspective class) but every single notification I get about this is so enticing. XD I think I might cave and just get it even if I can’t do 3 at once efficiently.
Eric Bunn
4mo
Can't do this exercise too many times. Really excellent way of expressing the proportions of a figure. I tried to construct this step by step as I progressed through the lesson.
Val
4mo
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
4mo
II am geriatric & wanted to draw a Geriatric model.
Noreen Long
4mo
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
4mo
I’m loving this course but legs are not right, and not sure what to do to fix them.
Stevie Roder
4mo
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.
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4mo
Glad to hear that!
@andy_essayer
4mo
the subtitles between 11:04 - 11:32 is empty, please have a fix.
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4mo
Sorry about that! I've sent out a fix request and hope it gets resolved tomorrow.
Aritra Das
4mo
When can we expect the next lesson?
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4mo
The next should go out today!
Paul
4mo
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
4mo
The figures do read nicely.
@carrot
4mo
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!
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4mo
Thank you! So glad to have you.
Ari a
4mo
When are the videos published?
@struppsi2
4mo
attempts to put some gesture into the cast…
Ali Ali
4mo
Is It 1 lesson a week?
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4mo
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
4mo
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
4mo
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
4mo
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?
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4mo
We will cover that!
ahmet yavuz
4mo
https://www.bodiesinmotion.photo/ I recommend this site.
Ron Kempke
4mo
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?
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4mo
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
4mo
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About instructor
Educator, painter, writer, and art historian. Author of Figure Drawing: Design and Invention.
