Sit down with your sketchbook and start drawing. Any location where you can find people will work. If you're looking for a great way to practice gesture drawing, try going to the park or local shopping mall. The problem is figure models aren't just waiting at your "beck and call". The more drawings that you create, the better you will get at it. Gesture drawing is an exercise and while some gesture drawings can stand on their own as finished work, the point is to improve your understanding of the figure. Using our initial line as a guide, we can next identify the shoulder line and waist line.ĭepending on the pose and posture of the figure, these lines may also bend slightly or even be positioned at a strong diagonal. Step Two - Draw a Line For The Waist and Shoulders This line will help to ensure that we position the figure within the picture plane of the drawing surface.įor many subjects, this line may curve or even bend sharply. We can first identify a line from the head to the feet of the subject and draw it quickly. Step One - Draw a Line From The Head To The Feet What's great about this approach is that it can be applied to any figure and it may be a good starting point for those of you that are struggling with knowing where to start. Keep in mind that there is no "right way" or "wrong way" to create a gesture drawing, but there is a step by step approach that I have found to be helpful. The Four Step Approach to Gesture Drawing Remember, the point is not to create a finished drawing. If you start erasing mistakes or stray lines as you work, you will lose this flow and become distracted. It's better to "stay in the flow" during the process. I've found that the best approach is to let these marks stay on the drawing surface and clean them up, if so desired, after the gesture drawing is complete. It's easy to be tempted to reach for the eraser to "fix" these imperfections as you work. Stray marks are likely to happen in the process. If you're finding it difficult to loosen up with your marks, you may try changing your grip on the pencil or switch to a less detail-oriented medium. Allow your marks to originate from your shoulders or elbows instead of from your wrist. Gesture drawings are not about details but rather the pose, form, and movement of the subject. Capture this information first with many loose lines or even blocks of value. Instead, we should be concerned only with the overall form and posture of the subject. For some us, this means letting go of the desire to create intricate details from the start. Details can always be added after the initial pose and after proportions are defined.īy loosening up with our marks, we can greatly improve our speed. Live models obviously cannot hold poses forever, so it falls on the artist to capture the pose and proportions of the figure quickly. Loosening UpĬlearly speed is important in gesture drawing. Static lines have "their place" in drawing, but for gesture drawing, dynamic lines do a better job communicating movement and interest.ĭynamic lines are the result of "looser", quicker marks. It's logical to use dynamic strokes when creating a gesture drawing because of the nature of the practice. Gesture drawings are meant to be created quickly and do not require details. Lines that are drawn without variance are static. These lines define the boundaries of the subject and are referred to as "contour lines". One of the primary functions of a line is to inform us where an object ends. It is great for practice, making gesture drawings a suitable way to quickly fill up a sketchbook. Instead, it is more of a way to study the subject through loose marks, shapes, or values.Īfter completing a gesture drawing of a subject, the artist may later decide to turn the sketch into a finished drawing or painting, working from what they have learned about the subject during the sketching process. The purpose of a gesture drawing is not to complete a "finished" or refined drawing. However, gesture drawing can also refer to any quick drawing of any subject. The term "gesture drawing" is most often used to describe a quick, loose drawing of the human figure. General drawing skills are naturally developed through the practice of drawing the human body. Because of its unique qualities as a subject, figure drawing is a staple of college art programs and local art workshops.
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