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Mimi T.
Mimi T.
Columbus, OH
Beginner Artist
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Mimi T.
I’d love some advice on how to improve my gesture drawings. It seems every time I do a gesture, I follow the contour of the body more so than motion. I also have trouble exaggerating the pose because I draw what I see and the poses often become stiff. Any tips or advice? 
Nikki De Backer
Hi Mimi! I love your drawings! Dancers are super fun to draw. If I have difficulty with a step in my learning process I often look back to the lesson before it. I would suggest going back to the video “how to draw gesture” and try doing the gestures in one line like Stan does in the video. You can’t do a contour of the figure if you do it in one line so you will have to look at the figure in a very different way. Personally I didn’t like doing just one line because in the end you just have a piece of paper with lines 😂 but it helped me so much for drawing gesture and it is a quick and easy exercise! Hopes this might help you. Good luck!
Preston
3yr
Hi! I'm by no means an expert, but I'd like to try and help. First off, I really like these. Personally, I can 'feel' the gesture, but I can also see what you mean about your issue with following the contour. For this I have two pieces of advice. First, you should try limiting the amount of time you spend on gesture drawing. If you're achieving these drawings with a 30 second timer per pose then I would say give yourself even less time, 10 to 15 seconds, and do your best to get the essential lines needed to capture the gesture- even if the result looks like a stick man. You probably only need to go that quickly enough times to train your self to simplify what you see before returning to 30sec + poses. I think the best way to stop following contour to stop giving yourself enough to to think or overthink. Second, I would advise watching this Proko video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j39NqwL7s4. It's a step-by-step video of Proko drawing gestures with explanation. What you want to do for each pose is: Step 1. Pause the video and attempt the pose yourself. Step 2. Resume the video and follow along with the example. Step 3. Go back and attempt the pose a third time on your own. Following this 3 step process when watching these examples really helped me see where I tended to make mistakes and overthink when drawing gestures. Hope this can be of help to you! Good luck with your studies!
Mimi T.
Hi there! I’m beginner artist and WoC. Good idea starting this topic!
BTS ARMY
3yr
YAY!!! Hi Mimi! So nice to meet you! Thank you! Its through Proko that I learned the wide art industry is male dominated and I want to uplift and empower and connect as many of our WoC artists as much as I can! :)
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