Gesture/Figure drawing feed back
3yr
Christopher Lebreault
Hello! I was hoping to get some feedback on these drawings. These are from my homework for a local figure drawing course I am taking. They are 2min, 5min, and 10 min gesture/figure drawings.
I feel like I am not focusing on the right things when I am doing these.... I just do not know what it is I am focusing on and what I am ignoring. I do not have the reference photos but I do have the link to the video I used.
Thank you in advance
https://youtu.be/Sb6n5rWtv04
Lot of awesome replies already, but I did want to mention something on line quality.
I think overall, your line quality tends to lean towards feeling a bit scared and uncommittable. In the longer sketches, I think this becomes more apparent.
As other's have said, focusing too much on the contours of the form can lead down a not-so-desirable path in gesture drawing. In these drawings, I feel when you get caught up in the contour, your commitment and confidence of strokes becomes lessened - you make more smaller, corrective strokes. Some artists call this "scratchy".
You said in a thread below you were doing DrawABox, which has good exercises to help with that!
What I think too could help is to slow down, ghost the line-of-action enough to where you can be more confident in where it's going.
In the longer sketches, I wouldn't approach it as "ah, I can do more detail now", but rather "ah, I've got more time to do the same thing but better"!
The work improved a lot ! Keep up with the practice.
If you want to include more sense of action, I recommend when you have time to watch this Villppu video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOtVUHgJqQk&t=1368s&ab_channel=NewMastersAcademy
It seems to be already pretty useful replies, but one thing that did help me significantly was this: Don't focus on contour, in a gesture drawing you should simply suggest by line WHAT THE MODEL IS DOING(I'm not screaming, it's just to highlight). Forget muscles, just head-ribcage-pelvis relationship, and do this with the fewer lines as possible, we're not tryin' to show three-dimensionality here. So keep going :)
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3yr
@Elson sheesh Great advice! I reinforce this! 👍🏻
@Christopher Lebreault It’s important that we are aware of what we are focusing on in order for our study to be effective and for us to feel that our art is evolving over time. The good news is that we get to decide what we wanna focus on.
Overall, it seems to me you’re currently learning how to draw the human figure. If that’s really so, I’d suggest you try to be even more specific with each drawing session: for example, if you’re going to sit and draw for 30min, think to yourself “within the bigger topic of Human Figure, what am I going to focus on right now, for this specific session?” To answer this question, you can choose between “gesture”, “mannequin”, “proportions” etc. And then make that choice your only priority for the following 30min. That means, for example, that if you’re studying gesture, you might want to completely ignore anything else that might relate to forms, proportion, perspective or whatever - and focus solely and completely on gesture.
Of course, this is not a strict rule; you may also like to do a long figure study and apply all techniques on one same drawing, or even keep an open focus and work a bit on each technique as you move through your study session. But the point is: whenever you’re unsure or feeling foggy about what you are getting as the result of your studies, try defining a focus as clearly and specifically as you can, and temporarily overlook everything else. This can help recalibrate your mind towards where you want to keep moving.
Hope this helps!
You may not be screaming but it sounded more epic in my head that way, so ima take it as so lol.
This really helps a lot. Most recently I decide to use a brush pen for my 30s and 1min gestures since I am a complete novice using these tools. It took out the pressure of "getting it right" and put my mind in the sense of just putting down lines rather than a contour.
Thank you!
Nice work. For the most part, the gesture is clear, however it is clear you don't like drawing feet or hands. Simply suggesting a thumb, a big toe can add a lot of information quite easily.
As others have mentioned, you seem to get distracted by the outline of the form and muscle structure, that's not really the idea of gesture drawing. Other's have also suggested working smaller, but I'd actually suggest working large, A2 or A1 is great. This is because it encourages you to draw with your whole arm, making your gestures more fluid.
Look for bony landmarks too. These include the acromion (the bump on the outside end of the collar bone), the iliac crests (the bony part of your hips either side of your belly button), the sternum, lateral and medial epicondyles of the humerus (either side of the elbow), the medial and lateral malleolus (bones in the ankles). Landmarks such as these will help you create a stronger relationship between the different parts of the body. It also helps having a basic understanding of anatomy.
Finally (and arguably least importantly), is proportion. It's not vital in gesture drawing but it certainly helps. You seem to draw your legs a bit short, they're a lot longer than most people think!
"however it is clear you don't like drawing feet or hands." LOL I literally just had that conversation with my instructor earlier today. They are a major thorn in my side that I have to get over. I don't know if I am making excuses or if my logic is valid, but I am conscientiously avoiding them as I want to get as much as I can out the course while I have the opportunity to have an instructor IRL.
Typically I do 30 secs -2 mins pose on the smaller size to preserve paper,but your suggestion of A1 or A2 is def something I will consider on my next trip to the art store.
That landmark tip is a good call out, thanks!
Asked for help
Thank you everyone for giving me some awesome advice. I hope I emblemented them well. I would some critiques on this batch that I did today. Ten 30 seconds, Five 1 minutes, Two 5 minutes and 1 each at 10 min and 20 min. I feel that I am getting better at finding the line of action (still not where I want it to be however). I have noticed that I end up getting too reliant on the Line of action as i proceed into the drawing. What I mean is I end up treating it more like a center than a line of action.
Any and all words of advice welcome. Thank you
Hello Christopher! Thank you for sharing more drawings and continuing to work at it. Currently I feel the longer timed ones are more cohesive and the shorter timed ones are rushed. Maybe slow down a bit and gather your thoughts and show what is important in the pose as best as possible.
Exercises or things to work on:
1. Drawing simple stick figures from imagination
2. The bean. There are Proko videos on drawing a flour bag or a "bean" shape that twists and turns. It is helpful in thinking about the torso.
3. Drawing Cylinders. Practice drawing cylinders that bend together like a arm does or a leg bends. All from different directions.
It was very helpful for me to learn to draw from imagination, learn the bean shape, and to draw with simple shapes. Even when I do not necessarily draw the shape all the time I make informed decisions while drawing and have it as a tool when trying to analyze why something did not come out the way that I wanted.
for quick poses i do lots on one page.
you can fit easily 10 or more poses in one page.(and use both sides of the page)
if you are doing longer studies you can use the whole page in one figure....
but there are no rules for this XD good luck ;3
Hi Christopher! Thanks for sharing your gestures. I noticed I was going to post a similar critique as Ken’s. I recommend working a lot smaller and for quicker studies. Get a lot of mileage in and not focus too long on one pose. Get free with your marks and loosen up. Get less reliant on the shapes and outlines and more so on rhythms and proportion. It would be helpful to work in a media that is more bold such as ink. So that the lines that you use matter and it will help understand what to include and what to leave out. Alongside further figure studies I would recommend daily mark making and shape making exercises to get additional muscle memory and will help get the most out of a life drawing study
Hey Hunt! thank you for your words of advice. You have given me some things to think about.
When you say "Get less reliant on the shapes and outlines and more so on rhythms and proportion" I am assuming you are referring more shorter gestures rather than longer one? More specifically asking about reliances on shapes. I have switched over to COL-Erase Prisma pencils since starting this thread. It is bolder but definitely not on the level of ink. Funny enough, Most mornings I do some shape/mark making exercises before starting my day.
Hello. Before anything, I think next time you may want to take your picture under a better light sources, some lines in your drawing are pretty vague and with the addition of weak lighting, it make others have a very hard time to figure out what you draw to give you a good feedback.
And then, it seems that you're still having a hard time at trying to catch the line of actions in each pose, you focus too much on the outer line of the body and sometime got distracted by muscle. If you're already trying to work on these issues, I suggest you take around 30 sec in each pose to draw the line of action, one big line for the body part and 4 smaller for other limbs connected to the big one. And when you decided to do longer pose, I suggest you to stop at 1 min, no more. It will be hard, but it will train you to only work on the gesture. so try your best to do those poses in under 1 min.
And when you feel you're ready to move on, you can start to build body structure on top of the gesture, but that is future's thing. So good luck!
Thank you for your feedback! I definitely could have taken better pictures.
I 100% felt like I was focusing on the outside and muscles a little too much. I was giving the line of action alot of consideration, but finding it has proven challenging. As stated, I am taking a local figure drawing course so I am forced to proceed to longer poses and building structure, but I will work on your suggestions during my HWs, which I have a lot of freedom to do and focus on what I want.
Thanks again
