Looking for critique- gesture
2yr
@tejasm
I have been practicing gesture for a week. But there is something off about my gesture even if am practicing i am not improving. And they don't look expressive as many others what should I do??? Thank you for help btw!!
Tejasm Thank you for sharing your art, The pics are a bit dark. I would suggest picking one method of doing the gersture, I recommend you check out Proko's critique video on gesture drawing. It is very informational and he talks about having continuity of flow with the pose. If you can avoid living the limbs with a single line do it is because it makes it look like a stick figure. I hope this helps.
I was trying to edit the post but it couldn't happen so i am posting the reference here!! And sorry for the trouble!
Hey tejasm,
You have already gotten some good advice. I just wanted to show you something that I think would help.
I took one of your drawings and drew what I think the pose was doing (it would be so much easier if you posted the reference) I did a sketch of just the gesture, or rhythm of the pose, then drew a structural drawing on top of that to show perspective and how the three masses (head, torso and pelvis) relate to each other.
This is the way you should progress through a gesture drawing: find an "S" or "C" curve that describes the pose from top to bottom. Then find the gesture in the limbs too. I hope these sketches will help :)
Hello !
Well, first, it's a bit difficult to help you if you don't show your references. If you could include at least one reference, next to the corresponding drawing, it would be awesome.
But with what you provided, I can already give you a few tips. First, you're consistently merging the torso and the pelvis into the same, rectangular form, on which you attach strokes for the arms and legs. Only sometimes there are timid strokes to show an angle and twist that rectangle, but it's not enough.
If you want your gestures to feel more dynamic, I think you need to unlearn that rectangular torso, and break it down into its ribcage and its pelvis. Even if it's not what you usually do for gestures, I advise you to force yourself to draw it into 2 round forms. (cf blue lines in the attached pictures)
It might help you a lot getting your lines curvier, and capturing a better flow.
Also, quite often, you're simplifying the shoulders into a straight line. Instead, try to make that "shoulder line" into a curve that connects the arms. Just as if you were tracing a big line coming from the right arm to to the left arm. All in one stroke.
(cf red strokes)
Of course, it's not always the way to go. Brutal angles are sometimes better. But in your case, doing this will help you stop seeing this "shoulder line" as the top of your rectangular torso.
I hope this will be of help. :)
(my colored lines are guess work, btw. Again it's difficult to help you without knowing the reference.)
I may not be the best help but I think you should exaggerate your gesture line more. Like, go way overboard with it and then sale it back. Also practice curved lines. These lines look a little tense. Hope that helps.
Hello there! I'm hardly an expert, but I think I might help a bit here!
One thing I notice quite frequently is that you attempt to draw the volume of the shape, but that ends up conflicting with the parts where you abstract the shapes into a single line. It creates a mismatch between volumes and lines, which makes both look "out of place" on the same drawing. The biggest example of this is probably the one on the top-right on the last page, in which the legs are being drawn as a volume (and one that appears to be too uniform across the entire leg), where as the arms are simple lines.
Another thing that might help is to look more closely at the shoulders and hips, their positioning and how they're angled in relation to each other. For example, in the last page, on the bottom left drawing, I feel like the opposing shoulders and hip placement are one of the key aspects of the pose, so lean in to those key parts. I
I also feel like you might be overthinking a lot of strokes, so maybe try to narrow down a pose to 3-5 strokes max. Train drawing with your whole arm to get a good long line in one stroke.
I don't know if you have the premium version of the figure drawing course or you're watching on Youtube, but try not to advance to later videos until you feel you got a good grasp of doing a very quick pose with very few lines. Study other drawings you think are more expressive and think "why are they expressive?". See how they simplify forms, how they taper the strokes, among other things.
Keep it up, don't give up, and you'll get it! But try to train smart, not just hard!