Trying to really, really learn quick gesture drawing – help needed, please
2yr
Simon L
Hi,
I'm approaching the figure drawing fundamentals course a veeery slow way. I'm intending to really really learn each step before progressing to the next. So I've now spent about two weeks doing 30 second gesture drawings, only.
If anyone could be so kind as to help with a bit of feedback I would be very grateful.
My own feeling is that I'm a bit afraid of connecting the lines, there's quite a lot of open ends. Also I think that I should make a point of always add the hands and feet, cause now I shy away from them.
Thank you for looking! :)
/Simon
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2yr
Hey, @Simon L! I agree with our fellows’ comments below, you’ve been doing great so far!
But one feeling I get (not from your drawings, but from your comments and what seems to be your approach to practice) is that maybe you might be overthinking your learning process a little bit? I mean, it’s good that you’re taking your time to study carefully, and if you feel that moving on slower and repeating the same exercises various times at each lesson is helping you learn better, that’s great - but I’d just keep an eye out to not turn it into overkill. For most of us, usually, there's only so much we can understand at a certain learning stage, so I wouldn’t expect to be able to “fully master” gesture before considering moving on to the further lessons of the course. Of course, you, better than me, should be able to tell when you’ve had enough of each exercise, as each person learns at their own pace, but just keep in mind that building up knowledge and developing new skills is hardly ever like an orderly piled up tower of layers, but more like a patchwork of overlapping bits that often benefit from crossed interconnections to slowly blend and smoothen over time. Keep practicing each concept and technique regularly, sure, but also know that learning other topics will likely feedback and somehow benefit whatever you’ve already studied before as well, either directly or indirectly.
In other words, @Franklin Elliott summed it up neatly. :)
Hope this helps!
Hey Liandro, thank you, you are right, and thanks for taking the time to write this.
I've painted during the years (I posted an album on my page to show where I was at). But I was always hindered by not having learnt the fundamentals. I became dependent on references, I couldn't paint a thing without having a perfect reference of it, one I usually painted straight over digitally. So it became boring and uncreative and I stopped.
So now that I feel completely aboard the 101-train I'm clinging to my newfound work and learning ethic for dear life.
But I know that you and others in this thread are right, so, I'll be moving on, and going back, and moving on. I guess I'll keep this thread to post progress despite the title being misleading.
Thank you,
Asked for help
I took Demetrio Cran's advice and added "rubber bands" to the process of 2 minute poses. Wow, so much harder! Struggling a bit with the perspective of the ellipses. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated :) Thanks!
Hi Simon, thanks for giving it a try! @Steve Lenze gave you great feedback, so I just will add some concepts to help you in your journey. I think that your sense of flow and shape design is strong. You may found difficult to add the rubber bands because it seems that you should improve your spatial intuition. If you want to work on that, there are many tools. One is to learn perspective analytically like a madman, which is what I did (it is a long and boring path). But drawing from life is also a good practice (Dynamic Sketching by Peter Han is based on that premise). In addition, consider picking up photographs that make you grow in that regard, such as https://ar.pinterest.com/pin/300896818860274981/ and https://ar.pinterest.com/pin/70650287896561762/ (sincerely, if you are passionate about the figure, you should try the last path). Happy journey!!
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2yr
Nicely done!
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2yr
Love these!
Asked for help
I've moved on to two minutes, which I find a looot harder than 30 seconds. I can't seem to decide what to focus on – if I focus on getting more detailed I feel that I lose spontaneity and get stiff quickly. If I focus on looser "motion" I end up with a lot of time left and something that looks a bit worse than the 30 sec ones. Anyone got any tips? If any of you see any bad habits going on, please point it out so I can correct it moving on :) Thanks!
I think that you should try to draw as you did in the examples that you uploaded, but with less pressure. Then, start to add contour lines (rubber bands) around the limbs and torso to orient them in space (very light touch). Finally, add key anatomical details to help describe the pose, such as some landmarks (knee, clavicle, elbow, etc) This is a 2-min pose of mine as an example https://img-resizer.proko.com/resize/image/file/960x720x1/eyJwYXRoIjoiaW1hZ2VzL2RlbWV0cmlvL2RlbWV0cmlvLWRheV8yNV9wb3NlX25vXzQuanBnIiwibmFtZSI6ImRheV8yNV9wb3NlX25vXzQiLCJtaW1lIjoiaW1hZ2UvanBlZyIsIndpZHRoIjoyNzE1LCJoZWlnaHQiOjMzOTR9--3b27b876851f179f8e36ae5f92b7598bf0364dbc
These look great!! There's definitely a sense of flow and deliberateness to the linework.
A couple months ago, a mentor was doing some gesture sketches and I noticed that he was doing straight legs in one swoop, and then going back to create a form first for the sole of the foot, and then the calf, and then the inner thigh, but only if he had the time. Frequently, it was just a swoop and a foot, and it looked great! It was definitely a lightbulb moment for me. It might be worth trying the straight leg swoop?
Anyway, I think you're doing great!! You got this!!
Personally, I don’t think you’re doing badly, at least the figures do look like something, since you’re working on gestures, details count less…so long as they show the action of the figure. Keep it up!
These are really nice. The idea is to show the flow and rhythm of the body in the pose. The most important thing is to try to find an "s" or "c" shaped line that describes the pose from top to bottom. When you start to build structure on top of these gesture studies, you'll see why they are so important: they stop stiff drawings!
Keep up the good work :)
Thank you. Alright, I’m looking forward to implement this concept on more advanced designs. :)
They’re gesture drawings… you did a great job… quit stressing and move on.
