How to Draw Gesture – Step by Step
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Figure Drawing Fundamentals

Gesture

How to Draw Gesture – Step by Step

2.3M
Mark as Completed

How to Draw Gesture – Step by Step

2.3M
Mark as Completed

Get a bunch of figure photos and draw 10 to 20 of them every day. I promise you will improve. And rewatch this episode and the previous episode a few times. Remind yourself what you're trying to do. And listen for those things that I repeat several times. Don't copy, don't draw the contour, find the story etc.. Also, try drawing along. Enjoy the process, and realize that you're drawing! It's a treat to just sit down and draw for a while. If you're having fun and enjoying yourself, you'll learn better.

Newest
@rcruey1027
Zwuckel
22h
I´m frustrated and actually I wanted to complain that I´m not getting better. But I do. 1 week of practice on Jan. 4th = 3rd pic. Yesterday = 1st pic Today = 2nd pic For today I rewatched a part of the video. Drawing through and making more accurate lines was the idea. But then the two minutes aren´t nearly enough. The practice before incl. yesterday was always quite hectical. Should I increase the timer to 5 minutes for the time being? Edit: Also, at what level or time should I proceed with the other techniques in this course? I feel like I should "master" my gestures first but advancing too soon might be not good as well. Suggestions?
Rachel Dawn Owens
Gesture drawing is about consistency and practice. It is not necessarily about making pretty drawings. It takes years of consistent practice to get good at it, but it is so worth it. Learning how to communicate a human figure clearly in a short period of time is such a great skill to have as an artist. I love 1 and 2 minute poses. Here’s a few of mine. I try to use as few marks as possible. Only focusing on the most important parts. The first few minutes of any drawing is the most important. You need a solid foundation to build a solid drawing on top. Get what you can from this lesson and move on. You will come back to this idea of gesture over and over throughout the course. Your drawings are looking great so far. This is a great place to start.
Valeranth
Day 1-3 of gesture drawing. This is my 3rd time attempting this class, but I'm striving hard not quit this time. On Day 1, I used the same poses as Proko. I also followed along with Rams comics gesture drawings, which are the Iron Manesque drawings at the bottom. I think my favorite drawings though were the ones I did at the end of the day. I didn't care anymore if it looked good and did quick gestural drawings (normally I send several minutes on a single gesture) and neck anatomy studies based off a video. Day 2: I just did the bean and gesture drawings. I used the Proko video to correct my gestures after I first attempted them on my own. Day 3: More gesture drawings. At the end of the day, I did a more detailed rendering of the neck anatomy study from Day 1. I also tried to examine the angles/relationship between the neck and the collar bones. Then, I just did body (trunk) studies from imagination just to test how much I recalled. The placement and position of breasts still confuses me, but honestly, those end-of-day freeform studies encourage me to keep going after the disastrous gesture drawings make me question if I have any skill at all lol.
Melanie Scearce
I don't see anything disastrous here! These are good progressions. Keep exploring these ideas, the more quick gesture studies you can get behind you the better.
@m152064
10d
Doing two-minute poses then going back and trying to re-do them with how Proko suggested in pink ink. Feel like I'm focusing too much on form and contour and not as much on the motion. Any tips on how to improve?
Zwuckel
22h
I´m doing a post in a few moments and it seems it is a similar thing? For me the two minutes are not nearly enough. Either I draw hecticaly without accurate lines or I try to "feel" more and try to take accurate lines and it takes four minutes. Anyway, I acutally wanted to ask where you found that suggestion with the re-do. Seems I missed it.
@somehotaku
Here are my submissions alongside the references. (forgot to save the references for the first day) . Been drawing every day for the past year and i think i can get through this course I'm taking this in tandem with the drawing basics (free versions anyways) i did read the comment from Ryland Li before attempting it, so for the first day i didn't put a timer, but also tried to be mature with that fact and just try and get into the groove of designing the movement. the following days i tried giving myself what i thought was a lenient timer, but i actually didnt fully complete some my own reflection/critique: the movement isn't bad and I definitely tried to exaggerate however, i failed to think about the underlying forms. also i really tried at first not to focus on contours but i think that started to slip as time went on and i fell back into some bad habits. going forward i think i should try and not rely solely on line and try to use value shapes for gesture too critique me up scotty!
Ryland Li
19d
Two powerful tips to help you get the most out of this lesson and this course. TIP 1: GIVE YOURSELF MORE TIME. Like many of you, I started this course with no experience figure drawing. The first time I tried doing exactly what Stan suggested, drawing 30 second quicksketches in 30s-1m and 2 minute quicksketches in 2-3m. The result were sketches that were bad. Ugly, messy lines, failure to capture the gesture, all the problems identified in the later critique video. I felt discouraged and quit for a while. The second time I decided to give myself as much time as needed (which ended up being around 5m to begin with) to draw the 30 second quicksketch. A few dozen sketches later I can draw a good quicksketch (not quite as good as Stan's), but one that captures the gesture well, has clean lines, and looks pleasing. I feel very happy with this progress and motivated to continue. And I have no doubt I can draw more quickly with practice and reach the 20-30s that Stan can do this in. At one point, Stan suggests giving yourself more time is a bad idea. I agree it is a bad idea if you are using that time to just draw more. But instead I use that time to think, visualize, ghost, etc. My 5 min quicksketch has the same number of lines (or even fewer) than Stan's 30 second quicksketch. When starting to practice, it's important to practice correctly, even if that takes more time. Once you have it down, you can always practice more and cut down the time. But if you start out by rushing, you will develop poor habits. And with poor habits come poor drawings, with poor drawings poor motivation, and with poor motivation, quitting. TIP 2: GET PERSONALIZED FEEDBACK ON YOUR DRAWINGS. This tip has four steps. Step 1. Pause the example video BEFORE Stan draws anything. Do your quicksketch. After you're done, critique it yourself. Step 2. Watch Stan's quicksketch. Then compare your quicksketch with Stan's and see how they differ: * How the gesture is captured (e.g., sharp corner vs curve, long vs short line, C vs S vs I shape, darker vs lighter line, use of 1 vs 2 vs 3 segments, which details were omitted, etc.) * How clean the lines are * How beautiful the lines and overall sketch look * Etc. You may want to write down or mark up the differences so you can clearly see them. Step 3. While looking at Stan's quicksketch, draw it to get a feel of how to do it Stan's way. Step 4. If you want, you can then rewind the video back to before Stan draws anything (but with the model showing). Then redo steps 1-3. Why does this method help? Because it allows you to try it yourself first, then check your work against the teacher, clearly identify the differences and give yourself feedback, and then try again with the benefit of that knowledge. This is far superior to just drawing along with Stan - by doing that, you are just copying the video and lose the benefit of getting personalized feedback on your own work. Once you're done with this method (which will happen given Stan only offers a large, but limited, number of examples), of course draw with other reference images. But even then, you can come back a few days (or week) later to redo this exercise with Stan's examples and see what progress you've made. If you get it perfect (or nearly so) on Step 1, you know you've seriously leveled up your gesture drawing game. If you're far from perfect, then you'll get mileage from redoing this exercise again. These two tips have helped me a lot, and I hope they help you. I also welcome your critique or feedback on these tips and any other tips you have for this lesson is very a challenging one. And please hit like if these tips helped you so they can benefit others too. Thanks!
Zwuckel
20d
I think 2nd day of drawing gesture. All with 2 minutes which is not a lot of time ^^
Ryland Li
@daniel454
20d
Third day of drawing 10 for 1 min and 10 for 2, I've rewatched the videos a couple times and seeing other student submissions I want to do better, any feedback will be __greatly__ appreciated, thanks!
Ryland Li
Zwuckel
20d
Hi, I have no idea what I´m doing myself, but it seems like, at least for me, that you are drawing the contour lines. :)
Ty Rogers
30d
First two images from the left are 30 seconds and the final image is 2 minute poses using the obscura sampler. As I continued to draw I found common rhythms that felt good and were quick to sketch, leaving me more time to focus on what i didn't understand. I also highly recommend anyone who feels lost and finds everything they draw to look flat to look at and practice the bean section of figure drawing and then come back to this lesson. That and draw more!
@dropfeeling
I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I watched the video, drew some on my own, then drew along with Stan.
Beatrix W
2mo
The first image is 30s, the second is 120s. I feel like I'm improving! My main struggle at the moment is just going off vibes because I don't know what to look for, other than the vague concepts of 'movement'' and 'narrative.' Those ideas help, but I still feel like I'm missing something.
Robert
3mo
Starting to dabble with 2min gestures. I approach these as the 30s ones and then I try to add the "forms". I have a feeling that my 2 minute gestures are more stiff and look generally bad but I don't know what the cause of it is. I assume mileage is one thing. Btw I did more. Just wanted to share a small smaple. If anyone could give me some tips on how to approach 2min gestures, I would appreciate it
Martha Muniz
I think the main benefit of quick gestures, especially in the 30s to 2min range, is that everything boils down to the fundamental essence of the figure. The most successful quick gestures come down to how clearly and solid the "main idea" can be arranged and communicated, finding it and making sure everything surrounding it supports it, either by continuing its flow or counterbalancing it & adding stability. I think once you find this, it'll be easier to add form without it feeling as stiff.
Robert
3mo
I think I am getting the idea of the 30s poses. It takes me about 35 seconds each pose. I think my standing poses are pretty decent. I do struggle with other positions or angles because I cannot use the template Stan gave us in the video. I would appreciate if someone could demonstrate me 30s gestures for the two images I attached below (I even censored them for the kids). Would really help me because I have no idea how to approach it. If you have any feedback regarding my 35s gestures, I'd appreciate it. I do struggle to stay clean with my lines and sometimes finding the rhythms of the legs, especially when there is overlap in the limbs
@dannyc
3mo
What implement is Stan drawing with in the video? I've been using pen but it's unforgiving.
Melanie Scearce
He's using a charcoal pencil, looks like it could be Faber Castell. Conte and General's Peel and Sketch will give the same effect. I mainly use General's
Cynthia Davis
In the last pose of this video, I cannot see the exaggeration in the figure that Stan does and draws. I see a pinch on the left side (the model's right side as she faces the camera) instead of a stretch. What am I missing? Or what am I seeing incorrectly?
Harry Green
Today, I did three rounds of gesture studies with some 1 min studies by myself, and 2 sessions following the 2 min and 30 sec videos. For my solo studies I tried to focus on making my work less scratchy to get a clearer idea of the gesture. I think they turned out alright, but I'm worried I may have gone too far in the opposite direction now? Other than that, following along with the example videos really helped! I'll probalby use those as a reference to look back on and evaluate my gesture studies in the future (along with the subsequent example videos).
Melanie Scearce
Nice improvement!
Kalp Bhavsar
idk kinda ranges from really good to really bad... dont want to rely on luck tho i want to become more consistent. Any suggestions?
Kong Vue
4mo
2 minutes for each one, did 15 of them because of the short time I have. Rip them to pieces.
Cynthia Davis
Don’t have much time but use what I have. I try first, watch Stan, then try again. These are all second tries.
Monica Brinkman
Well done Cynthia!
Melanie Scearce
These are wonderful! Really nice flow. How long are you spending on each?
Art Stark
5mo
Drawing with Stan. First I try, then I watch Stan. Then I draw some more.
Gannon Beck
Beautiful!
Patrick Bosworth
This is the way!
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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