This is an amazing evolution of all the work I've been doing with Mike Matessi over the last few years. I just never really made the connection that you've so excellently shown re gesture. There are as many forms of gesture as there are schools of thought on learning to SEE what we're looking at. His method of seeing forces flowing through the subject is an excellent way to learn to see the body as a machine. His voice is constantly in my head here: Force follows function, so that really helps when setting up the gesture and to push it, and exaggerate the angles to make things read more clearly. Your process makes his process make more sense and vice versa. Here's a screen shot of the draw-alongs and notes from them.

Just drew along. I think i am more used to drawing the whole mass. Many times i found myself drawing the stylized bones much shorter than they should be.

Here's my go. Sorry for the gesture studies all around it, should have taken the picture before I went on to fill the page. One thing I struggle with - it's how messy and confusing things start to become once I go through all the steps. It feels a bit like a tangle of overlapping lines fighting for attention. In Photoshop it's great that you can turn down the layer's visibility. Is there some trick for traditional drawing? Or I just need to learn to control the thickness of my lines and start very softly?

Trying to break up the steps a bit more clearly this time.

Here's my attempt, at first I was just being loose and unfocused, but I decided to focus a bit more towards the end. I'm gonna assume the chest portion is wrong, especially the end points of the ribcage. My main concern is the distance between the hip and ribcage, length of the legs, and that they are appropriately sized. Also another question, do you have a lesson or YouTube video where you show how to draw a front view of the figure? I have an idea of how the S C and straight lines can be used to draw from the front but I'd like to see if you tackled it. Plus I've heard from other artists that even from from neutral positions (without directionality) bodies still have gesture to them, do you tackle this as well in some other video? Much appreciated Prof, Cas.

Hi Michael, Here are some side views of the figure. Do I show the legs in the right place?

Hello Michael, it is really a pleasure for me to have enrolled in this course. I have been following your methodologies for figure drawing for years now and I found them extremely effective. In any case, there is one aspect of your method I am not sure I can really grasp, either from your original book or within your current course. It seems to me that the list of steps you use for building anatomy out of gesture does not follow a strict order. In some cases you first start adding directions and tilts to your gesture, then you create cylinders and boxes with perspectives, you assess the proportions of the volumes through landmarks. At that point, you superimpose more realistic volumes on the basic ones, and ultimately you refine the anatomy. In this video you seem to do something slightly different. You first create some anatomical "drafts" on your gesture, then you add landmarks on your construction and use the basic volumes to assess the perspective. If you have nailed the perspective, you keep refining the anatomy. Would it make sense to claim that the list of points do not really follow an order and changes in relation to your level of expertise? Many thanks. Dewey

Had a go at the side view. The more I do the more I understand the process but I don't think I am getting the most from the gestural stage at the moment.

Side view completed, I'm still having a hard time with applying ellipses to the ribcage and pelvis, but other than that I'm slowly understanding the 5 step process from gesture to form. I'm just happy to even attempt this stuff.

Hi Micheal I am confused on the landmarks of the pelvis, on the proportion video you showed the box being broken into 1/3s, placing the ASIS on the on the first 1/3 and the pubic line on the 2/3 line. However on here you show the ASIS on the top corner of the box and the pubic line lower/close to the bottom of the box. I wanted to know if there was a difference in placing these landmarks, is there a more accurate placement or is it personal preference?

Following along with the video.

Switched to mechanical pencil for practice, easier to see lines, also used all the page real estate to help keep things from getting too muddy.

Hey Everyone, here is my first attempt, outside of doing some draw along ones. The hardest part is certainly the shapes/tilt step as that is where everything is built from and getting the position of the ribcage is especially hard. This one I had made the torso too long in my gesture step so I had to shorten it during my connections/landmark steps, not sure if its correct but closer than it was. Loving this process so far but going to take a lot of practice to get it down.

Hello! My first attempt. I surely need more practice on line quality (CSI) and cylinders and boxes in general. The hardest steps where the tilt-shapes (second image) and perspective (last image). Place the main ovals and the boxes was very hard. Anyway, I look for feedback