How to Draw Gesture - Step by Step
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 มิ.ย. 2024
- Premium Figure Drawing Videos - www.proko.com/figure
Portrait Fundamentals - www.proko.com/dvd1
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In this video I take you through the process of a gesture quicksketch drawing step by step. An approach to 30 second poses and 2 minute poses.
Assignment - Practice 30 second and 2 minute quicksketches
Poses Reference Photos - www.proko.com/poses
Premium Videos - www.proko.com/figure
Premium Video Concepts:
How do you draw a pose in 30 seconds?
Creating a game plan
How to simplify
How to exaggerate the pose
Rhythms of the breasts
Rhythms of the legs
Rhythms of the neck
Rhythms of the torso
Find the flow of the limbs
Finding rhythm in anatomy
Tapering of forms
Draw smart not fast
Drawing through the forms
Learning to see gesture
Using Asymmetry
Balancing proportion and gesture
Look for motion not contour
Detailed explanations of above concepts at www.proko.com/figure
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models - Chanon Finley, Aaron Simunovich, Marcia Churchill, Veronica LaVery
Music used with permission
music intro by www.freakfandango.es/
background music - www.digitaljuice.com/products/...
#GestureDrawing #arteducation #drawingexample
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You can find even more gesture drawing examples like this in my premium figure course at proko.com/f1g437a
Better than most academic teachers!
Um..so I was looking into possibly buying a premium, but I'm not sure what kind of materials would be best for them? Do you have recommendations? I usually only draw with a pencil and average sized sketchbook.
Also, are any of the videos in order or do you have any for beginners? I feel like I need a good guide for the fundamentals and basics.
Hey stan! I really got the hang of the concept of gesture and i find a lot of improvements in my poses BUT
After adding contours on top of the gesture lines in a figure i notice that my proportions are affected.so,do I draw gesture lines with proportions measurement or what?
Could you make this age restricted so i can safely recomend this channel to my students? They are highly gifted but not all the content is age appropriate.
It’s so hard to simplify lol
Why do his free tutorials feel premium.
cuz the premium one is otherworldly, probably
I feel bad for watching this
@@tehprotrollboi6472 theY ARE very much worth it
The anatomy course is the best. I have it. Worth it!
omg 666 likes
I gotta say, it's great that you do all these free videos along with your premium stuff. Honestly, I wouldn't be able to afford the premium stuff with my current lack of money, so still being able to see this quality of video for free is great. So thanks.
I feel you, bruh.
just an FYI, if you ever need some free pose references, there's a website called line-of-action. While it's not super instructional, unfortunately, it has tons and tons of references from the human figure to even animals if you ever need to practice gesture, figure drawing, etc. ;) plus it's free!!
Awesome, thanks for sharing this website!
@@nullv0d880 really thank you
Absolutely agree with this! It's really appreciated :)
There are so many good tips that I hear, and I hope understand, but when rewatching after a year or so still have a-ha moments. Tips (that doesn´t make sense if you don´t watch the video):
1. Use C.S.I. lines
2. Start with the head, or torso, or watever. No rules.
3. Look for Pinch/Strech
4. Don´t overthink it. Draw what you feel not what you see. - Big one!
5. Create gameplan (don´t just start doodlin´) a.k.a. Analyze the pose.
6. Look for motion not contour - easy to say....
7. After establishing CSI think of the ratios/proportions that you´ll make with 2D lines while thinking 3D.
8. If you draw stiff poses: Forget anatomy and just draw fluid cylinders (snakes) - C/S curves. - Big one! (for me)
9. Draw SMART, not fast. Filter, filter, filter....clean and accurate line.
10. Continous flow.....rivers and waterfalls (added this).
11. Wrap the forms..
12. Exxagerate/design the 2D curves while thinking about 3D forms (lines should represent tips/endings of the exxagerated forms, if I got this right)
13. Gesture gives figure life like eyes gives portrait life.
Thomas Eulogy thank you so much
I really struggle with no. 4,6, 7, and 8. So thanks for reminding!
"in that case there's two possibilities:
either you're brand new... or you are overthinking it"
>I do both
I don't usually comment on TH-cam videos, because it's silly and most meaningful comments get lost under "Like if you"s and trolls saying how much they hate Justin Beiber...
But I'll bother to comment now.
Not only have your videos on gesture helped me get a better grasp on form, the curvature of the body, and fluidity of the guide-lines, but they've also rekindled my inspiration for pose, and art altogether. I've watched many videos on "how to draw", and some have offered helpful tips, but none really spoke to me. Yours did.
"Draw what you feel, not what you see" was a real "Land-Ho!" statement for me, and excited me to try more intricate poses. I usually hate sketching out the pose, because of all the confusing lines and markers, all the layers and curves... But this really helped me. It simplified a complicated and hated process for me, making me extremely excited.
Almost immediately after watching this video, I started sketching out gestures... And it's the most fun I've had sketching in a long time.
Thank you.
This may now get buried under ridiculous comments about how hot the pictures in this tutorial are.
I just thought I'd point out that at time of writing, this comment has 69 likes
heehee
Not anymore :P
now it has 100! ( the hundredth like was curtesy of yours truly)😏
comment more bro, the movement of meaningful comments needs to grow! We gonna overflood the trolls, because some ppl are tired of trolls
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆
I'll cover specific parts of the body with a lot of detail during the anatomy series.
I know Im six years late but I just watched this now so...
Luv you man!
"So... the testicles have these muscles called cremaster muscles whose purpose is to stretch and contort depending on the temperature that are needed for the testicles" That's the first thing i tought.
I keep coming back to this and the more and more I do this, the more and more I admire other artists. I find this INSANELY difficult to do. INSANELY difficult, but there are artists that have managed to learn to do it decently. Absolute envy for them.
My gesturedrawings look like tentacle monsters. Accidently.
Aha..XD aww same ....
Mine used to be a few days ago, practise my friend:) If I can improve (believe me I'm not an expert at drawing) then so can you:) I still now makes loads of mistakes, I keep making chicken scratchy or shaky lines rather than a smooth curve for example
keep going with that! it sounds rad
Ryuu Chan mine too but im starting to see movement and its easier for me to see the gesture than before. keep practicing well both get there eventually
Ashton Richardson Yes, I can see an improvement in mine after just a few months
I can't tell you how right you are about "have fun." So many times I've had people ask me how to keep going at it every day when the topic comes up. Just have some fun with it if you're in a rut.
Don't worry about how it looks for a change, just draw whatever you'd like to and cut loose every now and then. It'd just a few drawings, you'll normally cover more in an hour alone.
HA! At my first 5 or 6 drawings, I started to get discouraged... it was bad. I was embarrassed. I looked up more figures and kept drawing... Now I've got about 7 sketches I'm actually proud of.... I want to keep going but my hand hurts x'D Thank you so much for helping me love drawing again
Arbiter? really. any other video would work except this.
Benny Bondoc lmao I know right
Try to not grip the pencil to hard maybe that's wy your hand was tired
By far the best teacher I ever had and I have been to many schools which cost a shit load of money. This is free. I love you Proko.
Thank you! Because of you I now understand gesture! I thought it was rapid scribbles in a timed manner. But who knew you could go slow and focus on it. So basically it's just outlining the figure without any skeletal build up which is something I used to do. But during my "gesture" sessions I would occasionally just start with the details and do it that way. Who knew I was half right! Here I thought I had to draw a line of action for everything and build the figure around that like a spine.
You have some of the BEST teaching videos on TH-cam and believe me, I've watched TONS. Great exercise I did with this video was pausing it, doing the gestural drawing from the reference photo and then watching how you did yours. Thanks, this was wonderful! *thumbs up
the beauty of proko is that so much information is densely packed into such a short video, I've watched this particular one like 5 times now and each time I'm learning something new that i can add to my gestures.
I’m very grateful for these videos, I haven’t drawn in 14 years and just recently started back up. I’m completely self taught and make a lot of mistakes with just watching and practicing one video I saw major improvement in just one day. Definitely will recommend to others.
Wow! I'm still a novice and 2min always seemed so short to me but after watching your two videos I feel I can do so much more in just two minutes! And it did not only help me draw humans but almost everything! Really great. Thank you so much!
Proko, I use you for my students, but honestly speaking, I'm really learning more myself than I would've imagined. These are wonderful!
If only you could see what I THOUGHT was gesture drawing haha, for days I've been doing messy unclear lines that don't communicate the pose at all let alone the rhythm. I'm so glad you made this, thank you for this video! I'll take it on board going forward, you saved me (and my sketchbook)
Hey Proko ,
I just wanted to tell you man... you're doing a great service for people. I paid for over 2 years of art school. I learned a lot, rapidly improved, and I made some invaluable connections.
I also paid and am still paying a lot of $$$$$.
I wish I had known about your videos a long time ago because you sir, are crushing it.
Yeah, people gotta put in the footwork themselves; Make sure they're getting critiqued by people that wont lie to them (Wow man thats amazing and perfect!), and people that know what they're talking about and the countless hours of study and practice. But if they do those things and pay careful attention to what you are telling them...That's basically a world class education at virtually no cost.. and in this industry your portfolio is what matters most. Kudos and thank you so much man!
This channel is a goldmine i swear
I decided to go onto the topic of gesture lately, and i went onto the first two videos of this series. I can already feel myself improving and its a great feeling, ofcourse im making alot of mistakes but im actually glad when i see them because its just another opportunity to improve
I know this is a old video so theres most likely not as many people going on it, but here are my tips for studying if you need it
1. stay consistent
If you can, set aside time for every day or some days of the week to study. It might feel tiring, but its like showing up to the gym. The most important part is that you show up to the gym.
2. Make notes!
I swear this helps so much. Writing down your critique and reflections really helps solidify them, also i reccommend saying them outloud aswell. When youre talking you really get into the groove of thought and it makes you point out and remember things better than if you looked at your drawing and had a few comments in your subconcious.
3. Reflect, compare, and copy
When you attempt to do a study of something, its good to have a reference from a teacher/good artist. Look at your attempt and then at the artists and think about if theirs is better and why its better, think about what they did and thought and what those things resulted in.
Happy drawing everyone
You don't have to exaggerate. You can find the rhythms as they are. But, try to think of it as an exercise. To exaggerate correctly requires an understanding of what is most important in the pose. So, practicing exaggerating helps you get better at identifying the gesture.
Your series is one I recommended to my daughter. As an artist myself I find it incredibly useful to return to basic gesture drawings on a regular basis. Practice, practice and more practice will always make one a better artist.
My big mistake nearly a year ago was definitely not coming back to this video several times. I cannot put in words how important it is to understand what gestures mean. Your understanding changes as you keep learning and it gets very easy to lose focus on what this video was trying to teach, since if your new your perspective of taking this knowledge is going to be 1 dimensional at first but man i wish i watched this a few more times throughout this year to understand gestures better. still working on it but it has helped me remember what it is im trying to apply
"draw wht u feel, not draw what u saw" deep n nice statement
fly how you feel do not fly according to your eyes and instruments
mushhushshu tishpak "Your eyes can deceive you; don't trust them." /Obi Wan
Ok but you just took his advice of "doing just necessary to know what's going on, to your writing! Your ortography is gross!
Helps to get rid of that urge to copy. Feeling the movement goes to the core of what the body is doing.
But what does it even mean
Thanks so much for making these gesture drawing videos. I find that my biggest obstacle is that I get caught up in the little details and don't capture the movement and essence of the pose. I'll keep this video in mind and remember to slow down and look for the big shapes and movements. :) Thank you again!
Glad you posted these free videos on gesture. I have been so focused on contour in the past. other tutorial mention gesture or flow but never discuss the process or levels. Thank you. a few more stepping stones.
hey stan! i just wanna say thank you for putting the time and effort on all of your videos. i have been learning so much from your tutorials and have always looked forward to your upcoming ones. it has been a really big help especially for the ones that cannot afford art classes (like myself). i just wanna thank you for all of your help and im looking forward to watching all of the figure drawing series!
When the best advice is draw what you see but you don’t know what you need to be “seeing”, you pointing out what I need to look out helped me a lot!
i have so much problem with the "motion not contour" idea. i just can't seem to not draw contour. it's very frustrating and makes my practice sketches look weird and blocky. sigh.
I get questions about this problem a lot. I'll be answering it in a Q&A video that I'll be posting in a few days.
Proko that's great news, thank you for letting me know. i look forward to it!
Proko is наброски and quick sketch are the same?
yes, same
Dimitri LK give link plz
Thank you for making all these videos!
In the past three months, I drew figure drawing every day and it truly improved a lot. But I still cannot cross the gap.(to reach a more professional level) These really inspired me. The one "How to Sharpen a Charcoal Pencil" is so useful, too.
I have to come back here every year just to refresh my gesture skills. I always learn something different. Things he doesn't even talk about. Great teacher!
Been loving the practice. I totally need courses like this! Learning from someone who can actually draw is a huge boon.
Thanks man, these are really helpful. I've been taking classes but I've become so scared of drawing something wrong that I've had to force myself to do any drawing. Your videos have helped me find the fun in drawing again. Thank you.
I thoroughly enjoyed practising these gesture drawings while watching you do it, even though I noticed we took different approaches, it felt reassuring having you there, doing it too! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
thank you, dear! Really, being able to follow your classes is such a precious thing :)
Thank you so much for the caption. I'm from Brazil. Great job.
Did a video on supplies earlier this year :)
I'm really happy I found his video! I've been watching it day after day and always seem to learn something new after practicing! (if that makes sense) So thank you so much!!😁😁
These have helped me so much! This means a lot to me that you take the time and effort to help people with art!
I read in a drawing book the following about gesture drawing which I had not read before in any of my numerous other books but which I think is really helpful. “Let the pencil glide swiftly around the figure - and within it - trying to capture the movement of the forms. Of course, the model isn’t literally moving. It’s your eye that moves, sweeping rhythmically over the curves of the human form. In this sense, the subject does communicate a sense of movement to the eye.” Wendon Blake.
Luke, the overhand grip allows you to draw more easily with the pencil on either the side or the tip, allowing for a greater variety of line widths and edges. In essence, the pencil becomes like a paint brush, allowing you to easily draw with either tone or line. It also encourages you to draw more from the shoulder and elbow, which gets your hand moving more to capture the gesture, or movement of the pose. Check out Stan's video on art materials for how best to sharpen the pencil for this grip.
Hey, i must say that this tutorial really helped me how to draw body poses. Thanks a lot
Your videos have helped me out SO much. I just redrew a piece I did three years ago and saw a MASSIVE improvement. I've filled up multiple sketch books already of drawing and practicing all your lessons from this one to the anatomy videos. I'm so proud of myself and excited to continue along my artistic journey
Glad to hear it Roxxy! Keep going!
I think one of my biggest flaws is an inability to draw things within proportion. I want to draw a person, but they come out larger than they should be, oftentimes leading to stuff going off the page, and it's really maddening? Any advice?
+ChaosoneX that just means you have to train your eyes. Everyone has that issue until resolved.
at least i dont go and ask for gogeta fuch you
#MAKEGOHANGREATAGAIN
The Sayian
??
what? how this comment came here? sorry there is problem. this comment wasnt mean to be here
At this stage forget about proportions. Gesture drawing is only about rhythm, assymetry, etc.
Tanzer, I agree with what BassMonkey said. Your exercises are not meant to show around except to other artists to get feedback. In a few years, this wont be a problem. As your friends grow up, this won't be a weird thing anymore.
...
you, sir, are one HELL of a teacher.
I have never had something learned regarding art help me as much as your videos.
You are a genius.
Thanks
I struggled with drawing people for months.
Your technique of simplification is awersome I finally make cool non stiff drawings
Keep it up!
thank you for the subtitles in japanese. I finally understood what he explains about
Not gonna lie this one of the best gesture drawing videos. Helped me improve a lot THANK YOU
That's great to hear!
I'm so insanely glad that I found your channel cause this is so useful, like thank you sooo much for uploading these videos 💓. Thanks to you I am improving a lot nowadays and drawing so much more because these videos motivate me a lot so just THANK YOUUUU 💜
Your tutorials are just sooo... useful..thank you so much for sharing.
you make it so easy U_U
When I draw a line, I habitually use so many lines so it looks dirty than yours... I'm trying to fix it but it's not too easy lol. Anyway it's so helpful thx!
This is the major issue I have with my drawing. It sucks.
make a habit of filling pages of line control exercises. if you grind muscle memory separately you will improve much faster i promise. just spend 10-20 minutes before you start drawing to warm up your arm with those exercises. there are many that you can do, just look them up.
another thing that you can do for superfast serious results and improvement, is use ink for gesture drawing. most preferably fine liners not ballpoints. this way you will force yourself to be confident and commit to whatever marks you make on the paper. the trick is having the correct mindset though. accept that you re gonna make a lot of mistakes at first, and never get discouraged. only by making those mistakes and analyzing them you will get past them, not by avoiding them. and this is the fastest way to make them and get rid of them once and for all.
with daily practice like proko says, you re gonna end up laying down perfect strokes just the way you want them sooner than u think. which makes your gestures very very dynamic and fluid rather than with grainy thick and scratchy pencil lines.
I allow myself at least 20 minutes of shaking out my god awful, wretched drawings before anything remotely good comes out. Incorporate warming up into your drawing time, every time.
See 5:50
Yujin Seol do I know you?
The last one was hard for me, so what I did was close my eyes and tried drawing just single lines and that really helped, it gave me a road map for that pose.
That CSI advice is so amazing it helped my poses with their flow 10 fold thanks so much!!
im crying T.T I was trying so hard to learn how to make "perfect" line art without realizing how important this is T.T I feel like I might actually be able to learn how to draw now T.T Ive been struggling all summer and now I finally get it T.T The "too much contour" has been me the entire time
"Perfect is the enemy of good" is something I hear a lot and as a perfetionist I understand what people mean by it. But I still feel like perfection has its place. There are very few imperfections in the works of artists like Mucha (my personal favourite) for example. Of course, Mucha also did rough drafts with graphite. What you don't see in a perfect end product is the imperfect process.
Ah, this is really good. Thanks for the great video! Very helpful.
ur a GENIUS in pedagogy !!
thanks for spoting our mistakes and perception so fast to correct them and making us feel confortable with all that =D
what a pleasure !
Fantastic tutorial! I've been meaning to get back in the habit of drawing gestures on a daily basis and this is just what I needed. You have earned my subscription!
Estrus, getting distracted by how you hold the pencil and angle of paper is a phase. As you get more experience you wont notice the materials at all. You just need to practice and get comfortable with your tools.
if you really don't have
the money for those premium videos i suggest you find a pdf of Michael Hampton's
"Figure Drawing" or any book that talks about gestures really. It can be helpful in making you understand gestures better.
This series is great, Stan! Really solid information, well presented with high production quality. I really like your approach to gesture drawing as well; it's a nice mix of an animator's quality but with the same kind of rigid construction that I'm used to. Will definitely be getting in on the premium access content!
this lecture is soooo good, things looks so much simpler now, I saw these videos years ago and only now I'm understanding it, I'm almost crying of happiness(ok I exagerated but it's still very good)
thank you!
I am trying to animate with SFM, I draw something on paper but it looks weird on sfm. But thanks for the video it was mostly helpful.
I'm so happy theres stuff like this free on the internet. This is great.
I could watch Stan do gesture drawings forever, it's so relaxing XD
Thansk Proko Im studying movement atm and just found you ,you are such an inspiration thanks all your lessons are so valuable and informative 🙏
Proko seriously! I'm a freelance illustrator never studied art, all my techniques are made up. I cannot draw in the "traditional" way but your videos are so informative and helpful that cannot be expressed. I have learned soo so much from you already! Thank you very much!
This is great, though I draw more comic like characters, this is really helpful to adapt my art a little better!
i dont know how many times ive gone back to this video to refresh my memorie. thank you so much for this proko!
Warning long comment but worth the read to the end I hope. You are an amazing teacher. I’ve been doing self line drawings with the gesture of my feelings lately. They are all about feeling through gesture lines and When my husband found them he said they were amazing. I normally watercolor paint and he doesn’t resonate with them ever. In fact he’s normally annoyed that I’ve spent time and money doing them. But these spoke to him. When you say it’s all about the feet of the gesture - you have nailed it. Your tutorials are so articulate that I can see what was done intuitively has some technical errors and they will be better once corrected and not loose the feeling created. I’ve used charcoal with restraint in any thicker lines to imply dimension so to me when redone with techniques you have taught me I have a framable exhibition which takes me back to my childhood first love / obsession with drawing in charcoal and dreams of being an artist. I’ve already had a successful exhibition in a different medium but the idea of doing one that goes back to the essence of my passion for art at its very core makes me happy at a time of extreme difficulty. Over the part 3 years I’ve had two trauma accidents which came from no where and I now have a number of impairments including servers seizures that leave my old life as a working, athletic, active Mum with my kids impossible. But my daughter saw me draw a few years ago after the first accident and insisted that when we got back from our beach holiday -where I can only watch from the sideline each year - that I must go straight to the museum and resister muse as a artist (the words of a six year old) but she wouldn’t let it go so through recovery I created and was asked to exhibit. 6 months ago after recovering from the first head trauma and truck hit me and now it looks like I’m left with epilepsy and chronic pain through my entire body for life. - So i want to thank you for being so high energy and passionate in your delivery, for your time, for sharing your gifted talent and knowledge. For me you have given a gift of inspiration that brings true happiness to my very different days and life and with all that said if you’ve made it to the end...... once again thank you, with all my heart.
Well, 'Enjoying the process' is the hardest thing among what I learned from this video, i think. I honestly feel sad and anger whenever I see what I'm drawing.
How can something be so fun and frustrating at the same time ?
Proko,
Thank you so much for your videos, they are very well put together clear to understand and full of great examples. I really appreciate the effort you have put in.
Elliot
Damn, I'm comparing my drawings from before and after watching this video, and there is a crazy change. Still kind of looking more at the figure than the motion, but the flow is so much better after practising with you! Thank you!
I watched a lot of Proko again and again. Then I see my kids drawing.
BOOM!
Drawing is hard because I draw what I see. Not draw what I feel.
Boom
In most cases, drawing what you see is the protocol lol.
lol I can't do this and it's pissing me off
+Jennica Dobson it'll take time but trust me you'll get there.
+Jennica Dobson I know this feeling yo, but don't get mad, and don't give up! :D
+Jennica Dobson yup, been trying this for about 11 months and my sketches still look like garbage
+Jennica Dobson really o.o it's just gesture. I think you and Tony are just stressing it too much. Just follow the movement like he shows. I would suggest getting your own poses though instead of just following his lines. Maybe you guys are like me and are trying to do too much detail. Stop trying to do all the details. This is for movement/flow not photo realism. It's like he said simplify the human form down more if you have less time/experience.
If it's of any help, try sketching the main motion lines over the picture of the model you're using, it helps when I don't get the feeling of it at first.
i love your videos! its hard to find a good quality drawing tutorials that arent sped up and actually explains it so thanks! and i love that you have more videos on your website that arent here but free!
Give this guy a cookie!!!!!!!!!!! Proko you're awesome, I'll make sure to go and get the premium videos, in my country, unfortunately, we don't have art schools, so I'm very thankful that you're doing this for the community. Thank you again!
Damn, almost forgot to subscribe. :)
i keep drawing the damn black squares !! lol
RAPH FELIX
Just draw porn, they have some, "dynamic" poses.
I don't know whats happened this week, but I got to a point where all of this just came together and made sense. Thanks Proko for your insight and videos
This makes me happy that I found Proko, his free videos feel like a premium video
Never knew how satisfying being the 1000th comment was
but I dont feel anything
Is this a good way to learn for beginners?
Luke Nash yes
Giving up is typically a go to for me. But really, I would love so see where you were you were and where you are now. Hmu!
This is amazing. Very cleverly explained how to draw poses. I saw the first example and instantly got it what you mean.
I just want to say this video and the 2 minute poses one has helped me dramatically in my drawing in a matter of minutes! I'll be starting my first year doing Costume, design and making at uni and life drawing is included, this has been so helpful! thankyou! :)
"Draw smart, not fast"
Just like that, I know how to draw only the essential parts.
For the ones who are angry because "aaahhh i cant do this" just keep drawing, one after another nonstop, u gonna do this, belive in your self
Thanks so much for this. After two hours of drawing details and contours, about to break the screen of the monitor I found this, aaaand the relaxing music is more important that expected (swan lake was a bad idea)
Thanks Proko.
Your videos helped me a ton! I was practicing figure drawing earlier today and was not impressed about how stiff and messy my drawings were. I watched your videos and after about 10, 90sec drawings i saw a huge improvement! :D
o.o like i can actually see the movement now
Damn this backing music makes me so sleepy, great tutorial though.
To this point he never talked about proportions, wich is my biggest problem, even the gesture drawings look off most of the time, legs to small, head to small, arms to long etc etc. I guess that just comes with time :/
That's one reason that I don't think gesture should be taught first. The classic advice with gesture is to not get hung up on things like proportion or perspective, and instead to focus on rhythm, action, balance etc. That's good advice. But the catch-22 is that a gesture needs to serve a purpose. It's a tool for capturing the idea of a pose or action before laying down form and an anatomy, and is usually done to help create an illusion of life by avoiding stiffness. For that reason, if you don't already have proportion understood so well that it's internalized then how can you possibly draw a gesture with adequate proportions without thinking and getting hung up on it? The result is that you end up with a useless gesture drawing that can't possibly help your finished drawing, because you have to fix the proportions, thereby erasing your gesture drawing and drawing something stiff in it's place anyway... and now you're doing precisely what you've been told not to.
It's akin to trying to teach a guitar student how to play a solo before teaching them scales! "Play how you feel, but don't worry about things like key signature and timing."
I wasted a lot of time on gesture before I understood this, because most courses and books teach it first and say things like "gesture is the most important thing!" It was counter-productive because I was actually practicing bad proportion, bad form, bad habits. So when I came back to gesture armed with a knowledge of proportion and form, I had to completely forget and unlearn what I had done before and start all over again.
When you're drawing a finished piece, gesture absolutely should be put down on the paper first. It is very important. But I think it should be learned LAST. Work backwards. Study proper proportions first. Learn a bit of simplified anatomy. Learn how to put a "mannequin" in perspective. Yes your drawings will be stiff but that's OK because you're learning some very specific and very important things, and these are practice sketches not paid-for commissions. Once you can draw a mannequin from memory with proper proportions and do it without thinking about it, THEN you can move on to gesture drawing and you will be able to "not think about proportion." Now you've learned proportion so well that you don't need to think about it anymore. Now you will be able to draw gestures that will actually be of use.
I think its telling that Andrew Loomis began his figure drawing book by discussing proportion and perspective in Chapter 1, and anatomy in Chapter 2, form in Chapter 3 etc. Any concepts that had to do with gesture were not discussed until later chapters.
Damn thats much text. I very much appreciate all of it!
Yea I think you are right. I'm more of a 3D artist guy, polygons and stuff, but thats mainly to compensate my lack of 2D skills. which are maybe my lifetime nemesis.
I've done some anatomy study and basic proportions & perspective and I felt like that that helped a lot more. Also it was waaaay more fun because gesture drawings always felt, well, kinda exactly as you described it. I did about 50 or so and felt like I didn't improve a single bit, not even 1%, maybe got even worse. Of course 50 isn't a large number but it was just a horrible feeling all through. Didn't make me happy at all. Anatomy on the other side was actually fun, because I always had an interest in the physiology of the human body.
Anyway, overall drawing surely is a lifetime quest. I'm at a point where I doesn't practice anymore, I focus on 3D now. (Sculpting). Pretty sad, very sad actually, but many people out there won't ever be good.
I find gesture helps me get the proportioins better!
This is so inspiring! So glad I found these videos!
Thank you! I'm from southern Utah and we don't have figure drawing classes where I live, so this is very helpful. :)
after watching this like 8 times and practicing over and over again i can't help but feel that i don't physically understand how and what to do here. it doesn't feel explained well enough and getting advice like don't draw what you see draw what you feel doesn't help at all its confusing and frustrating and just makes the whole learning process stressful
it literally takes me 300s just to draw the stick figure
Thanks for the video. It is amazing to see how you make every line count
very good tuto on this subject, I saw maybe 10 vids and tutos on this subject and i think this one is the best , clear and simple to understand and with the time in it we can understand how to draw even if we have 30 seconds do draw a figure. Thanks for the tips !