Well, here we are in this strange situation, Covid-19. I have basically turned off the news and have resorted to watching Tiger something on Netflix.
I have been super busy with this whole live class thing. Primarily teaching my college classes on Zoom. I have also been teaching live classes to members of DTO every Saturday.
Come mid to late April I will be teaching live classes to non-members of Drawing Tutorials Online. I’ve been working out the kinks in recording on Zoom. The quality is not great.
In the meantime I wanted to share with you this gesture drawing. I think you will most certainly get something out of watching this short figure drawing tutorial.
Please let me know if you have any questions about my technique.
Thank you so much for taking time to stop by and visit. Stay safe.
I just recently added a new figure drawing to the members area of Drawing Tutorials Online. This course is title Figure Drawing Class Exercises.
There are so many more diverse ways of teaching in the classroom versus online. The options for creativity in the classroom is endless. You can incorporate the student in activities you just cannot do online.
The purpose of this course is not to complete the perfect drawing, quite the contrary. The purpose of this course is to share with you many of the short style twenty minute exercises completed in class.
The drawing in the video below is the type of drawing I have my students do often in the classroom. A simple top to bottom line/gesture drawing of the model using minimal shape.
The goal of this exercise to gain confidence by constantly drawing the figure from head to toe in ten minutes. Starting again, starting another one, and then another one. Kind of like doing drills.
Thank you so much for taking the time to watch this video. Make sure you get to a life drawing class and draw some quick ones. Don’t be perfect, just have fun.
This video will teach you how to see the gesture of just about any pose. It’s important to be able to see through complicated fabric folds. Fabric certainly will mask your ability to see the clean gesture lines within a figure.
You want to see gesture from the top of the figure to the bottom. Seeing what I like to call “Long Gesture” is crucial to drawing figures that have grace and flow.
Without gesture what you have is a stiff figure drawing. One technique that can really help you is the “Opposite C” technique. The “Opposite C” technique provides you with a physical way to draw the natural flow of the human body.
If you need help with your figure drawings consider a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online. Through our weekly video critiques we can help you to see the gesture in just about any pose that you try to draw.
Thanks so much much for visiting our blog. Enjoy the video below.
The question gets posed to me all the time, how do I handle drawing one minute gesture poses?
Well, there really is no one right way to draw the model within a one minute time frame. You really do not want to put all of this pressure on yourself to draw the perfect drawing within sixty seconds.
Every artist has a complete different approach. An animator might want to get the emotion of the pose, not concentrating on the likeness. For someone like myself, I use the one minute pose to warm up. The pose as well as my state dictates how I will draw and with what technique.
If I’m feeling a little rusty I might use a certain technique that I find easy that morning. If I’m feeling good then I won’t use any technique. I’ll just draw what I see. Using more of a natural organic line for a likeness.
Here are a few techniques you can employ in a classroom setting.
Focus one the contour. Totally slow down. Focus on drawing just one edge of the models body. Look way more at the model than you do at your paper. Keep your pencil on the paper for as long as you can. You can also try at least one or two drawings using the blind contour technique. It will force you to look at the model more. Remember there is no rush, slow down.
Draw the skeleton. Drawing the rough skeleton during a few one minute gesture poses is a great way to warm up. It’s about finding the tilts of the shoulders and hips. It’s also about drawing the many ovals within the rough skeleton.
Yes, my favorite, the torso peanut shape. Try starting with the torso peanut shape. Then progress to using the opposite c’s for short gesture. If you have time you can also draw in some mummification lines to promote volume.
Lastly just draw what you see with no technique. Use a slow continuous line to draw in your own personal style.
There are ultimately a gazillion ways to draw the model within a one minute time frame. Try these four simple techniques first to keep things simple and easy for yourself.
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Most artists don’t really think about gesture when it comes to portrait drawing. Recently during a video critique session I noticed a recurring theme. It was the missing ingredient in three separate images. The portrait drawings were are pretty cool. They were all just missing that loose gestural quality.
It’s so very easy to get caught up in all of the typical portrait drawing techniques. Drawing techniques like angles, value matching shading etc etc. I know I do all the time. Gesture is equally important. It places the head on the shoulders in a natural way. It helps you to focus on the tilt of the head and shoulders. Sometimes this can be very subtle.
Just being conscious of incorporating or at least just seeing gesture when you are about to start a portrait drawing is huge.
Let’s say you are starting to work on a portrait drawing. You have set aside a few hours on your Saturday to dive into rendering and shading. Take a moment at the beginning of the drawing to complete a quick portrait gesture sketch at the top corner of your piece of paper. This will help you to find the big gesture lines.
You certainly don’t have to spend a lot of time of this. Again this is all about trying to loosen up your portrait drawings. It’s about seeing the movement of the head and shoulders in tandem.
So the next time you start a portrait drawing, find the gesture of the head. This drawing technique could be a difference maker in the quality and feel of your next drawing.
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