Forum posts by heliganreigns

Certainly!

I really like how flowy and free your lines are. You demonstrate well that you understand the objective of letting loose and draw what you feel rather than what you see.

However, I think you can easily benefit from going back to the core principles of gesture drawing. In a case where you dont know how to capture the gesture, resort back to the line of action and three main masses (head, torso, pelvis). When in doubt, consider where the center is and trail a line down as if you can feel the masses.

I've provided a visual demonstration below. Hopefully this helps!

https://imgur.com/a/PEGNrmr

Bounded back to doing gestures with traditional media. Including pencil, charcoal, and fineliner. These range from a minute and two minutes.

https://imgur.com/a/XROIDf5

Thank you for the lovely feedback on my last post. Promptly working on my proportions.

Not too thrilled by the way these came out, hence im asking for some second thoughts.

https://imgur.com/a/wR7CRKr

All took one minute each. Feedback is appreciated.

Happy new years!

• heliganreigns edited this post on January 9, 2024 2:53pm. Reason: clarification

Hey all. It's been a minute.

I've been meaning to get back into gesture drawing. I've been at it for a while now but I hit yet another roadblock. I'm pretty satisfied with my gestures up until 2 minutes.

While I do feel the poses, an intution is telling me that incremental pieces are missing. Just can't put my finger into what.

https://imgur.com/a/1qv7i5x

Any word of advice is very welcome. Appreciate you all as always

Hey everybody.

When I started off my art journey, I made the mistake of getting straight into anatomy. While I had plenty of good intentions and genuine curiosity, I failed to see art holistically and zoomed my focus soley into anatomy. In essence, I payed no mind to the overarching idea of the art fundamentals and tunnel visioned myself for quite some time.

As most of us know, art tackles a plethora of topics ranging, but not limited to construction, anatomy, color theory, composition, storytelling, gesture ect.

Things work best when a plan or outline is set in stone before initiating a project. If you had to projectize art and sequentially start from the ground up from what we already know, how would you (personally) arrange each fundamental from most to least crucial?

This is not to say that one element of teaching is greater than the other, but when we open the canals to the art world, it's easy to get overwhelmed with every ferry that vies for our attention.

Feel free to share your story. I'd also encourage to share any mindset shifts, ideas, and hard lessons you learned along the way. I want this to be a citation geared for beginners and advanced artists alike so that they can continue to find meaning in their projects.

Best regards.

• heliganreigns edited this post on January 30, 2023 12:04pm.
• heliganreigns edited this post on January 30, 2023 12:11pm.
• heliganreigns edited this post on January 30, 2023 12:14pm.

Thank you Naima! Very kind words!

I hope I interpreted what you asked about correctly, but I split between two cynindrical shapes (one representing the femur and the other as the tibia/fibula) bridged together by a boxy shape (patella).

Looking back at my drawing about a week later, I noticed that the knee wasn't aligned with the femur. The patella should be accounted with the total length of the upper leg as the pivot point is just below. So in terms of gesture, it should sequentially flow in accordance with the shape before it.

Your question gave more clarity to my process and for that I also thank you! Glad to have curious people such as yourself around!

Hey Siv,

Beginner or not, your input matters a ton to me. I would consider myself a beginner also, and funny enough a lot of what you mentioned was put into practice as I was drawing too! But I absolutely agree with you. No matter the level of art we produce, it certainly helps to stop and reconsider masses at its simplest form. I'll give it a go.

Thanks again- good luck on your own endeavors!

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I last posted here and I want to make it a habit to clock in my progress monthly.

Recently I transitioned from digital to traditional (charcoal). I've been warming up to traditional and have been having an absolute blast with it. Gotta admit, the organic friction between paper and pencil is irreplaceable.

One set of poses is a draw-along from Proko's mannequinization series, and the other two are a set of ten minutes poses done on my own.

All critiques ranging from markmaking to anatomy are very very welcome. Thank you all again. Happy drawing! Here's to a new year.

https://imgur.com/a/pFgafl5

• heliganreigns edited this post on January 16, 2023 7:20pm.
• heliganreigns edited this post on January 16, 2023 7:29pm.

Hey Amine! Glad you found it necessary to post up your work for critique. You're being proactive, and inching your way closer to gesture mastery!

Your figures are great! They're fluid, clean, and easy to digest. However I would like to point out the arms in some of the sketches. The arms in many cases deviate too far from the overall gesture and makes some of your figures read as dolls as opposed to animated human beings.

Luckily from what you displayed it's a rather easy fix! Integrate what you know between the torso/pelvis relation and imagine as if the arms are bendy, cylindrical tubes (like pool noodles!) protruding from the torso. Focusing on the anatomy first without any attention of the flow will result in rigid, inelastic poses. Fluid Forms will make up 80% of the dynamism in your poses, and the remainder are the muscles plastered on top of them!

I hope this helps. Good luck on your gesture venture! Hope to see you around the block again!

• heliganreigns edited this post on December 30, 2022 6:26pm.
• heliganreigns edited this post on December 30, 2022 6:31pm.

Welcome to Line of Action! I hope you enjoy your stay here and a learn a lot along the way. You will find that gesture drawing is a simple, yet complex concept to grasp.

I'm with you on the overcomplicating bit. The main principle behind gesture drawing and capturing realism in general is to design what resembles reality, and not capture reality by default. I can't tell you enough about how I spent countless hours studying anatomy and wondering why my figures still didn't feel locomotive- and ironically anatomically rich.

The human body is an interlocking network of muscles, and can be molded into one harmonious idol of anotomical goodness. It's not necessary to capture every hair and vein to communicate that drawn figures are animated, vital beings.

It's important as an artist in general to start thinking like a designer. You could easily be a more pragmatic thinker, which can stifle your creative hand and thus your imagination overall. See if you can create the bridge between logic and creativity!

Although I did veer a little off topic from your initial sketches, a little word of mouth goes a long way. I hope this helps. Good luck on your gestural journey! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

• heliganreigns edited this post on December 22, 2022 4:13pm.

Hey everyone. I posted on here about 2 months ago and I got word on how to improve my lineart. Thank you to all to helped me scuff through the rough bits in my artwork.

I could use more pointers on how to utilize my lines however. And of course everything else in between to improve my art overall. Thank you all again for your feedback. It's very appreciated.

https://imgur.com/a/0C7zLRD

• heliganreigns edited this post on October 11, 2022 12:36pm.
• heliganreigns edited this post on October 11, 2022 12:37pm.
• heliganreigns edited this post on October 11, 2022 12:37pm.

Hey all. I posted here about a month ago and I got great responses as to where I can improve upon (thank you to those who not only critiqued my work but also gave pointers to others within the community).

I took in what I could and aimed to work on the fundementals stressed on my last post (line weight/quality, hands and feet). I like what I've garnered in the past month, but regardless I still need to know if I'm heading the right direction.

https://imgur.com/a/RY9VB4S

And as always, here's what my older work looked like from a year ago. Only through "failure" do you evolve as an artist. Thanks again everyone.

https://imgur.com/a/CS9hLLs

Hey everyone. I was active on this form about a year from now. I've been gesture drawing for nearly a year, and I've definitely seen some substantial growth. However I've stagnanted as of recent and I could use some more eyes that aren't my own. I'm mainly struggling on defining line weight and where to apply it. I'm also currently in the process of adding feet and hands. Any critiques pertaining to both are always welcome.

https://imgur.com/a/HzcjeHZ

Also for anyone interested, here was my gesture drawings dating from a year ago. Thanks again everyone. Keep drawing.

https://imgur.com/a/62q79wz

• heliganreigns edited this post on July 19, 2022 11:58am.

Posted about roughly 2-3 weeks ago for some gesture advice. Thank you to all who were involved in the thread.

I took all of your advice to strengthen my forms. I like the way they're coming along, but some more feedback would be appreciated so I know I'm heading in the right direction. All range from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

https://imgur.com/a/efUklfU

Again, thank you to all who gave pointers in my last post. Helped a ton!

Hey Polyvios,

I see that you're a very active patron on this site. Thank you for helping myself and others improve their artwork. I'll be sure to focus on the fluidity of the LOA and make a triumphant return.

TIA for the resources. Good luck on your own endeavors!