Day 5, Feeling better, more hopeful.

Gorgeous use of gesture drawing, indeed, Starcursedmass. Way to go on your use of speed, humor and stylization of the gestures.

Well, if I was to give you some truly constructive critiques, it could just mean one thing: I really, really love how much range of motion and emotion and expression of the poses, but I'm not getting enough of that totally animated look, humor and feel in these stick sketches. Will you kindly free up your shoulders with 30 minutes of 60 second (1 minute) quick poses? And while you're at it, please check out this link on gesture drawing influences and inspirations.

The reason why you would, could and should do this critique and this link is because, it could and should be able to inspire you in your progress and learning curve; although there's tons of inspirations available for you and me in and out of the Internet. Second of all, if your current goal is to make your drawings, designs and styles the least stiffest and the most fluidest of all, then go right ahead!

Happy drawing.

Starcursedmass,

If you like to have searching lines on the page before you start to commit to an image, I suggest that you use a lighter shade/pencil (I think you are drawing on a tablet?) then swap to a darker shade/pencil.

This way, you can commit to your image with more confidence and less confusion. But please note that this works better for poses longer than 30 seconds.

I think what you are missing out on or confused by is the order of importance.

*The line of action is the most important, followed by the general shapes that make up the figure.

*After that is accurate anatomy and believable proportions.

*From here, you can fill in more minor details, general shapes and emphasise the form.

*Shading and light come next.

*Followed by artistic expression and filling in the details.

*Lastly, fussing with the overall image of the form.

Essentially start with the most basic and build in your image as you go, for the time that that image is in front of your face.

Most young artists struggle not to get hyper-focused on one area and their drawing suffers for not looking after the overall image building in its structures as they go along. Details are like candy. We first need to place in the ruffage first or the candy will ugly.

If you are still having trouble, I would be happy to help.

michellercusack@gmail.com

All the best in your studies,

JCML Fine Art

Hello Starcursedmass!

Firstly, let me say your gestures look beautiful. They've definite form and deliberate markmaking. For a beginner, this is exactly what you want to see in your drawings. Your figures are stiff, but they do have accurate proportions from what I can tell. As you progress, I'd suggest emphasizing more focus on the silhouette of the figure on top of breaking the figure into simpler shapes. This should help your drawings become more fluid and less stiff. To practice, I usually set a timer for 3 minutes and use quick scibbling to block out the silhouette of the figure on top of a line of action. Then, I define the specific details by creating more bold lines overtop the "blocking scribbles". Try this a couple times and see if helps.