gesture drawing

by Solarbabie, March 28th 2020 © 2020 Solarbabie

out of all the gesture drawing I did today (hours) I still dont feel satisfied with what I produced. I am having a hard time feeling free flowing with the curves in gesture drawing, its suppose to be so simple yet I don't feel like I am relaxed enough with it. Please critique

Pandalance

A couple of these, especially the bottom left pose, have some really nice energy to them!

A couple tips for you though:

- Try drawing in shapes for the enitire body rather than lines. I can see you've used shapes in some palces, which is a great start, but using them for as much of the body as possible should help you understand how the pieces of the body connect and move in 3D space, which should make it easier to keep your proportions more even and draw from imagination.

- Practice using as few lines as possible. This is ny biggest piece of advice. I know it's easier and tempting to go over and over lines so that they are just right, but the way i see it, the more lines you use where one would suffice, the less you remember later on. When I started conxciously thinking about how many lines I was using, my art instantly felt more confident and energetic, and I feel I'm learning a lot faster. Practicing like this makes mistakes harder to hide, as well. This sounds scary, but it helps you notice your own weak points and correct them. If you really hate something, remember you have an eraser at your disposal, but ideally, do your figure drawing, pick out what's good and bad, and move swiftly on. This isn't a portfolio, it's just for practice, and you can choose who sees it or if nobody else ever sees it at all. Bad drawings are progress. Also, consider that it's much easier to capture the flow of a pose with twelve lines than a hundred. Less is more.

-Don't be afraid to let your line of action escape the body. Half of the time, my lines of action are wrong, or go halfway down the page when i'm only drawing a tiny pose, but it's often better that way. Why? because I've expressed my initial idea of what this pose is, and now I can build on it. Think of it less like a spine, and more like a movement. Which way does the pose feel like it's going? And how can you show it in one line?

-Use your arm and shoulder, not your wrist. This is common advice, but that's because it's good. try to keep your wrist fairly still when you draw. I only move my wrist, generally, when drawing super tiny details, like eyelashes on a small drawing. This takes some getting used to, but it really is worthwhile to gain extra control and power in your lines.

Whew, that was a lot! I hope you don't mind, I'm just passionate about helping others learn. Feel free to take these tips one at a time, as it'll likely overwhelm you to make so many changes at once. After you're comfortable with one, start working on the next, while keeping your previous practice in mind.

Hope this helps!!

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