Who is the best teacher for gesture and figure drawing?

I'm a newbie to figure drawing. I'm pulling my hair out trying to understand vilppu. I want to go with Loomis but feel I'm selling myself short. Should I instead go with Hampton? Or is there really no one master to rule them all?

Hey, I had the most breakthroughs on this subject with Brent Eviston. His lessons are short and concise and there is lots of practice. You can find his course on Udemy. It's way more affordable than most courses and you actually learn a lot.

There is no one master. I agree that Eviston's courses through Udemy are good. From my experience, Sheldon Borenstein is the best. He makes Vilppu more accessible. And most importantly, he teaches you the fundamentals that will allow you to draw anything. You can see some of his videos on YouTube, but the best are the package deals he offers through the website for his school, which is Sheldon's Art Academy. He's also got a couple of courses available through New Masters Academy. Also available through New Masters Academy are some courses by Steve Huston and Karl Gnass. Those guys rock the house as well. As a newbie, I'd go with Sheldon, and then perhaps revisit Vilppu. I guaruntee he'll make more sense. But Huston and Gnass will really help as well. Hampton's book on anatomy is how I learned, and it is great. But I'd also recommend a course by Ray Bustos that is also available through New Masters Academy. If you've got the money, there are some pretty reasonably priced courses by Will Weston available through Drawing America. His live (via Zoom) courses are pretty pricey, but you can get some video courses that give you the lessons, but don't give you critiques that are reasonably priced. Anyway, those are my suggestions. I hope they help.

although I agree with everything said above. If and when you fee a bottle I would suggest you switch medium. and if you do feel burnout try sculpting, it is very therapeutic, cheap, and also helps with spatial awareness. Tb Choi also recommends it.

Dynamic Figure drawing by Burne Hogarth. George B. Bridgman is another good choice. I have used Hampton and its a very good book. FORCE by Michael D. Mattesi definitley is a must when it comes to Gesture drawing and to convincingly portray action and exaggeration. Any book will do as long as you stick with it and gain something from it. You could swtich from one to book to another. Good luck. Stay frosty.

You know, everybody, if I'm pressed to pick one, not one, but two, I'd say Glenn Vilppu and Walt Stanchfield/Don Hahn. The reason why is because of their totally unique approaches to gesture drawing and how very applicable their methods can be for animation and cartooning.

Here are the links:

Vilppu Drawing Manual

Drawn to Life 1

and Drawn to Life 2

These links can be clicked to these titles. Hope these have all been positively nicer and helpful

The best drawing-teacher is the artist who is doing the paintings you love the most. Maybe you were hoping to get a more specific answer on whether Loomis is better than Hampton or Stan Proko or Tim Gula or whoever. They are all phenomenal artists and teachers but one might fit your learning style better than the other.

I feel that Loomis is a good start, and Proko. The habit of practicing short gesture drawing as often as you can is essential. Then go and take in as much as possible from them all and from every other artist you like. Figure out what the artist is doing and why you like it, or why you don't like some other artists work. If you can pinpoint that then you will have a much easier time trying to figure out in which direction you can go to do art the way you like it.

Good luck.

• Thestripper edited this post on February 8, 2023 1:44am.