Looking for gesture drawing critique

This is my first gesture drawing session in a couple of months, and I'm just looking for some pointers on what direction I should be taking things. These are all 1 minute drawings; some of the images overlap each other and I apoligise for that. Right now I'm not working on anything in particular, just trying to capture the motion as quickly as possible. Any advice?

Link to drawings in google docs

Hello Katie.

I think you're doing good in capturing the feeling of the poses. THe next step I think would be to do some longer drawings, of 5-10 minutes, so you'll be able to make your figures more solid.

Best Regards, Breno

Thank you. I've gotten this same advice from a couple other people, so I know what I'm doing next. Do you have any advice on what to look for in a longer drawing? I always get into trouble not knowing what details are important.

Some good exercises for 5-10 min poses are the mannequinization of the figure. In these studies you draw the figure as a simplification made of simple forms: cylinders for arms and legs, boxes for torso and hips, an ovoid for head, etc.

The goal of this kind of study is to get a grasp of the solidity of the figure, both on the paper and in your mind, so you can make your drawings to look more 3D.

If you want a more complete explanation about this (and examples), look for the mannequinization lesson in a youtube channel called "Proko". There's a whole free course in figure drawing there, by the way.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards, Breno

• Breno edited this post on January 10, 2021 7:42pm.

That link is an amiable job, KatieOfConrad.

I think you're doing a great job on your 1 minute poses, because of how dynamic, energetic, and vital they look and feel.

Still, I've got one tiny improvement: I love the fluidity of those lines with feeling, but I'm not getting enough feeling and cartooniness from those lines. Why don't you please be more confident with those edges, in 4 minutes of 59 second warm-up poses?

The reason why you'd do these is because, those lines will become smoother and bolder, just a teeny-weeny bit, even if they loose form and detail. As a result, this could be most vital into boiling things down to their basic foundation.

Good luck to you, and I hope you'll find this completely and totally approved by all of us.