Todays 30 min class

Hey, I am doing Gesture drawings for about 2 weeks now and am wondering if I am going into the wrong direction.
Please find todays attempt here: https://imgur.com/a/wETg8Zs

I feel like I am struggling a lot with the proportions, especially when it comes to foreshortening.
If I don't start with the skeleton, my proportions are off even more, but I lose a lot of time on that.
When I am done with a Pose, I usually notice things like "Wait these two body parts should be much closer"
But these are just my thoughts, I may be doing other things wrong, which I don't even notice, so please give it a more genral thought.

• Qbicc edited this post on April 18, 2021 6:03am.
• Qbicc edited this post on April 18, 2021 6:05am.
• Qbicc edited this post on April 18, 2021 7:05pm.

Hi

your doing great with the boxes you are creating. From what i can see you are struggeling with the skin.. my tip is to learn just a little more anathomy so you have a batter understanding of what the shin is sitting on. I can tell from your subsciption hat you enjoy he skull meathod and thefore think it would work well. I thow its though but the more you draw skulls the easier it gets to imagine them... You mention a problem with identefying mistakes, i think we all can relate to that. What i personally do is take a mirror and look at my drawing in it, both for disance and a mirrored drawing, this gives it a new angle.

small tipp also study the bodeyparts close up, it will make them eaier to simplify :)

Thank you Majavhv,
I see so many different approaches, like looking where the forces go through the body, looking for rhythm and making the arms and legs really curvy and exaggerating the pose. And there is this really scribbly way of gesture drawing too.
But I feel those things make getting the right proportions super difficult, while starting with the skeleton and working my way up makes it easier.
I was worried that my poses get to stiff that way, but if it is a good approach, I will keep at it and hone it until I can pull it off properly =)
I started with anatomy, but I still have a way to go there.

• Qbicc edited this post on April 19, 2021 4:41am.

Hello Qbicc, to be fair what you're doing isn't really gesture drawing, you're drawing advanced stickmans in the 1 min or less poses, gesture is subjective, but there are a few guidelines to what a gesture should and should not be, it's a rather long topic, so I'll link you a good source on this subject :

&list=PLtG4P3lq8RHGuMuprDarMz_Y9Fbw_d2ws

Also an another major factor is that in the 5 min poses you're paying too much attention to the outline of the figure, all the little bumps and details that are not meant to be drawn in a gesture, this is also explained in the gesture video I linked above.

However don't worry, gesture is hard and figure drawing is a complex area, you should be patient and just practice a lot and study a lot too!

If you feel like you didn't get a certain thing, like what gesture is after a day or two, just search for it on the net, there will be a ton of free information!

When drawing gesture your main focus shouldn't be proportions, but as you said before, flow, energy, force all those things make a good pose, proportions come later.

Hello! These are pretty good gesture drawings for only two weeks of work! When it comes to improving art skills, the main thing is practice, and a lot of it.

One thing you can do is study some proportions a bit. While gesture drawing is basically throws them out the window, it can be prretty useful to have a general sense of where things are, or how long other parts are supposed to be. The head seems a bit small in some of the drawings. Some quick proportion tips can easily be found online. There are some pretty cool things about our proportions that can really help when drawing. For example, people are (usually) about 7 and a half heads tall. Generally, about two head up from the bottom of the feet, you have the knees, another two up from that is around the top of the pelvis. Half a head up from there is the naval. Another head up from there is the nipples. And there is about a head length between the nipples and the bottom of the head. If arms are resting at the sides, the elbows are very close in height to the naval. Also the shoulders (for a male figure at least, I don't know for female) are usually about two head lengths apart. I think that the foot is also about a head length long from heal to toe. (Theres probably other things I'm forgetting, though)

Don't get too caught up in this for gesture drawing, perhaps do some drawing studies separatly where you focus on anatomy. The two sort of go hand in hand. You need a bit of anatomy for the gesture drawings to keep them looking human, but more complete drawings without gesture can become really stiff.

If you want things to be more fluid, one thing I like to do is use a bit more flowy curved lines for the arms and legs (kind of like how you are doing the spine). It can really give the limbs a bit more fluidity if thats what you're looking for (this could perhaps be the next step once you get more comfotable with the anamomy, and you can switch from the more skeletal limbs to this method)

Hi Qbicc,

In all honesty I think your 30 seconds and 1min drawings are not helping you to learn. You're not taking as much as you could from the reference. Of course if you draw without the skeleton and more with the strong lines of the pose and the forms of the bodyparts, your proportions will be off at first. But it's normal to have bad proportions when you're starting gesture drawing ! As said Marykathryn, the main ingredient is practice. And the second main ingredient for me is understanding : where the pelvis or ribs sit, where are the joints...That's what you started doing with the boxes, which is good :) Please dont be afraid of drawing strong lines with the 30 sec and 1 min, to have your eyes going back and forth a lot between the ref and your drawing (you should not look your drawing for too long without looking at the ref, because if you do that you're using your brain to complete the drawing, and not your eyes and the reference. I don't know if thats very clear)

I also suggest using paper and a tool that allows more variation of your line. And also don't hesitate to make your drawings relatively big (i mean, just dont do tiny tiny drawings).

Well, Qbicc, I have to say something about your current work myself. I feel that your proportions are a bit on the stiff side, and think they are getting on the right track. Why don't you please draw out your proportions with loose, light, long, large, and lively lines of action and rhythm, through 147 more minutes of 30 second sketch warm-ups, for 6 days, all flipped vertically, on your drawing tools? (If you can have access) (147 x 60/30/6, 8820/30/6, 294/6=49 a day)

The reason why you could do this suggestion, is because of two things: First of all, to help you out on your observations, and second to aid you on getting your kissing the surface technique, with your charcoal and newsprint, or related things.

If you would be able to incorporate these into your current goal, then I'd allowed and encouraged you to go with these. Good luck, and I hope you've found these practical, encouraging, and concrete.