Forum posts by Icon123

I think you are well on the way.

My suggestion is general. In gesture don't be afraid to cut through the figure.

Your images are mostly outline, but what makes hands hard is all the inner workings. I think "scrible more" may help you. The "inside guts" of the hands are what make the outside look right.

So i would try to draw the curve of the palm/ etc. more. Anatomy is often fibbed; if you draw inside out/ action to meat following the action it gives the most benefit.

I think you have drawing the contours down pretty pat.

There's no mass/ form indications in the drawings though. It would be very hard to improve how you are reading the contours with more time; maybe try to include the basic masses/ forms in the longer gestures.

I would say my feeling is there's just generally "coloring book syndrome" where tones can be added, yet without them effecting/ informing the contour. Its always a struggle for me not to draw a figure and then "shade it in" off the outline only.

Maybe try the side of a piece of charcoal versus the tip across the figure so form is "built in" more

You and I have opposite types of brains.

That's whats so fun about art!

You are very sensative to internal construction of the model. You have the Leonardo Da Vinci kinda brain! Not too shabby!

All i would suggest is in practicing, to try and play around with the opposite pole. Drawing the entire shape of the form all at once/ trying to sum up the pose in as few strokes as possible.

SO maybe find 1 or 2 big curves or lines or shapes that sum up the whole pose, and then build the model around that

You have a good innate sense of proportion, and when the pose is more extreme you drift into gesture naturally. SO you are already sensing what I am going to be suggesting.

You are getting the point of the excercise on your own well enough.

But you WANT a critique, so:

From what I see, you are drawing "quick contour" studies. Now... Those have a place for sure! (One fun thing is limit one side to curves another straight lines and block the model, etc)

Gesture is, to me, more the "action" of the pose than the actual outlines or form of a pose (per Nicholades which invented the thing, he may be some good but very obtuse reading on http://www.ingetang.com/ He talks of "feelings" too much)

The best way to put it is you are working inside-out very well; draw and outline and fill it is the normal way we draw.

But, there is also a 2nd half of working outside-in that might help you.

As I see it:

With a gesture you want to draw the movement more than the "form" it's why it exagerates, etc. If you ever played street fighter the gesture includes the "HA-DOO-KET" part of the punch. There's the punch... but also the flow of action upward.

If that metephore falls flat or is to dated/nerdy:

when you jump from just one foot, with outside lines, anatomy, poses etc. we can from the outside see the muscles in the legs move. Drawing that well is indeed a skill!

Yet, the skeleton, etc. is also flexing/ twisting/ moving. If we look at just a leg we can't see it, but as a whole "figure" we see the bending inside the body. That's what Gesture is really trying to get at. The whole figure shifting and moving at once. If we draw everything as pieces we miss the "boom" of the whole.

So my critique:

Your poses don't have/ risk any lines running through the entire figure (call it a line of action, etc. thats a "technique" but not the only way).

In image 0620 the female doing splits on the right shows what i see generally: You stop the line on the breast, then carve it on afterwards. I would carve the entire form, then augment with the breast. In most the figures there is a sense of assembling as you draw not clarifying.

There is a sense you are carefully, (and skillfully, I'm writing a lot to a stranger here), carving out the space around the figure, but not actually "building up" the figure itself.

Its like you are drawing what isn't instead of what is, if that makes sense. It's kinda "painter" advice, they push edges out.

SO i say try to draw the whole figure, then the parts. And draw the form, not the space the form occupies.

Some exercises I would suggest as an old man to help:

1. Use Nicholades own gesture method (it's nasty nasty scribbles, it looks bad!) but it cuts "through" the form. Google it; it's basically just don't lift the pencil and scrible back and forth to draw the form. Yes it looks dumb, but it for a few days it will get the point across.

2. Try drawing on grey/brown with white and black or white with a light and dark color pencil with a sense of "quick coloring" (white 1-minute and black 1- minute or so).

3. Find one big line a curve or whatever (a line of action) that sums up the pose, then draw all the other lines off it as straight lines or curves. Looks cubist but it helps

4. Ignore lines totally and with pen scribles in circles/ side of a crayon try to draw a figure (picasso liked to do that)

5. Take a photo/ drawing and some tracing paper and draw the skeleton in over it. You'll have to make it bend and flex.

Take away from what I'm saying:

These are practice, who cares how practice looks. But yours beat some of mine!

I think you are carefully drawing outlines. And good at it. That will improve your skill as is.

But there are other aspects of art that you could add ontop of those if you in "practice mode" play around more.

Gestures aren't really things you critique... but advice?

I would say you might want to loosen up and try to "cut through" the figure a bit more.

I use that style at times too; there's many ways to skin a cat.

Your gestures seem to be so far "set" by the contour lines. That can make it difficult to use the gesture to put the figure in space/ capture mass.

Maybe try the scribble gestures a bit.

• Icon123 edited this post on April 22, 2020 1:46am. Reason: Pic won't share

Within the framework of Nicholadie's gesture:

I would say you are "riding the contours." That's not bad!

That's just doing more of a modern Line-of-Action kinda draft than his take.

The reason the natural way to draw isnt popular is IT'S SUPPOSE TO LOOK LIKE TRASH

Nicho want's you to draw the "energy" with a focus on where the body is springing/ pulling/ moving

-> Key thing being it goes through and around the body.

The benifit is that your gestures by being so scribly start finding Rythmn lines ets. To do what Nicho wants you have to scrible all over around and through, let the kind of scrible match the energy, etc. He calls for literally hundreds of 1 minute super scratchy scribbles and WANTS THEM to look embarasing.

It should look like a tangled mess. If you are getting good ones, start trying to mess it up to scribles again!

https://line-of-action.com/eb9023b2-dcb2-40b7-95e1-1fc9f7169c89">

The ones in the book have the problem that the students "pick" what looks good, etc. The best one is the one above.

Where it can be confusing is it "reads" like line of action

https://line-of-action.com/3ce80c3b-a80e-4bc6-b722-138f14c87d3c">

But those extra marks aren't exactly a "unifying line" they are searching lines. Like note the "swirls"

Your doing fine for gesture, but if you want to do Nicho's gesture the advice is normally "faster, looser, etc" Who cares how it "looks" explore the pose.It really comes through on the dailey compositions, etc. but most people can't keep the schedual/ just browse the book.