Gesture Critique

Hello everyone

I am practicing gesture drawing for some time now and these are the ones I did recently.I want to know if my gesture drawings actually look gestural or am I focusing on contours more? Also I am confused about proportions?Are they important when it comes to gesture drawings because I often find myself giving attention to proportions when I am supposed to capture the gesture of the figure and it causes a mess (especially in 30sec drawings).Any kind of feedback is appreciated.Thank you

(eng is not my first language so sorry if it's confusing)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16-eMQ0ClsGG0atbplIDK812TnVWaRIpb

Wow! Your gesture drawings are fabulous! Mine are so bad .. but I am new to gesture drawing, so that's okay. I say keep doing what you are doing.

What it is about your gesture drawings that bother you? If you can define what it is that you think needs to change, then you can move into that direction, no?

Thank you for the advice and also good luck on your gesture practice :)

what's bothering me about my gesture drawings is I think maybe the line quality??I feel that sometimes the lines I make seem scratchy/messy that do not help in conveying the gesture ( since I am following the proko figure drawing course and proko's gesture drawings are so clean)So I feel lacking in that aspect

But maybe it will improve with time if I just keep practicing and I think that may help

Your line quality is phenomenal. Using thick lines to show where the most force is being applied really makes these studies feel alive

If there was one pointer id give, its that to use shading to show form. Like i saw in a previous comment, proko uses that shading, even in 30 second drawings, to show the most important part of the anatomy that would be visible or neccesary to see.

hope this helps, honestly im still stuck myself on breaking the habit of relying on the contour instead of the force lol.

Well, Sap.un, you're line quality is phenominal, absolutely phenominal! Phenominal when it comes to loose poses and attitudes.

So if I could give you some pointers, it could be for example is that the broad gestures don't seem too exaggerated enough to me yet.Why don't you kindly exaggerate your attitudes with 11x29 second poses?

As a result, of two reasons:

1) To use your caricatures and exaggerations to your really full ability.

2) To make your loose lines of action and rhythm less stilted, but the most dynamic, felt, but energetic.

For most details, look into Volume 2 of the Walt Stanchfield book here, along with a copy of the Daniel Coyle book on Talent rrrright here.

Good luck to you, but let's hope they've all helped you out even better.

• Polyvios Animations edited this post on September 23, 2023 3:44am. Reason: Fix link

Well I have never tried shading in my gesture drawings for defining forms since I am totally noob at light and shadow stuff and 30 sec is too less of time for me,I might try that for 1-3min gesture.That will be an interesting approach too.Thankyou Oncehopp!

Ah! Now that you have said it I am realising how much I ignore exaggeration when doing gesture.I rather stick to drawing what I see as it is and tend to make my gesture drawing accurate to the real pose.And that's maybe why sometimes my drawings are stiff when the real pose itself is not dynamic.

Thank you so much for your feed back , I will definitely go through the resources you have provided.

I think it was really good given the time frame but just thought that the legs were too long to be in proportion. Good Job though!

I have heard conflicting advice about "messy lines." One school of thought dictates that messy lines indicates someone who has to ability to draw. Another school of thought says that art looks far more artistic if there are some messy lines! I like using messy lines here and there. But gesture drawing is just a base point, no? In which case, I don't worry about my lines being a mess right now. I'm not trying to create art with this practice. i am trying to loosen up my lines, learn more about all bodies and faces, and get proportions nailed better.

Hi Neer. First of all, I think your english is perfect. :)

Secondly, your drawings are really good. Paying attention to the proportions of the figure is very important, and you've done a really good job in these drawings. I don't think they look messy at all and all of them convey the movement of the figure very well. If I can give you one piece of advice, it would be to EXAGGERATE. Usually when we copy the exact movement we see in a pose, a lot of the energy is not conveyed. So when we exaggerate the movement by darkening certain lines or drawing certain limbs bigger, we make it clear to the viewer what is happening in the pose, as well as creating a far more interesting drawing.

I hope this helps, keep doing what you're doing and you'll get far!

Bonjour !
Si tu penses que tes dessins de gestuels sont mauvais alisse moi te dire que c'est faux ! Tes dessins sont hyper dynamiques !

Toutefois, je pense que tu derais essayer d'ajouter un peu plus d'anatomie dans ta pratique, pour essayer de capter plus de volume à tes corps !
Je dois dire que tu es sur la bonne voie, mais continue à diversifier ta pratique avec d'autres thématiques de dessins !
Et n'oublie pas le plus important, regarde attentivement le modèle et un peu la feuille en dessinant et tu verras que le reste (tes progrès) arriveront vite !

Bonne journée ,

Blandine