Forum posts by Rongogh_Art

Hi Antebellum, Super gestures!

You are definitely moving along with your skill building. I see your emphasis on portraying movement on all of your gestures. So now it's time to put the two skills that you have developed (portraying the representation of form in your previous set of gestures, and portraying movement as you have shown in this last set of gestures). It's time to tighten up the gestures so that you can more easily create form. Think of the gestures as a skeleton of sorts.

For your next lesson, watch Glenn Vilpuu do a demo. But more importantly, listen to him! He will describe every step he takes in detail, but in simple easy to follow instruction. You will see and hear how he uses gesture to describe the movement and then contains the gesture with form. These are lessons to not only practice along with, but to absorb the concepts of. I watch these videos repeatedly, not only to reinforce what I've learned, but to also jusmpstart my creative flow. There is something about watching a master level artist at work that just gets the engine revving. I encourage you to explore youtube for as many of these types of content. Happy drawing!

Ron

https://youtu.be/aOtVUHgJqQk

• Rongogh_Art edited this post on July 7, 2020 6:41pm. Reason: Didn't post link
• Rongogh_Art edited this post on July 7, 2020 6:42pm. Reason: typos
• Rongogh_Art edited this post on July 7, 2020 6:42pm. Reason: typos

Dear Antebellum,

I see a good start towards learning about gestures from you. I agree with much of what Fadee7 and yoyoaero suggested. Although I don't think that your simplification/the AMOUNT of lines you are using are the problem. The issue is how you are using the lines. There is no way to know how many lines you will use in a drawing for any given time limit. You just draw until your message is clear. And you get as much information in at your own pace. Eventually, your skills to recognized and translate to paper what you want to express will improve and you naturally get faster. As in the proko video mentioned above, you want to find the movement, the flow of the figure. You are focussing a lot on contours and representation. For gestures, the focus needs to be on movement (while paying attention to proportions).

The one biggest suggestion I can tell you is, put down your stylus and your digital medium. pick up a pencil or charcoal and a large pad of paper, at least 11"x14" but preferably 18"x24", and start working with bigger gestures. This is the best way to train yourself to draw from your shoulders. Your wrist should not move and your elbow moves minimally. Everything remains loose. And your pad/paper should be angle towards you, or standing up, so that you don't distort your proportions. Just one warning, doing this can and will tire your shoulder at first. It will definitely be uncomfortable. Just take short breaks in between from time to time. Eventually that will go away if you do this often/daily. Those muscles will build. I wish you a fun and productive journey.

Best wishes,

Ron

Hello to you!

Great frigures! To answer your question, there is no rules for ammount of detail in any allotted time. you are simply puting in as much can or as little as you want in any given ammount of time. I love your bold and chunky style with the charcoal, for your full figure draings, but the tightness and delicacy that your rendered the hands in show that you have finness and can draw cleanly. I would love to see more of that in your figure drawings. for your next long pose like 50min, maybe you can render the figure the same way as your hands. using careful observation and those beautiful lines of yours. If you are running out of time, and the drawing isn't where you want it, don't worry about it. You are practicing your rendering skills and you will get faster. if you find that you want to have a more finished drawing, then for your next practice, don't give yourself a time limit. Just draw until you feel it is finished. But do time yourself. That will give you some idea of how fast you work. Have fun!!!!!

Ron

With pleasure Nev!

You should google the reilley method. This is a good system for generically correct proportions. It's a great system for the whole body, not only the head. Have Fun :D

You have the right idea. You are definitely showng the viewer what each figure is doing. So you have the concept of communication down when it comes to gesture drawings. The next step is a bit more anatomical and will take a lot of time and practice. Now you need to start applying some basic anatomy and adjusting your proportions while keeping the lines simple and loose, just like you have done on your drawings. There are tons of anatomy books out there, you just have to find the ones you like. Look up how do do gestures on youtube and you will find some really helpful instructions.

Judging by the drawings, it appears that you do know how a 3d geometric shape fits into space. Now it's time to figure out how the figure fits into those shapes. Try searching google and youtube for the Reilly method of drawing. It is a great technique that breaks down the form into geomatric shapes. Also, unless you are depicting an exaggerated forshortening/extreme angle, you won't bet depicting depth on a figure very often. Instead, you will be showing or not showing (if out of view), where a given body part is and what direction it is moving in. For example, if you were to draw the head in a 3/4 view that is verging on profile, you would need to understand that the eye sitting further behind is invariably going to be covered or mostly covered by the nose depending on the angle of the view. When you get a handle on the nuances of drawing the figure, you will get better at drawing the figure in space. Long story short, focus on the human anatomy and what each part looks like in any angle, and you will be able to draw a figure in a 3D space.

As for countours and cross contours, think of the contour as the outline of each shape that is created by the body. Try using the shadows as your cross contours. when carefully observing you will notice that each shadow creates its own shape. A good trick would bet to use bolder lines for your contours and more delicate lighter lines for cross contour. Note: Contour drawing is best practiced by using one continuous line as best as possible, to draw your figure. Try avoid lifting the pencil/pen/brush and try not tracing over the lines multiple times.

I see a lot of good potential. Keep up your practices and study your anatomy. Most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!! :)

• Rongogh_Art edited this post on May 17, 2020 5:44pm. Reason: typos

Yes, every aspect of draing involves a gesture of some kind. In all cases, it helps to understad anatomy in order to find the gesture. Where the head is concerned, knowing the skull and the general proportions of the human head, your can establish your gesture to quickly indicate the direction the head is facing. Try to develope a "short hand" of your heads so that you can quickly place your head gersture.

I love the movement and the flow of your gestures. Maybe you can have some fun with them by using one or more of your gesture drawings to build a figure around them. Use your skills, the references of each figure and your understanding of anatomy. See what you come up with. Most imprtantly, HAVE FUN!!!

Hi Nev,

Good work on both series. For your 30 sec/1min figure gestures, try abstracting the figures even more. Instead of the line representing the contours as you have it, use your lines to express the movement of the body. Ignore the anatomy and have the lines just flow in the direction of the diffent forms the body makes The lines should reflect the directon of the head, direction of the spine and direction of the limbs.

For your head studies, I'm not sure what your goal is, but for a realistic representation, it helps to understand the skull and where it fits inside the head. With that said, your heads show great expressions and an okay amount of understanding head and face proportions. I hope this was helpful.

Happy Drawing,

Ron

I think you pretty much nailed the exercize. All but two figiures have great proportions. To further the exercize, you might want to apply more of the hatching lines to establish the volumes on some of the figures you've drawn. Also, Compared to the long poses, your short poses have more movement and look more proportionate. You might wanna approach of your long poses the same way that you approach your short poses. First establishing the whole figure with a quick 30 second or 1 min gesture, using that lovely movement you create, and then going back to render the form more to show your volumes.