Gesture drawing

Hi,

I’m new here. I’ve been drawing since I was a kid but never had a formal training. I just recently discovered gesture drawing from Stan Prokopenko and was looking for a good site with photos to practice on. And this site is really what I need. Thanks for creating this site.

I love drawing people (sample: http://meijhel.deviantart.com/gallery/31996442/Sketchpad) , but I’m not good in drawing bodies, so I decided to do what most good artists say. “Practice gesture drawing everyday”. But it’s a bit frustrating. I don’t know if I’m doing it right. I think I’m not drawing some references correctly, and sometimes I’m running out of time. I usually do 60 minutes because if I do 2 minutes, I ended up drawing contours.. Here are some of my gesture drawings.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9w0jP9R_7LkOUgzVjZiRmxDQWM/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9w0jP9R_7Lkak5kb0xmd1J4R3M/edit?usp=sharing

Hi Maegel, welcome to the site! :)

Your portraits are pretty stunning, wow! Love them very much. :)

Gestures can be a tricky next step, but I don't see anything really wrong with yours. How long are you spending on each gesture? (I'm not sure if those 60 and 2 minutes refer to an entire session with multiple gestures.)

The goal of these is to capture a few basic elements in as little strokes and little time as possible. Motion and proportions are usually the main focus for most people. It builds a pretty strong foundation to work and elaborate from. I've found that quick strokes for the action line capture motion best. S-shapes for the action line (spine) should be avoided because they hinder motion.

In case you haven't read them yet, we have some articles that explain how to build gestures:

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-1-line-of-action/

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-2-torso-and-hips/

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-3-joints/

Let me know if this was any help at all! Feel free to post updates about your gestures too when you draw new ones. :)

(I deleted the other topic on your request by the way!)

Ooops.. sorry. That should be 60 seconds. Some of my drawings aren't finished. I ran out of time, I need to be quicker.
BTW, thank you for the articles. Those will be a great help. Will be keeping those in mind while I'm practicing gestures. Will post again for my succeeding gesture drawings. Thanks a lot! :D
Thanks for the compliment too ;)