Gesture drawings for critique

Hi all, it's my first time actually posting here but I've been doing 30-60 minute class gesture sessions here on line of action! I've been drawing for a while, but I haven't really worked on my fundamentals much recently (especially with quick gesture drawing). I'd like to improve the fluidity of my poses and my line confidence.

Here are the gestures I did for 30 seconds, 1 minute, and 5 minutes each. Any critique would be appreciated! I was wondering also if it would be more effective to do multiple 30-second gesture sessions for 30-60 minutes, or the class sessions to improve gestures quickly? I also struggle more with shorter time limits, and the poses turn out more like blobs/incomplete imo than drawing for 5 minutes haha. Any tips for keeping quick gestures defined but not so stiff?

Thank you so much in advance! :D

Link:

https://imgur.com/a/AJvBRWw

Amazing work on your gestures, cyren. I especially love all the quick sketches, and the solid, longer poses at 5 minutes. And as for the 60 second (1 minute) attitude sketches, so far so good. Keep going on all of these time limits, please????????

But in the meantime, I've got one tiny, little critique: I really admire those line qualities going on in those 30 s poses, but I see some of the lines that are way too darker. Why don't you please lighten up those edges thru 131 minutes of 29 second drawings??????? (131 x 60/29, 7860/29=271 scribbles)

The reason why you could and would go with that approach to improvement on your very, very light touch is because it can and shall give you a much, much better feeling and humor of the gestural poses.

My hat's off to you, and have fun with my feedback.

Polyvios Animations.

P.S. In the meantime, could and would you please check out a copy of the Glenn Vilppu Manual???????

Thank you so much for your feedback! I'll try doing the longer sessions of 29 second poses and the manual you recommended! :D

Hi Cyren.

First off, your 30 second drawings are looking great! To address your sentiments of them looking incomplete; I disagree. when drawing for 60 seconds or less I wouldn't expect to put down more than 10 lines. I would discourage it, in fact. Your drawings are on the right path.

I suggest you keep it up with 30 second drawings to improve gesture quickly, and to improve fluidity of your poses and line confidence. You'll start to develop shorthands for describing the movement of body parts (fluidity!), allowing you to spend more time putting down lines (line confidence!) and less time analyzing the figure. As for keeping quick gestures defined, cross contours are your friend. A quick ellipse around an arm, leg, or torso can tell a lot about the structure and perspective of a figure.

I hope this was helpful, and good luck!

-Sawyer

Hi Cyren.

First off, your 30 second drawings are looking great! To address your sentiments of them looking incomplete; I disagree. when drawing for 60 seconds or less I wouldn't expect to put down more than 10 lines. I would discourage it, in fact. Your drawings are on the right path.

I suggest you keep it up with 30 second drawings to improve gesture quickly, and to improve fluidity of your poses and line confidence. You'll start to develop shorthands for describing the movement of body parts (fluidity!), allowing you to spend more time putting down lines (line confidence!) and less time analyzing the figure. As for keeping quick gestures defined, cross contours are your friend. A quick ellipse around an arm, leg, or torso can tell a lot about the structure and perspective of a figure.

I hope this was helpful, and good luck!

-Sawyer

I thought your drawings were very good. You say you have been drawing for a while. That's good and It shows. You might work on hands and feet. Also, have you done much study of anatomy (both muscles & bone structure)? In the long run, you will find such a study will greatly help you. When studying, be sure you draw what you are studying and keep these drawings close for reference. Remember: practice makes better. Keep up the good work.

Hi Sawyer, thank you so much for your advice! I'll definitely try putting down cross contours and ellipses, that's gonna be helpful. I tried doing more 30 second gestures too! I appreciate the feedback :D

Hi Tx Williep, thank you so much! I forget drawing the hands and feet in gestures, so I'll do that hahaha. I've begun studying the muscles and bones more intently last week. I'll keep on practicing it! Thank you again!