GO CRAZY

Guys I need some quick critiques about my figures! What can I do to better to capture the models pose and make the gestures feel more alive? I especially struggle with 30 second poses, and how to capture the uniqueness of the model in such a short period without the gesture looking stiff. Thx!

https://imgur.com/a/EqIixWu

btw sorry abt the times not being labeled on all of them. The first page is shorter timed gestures, followed by a 4 minute gesture on the next page.

Good morning, Tanner, and welcome to Line of Action, I'm Poly, and how are you doing this morning?

Say, your fluidity of the poses. I think you're having fun, fun, fun, fun with gestural figure drawing, but I feel that the mark making could be even more expressive. Why don't you please try yourself out our online drawing tutorial?

As a result, by practing our tutorial, you can, shall, and will be able to refresh your own knowledge of gesture drawing in general, particularly figure poses. Even if you start off with some rapidly done 30 second pose sketches, you can go faster into the 5 second scribbles, then work your way back up to 5 minute sketches, all just to build and design some vague but particular anatomy in the very end, all just to finish up your mini-tutorial. For most details, kindly look into the PDF of gesture drawing HERE!

Good luck, therefore my hat's off to you.

The PDF that Poly linked is very useful, it has a great little explainer on a good basic approach of gesture, which is what you want to focus on if you want to make your poses more expressive.

Gesture drawing is so frustrating to me, since its one of the first things we learn, but its one of the most difficult to understand and master. When we learn techniques to depict form, its easy to assume that these are the "rules" for drawing a figure and if the gesture doesn't exactly fit these "rules" then we should ignore it. But if your gesture is good, then EVERYTHING else works in service to keep the gesture. You bend and twist those proportions and forms to keep that energy you first established. BUT (again) understanding form really really helps you more easily find your gesture!

Im seeing a lot of the "bean" in your torsos. I love the bean, it helped me understand the torso and twists and turns, its an invaluable technique, but its not a "rule". A lot of your gestures, you seem to be concentrating on capturing the torso, using the bean. I think you should concentrate more of that time on capturing the mood and gesture of the piece.

Mood and gesture are not exactly a clear direction to go in, so let me try to explain. Exxaggerate bends and poses, when you add details later on things tend to get way more stiff, so go a little more wacky than you expect. Remember the line of action; its a great way to dictate the whole length of the figure. SOmetimes a secondairy line of action is useful if the subject doing something horizontal with their arms.

And if you are having difficulty capturing the whole figure, try simplifying your approach (well drawn stick figures are more usefull than mediocrie developed ones) or making the rounds a little longer. Learning a new approach to this stuff always slows you down the first time you try it, so don't feel ashamed if the pieces don't come out as fast as before.

Good luck dude!

Draw larger and less precise. 30s is only enough to capture the feel. Find the lowest common denominator of the figure (just one line describing the force of the pose) Your drawings should look a lot less stiff as a result. 30s gestures are for feel and motion 1-2min for rough proportion from then onward is where you can get into the details of the figure.

I'll definitely check out the tutorial poly! Appreciate the feedback mate.

The feedback you guys have given me is invaluable. I will have to take a step back and focus more on fundamentals and the basics of figure drawing. As much as I want to go into anatomy, I first have to hone in on figure drawing as much as possible and capture the humanity of the poses that I am drawing. Cheers!