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I think one of the dangers you're facing is overly-scribbly lines. We sometimes see masters do it, but the difference is that, masters deliberately choose to use scribbly lines, because they know its' benefits. For us, less experienced artists, scribbles are often tied with lack of confidence in our lines. Less confident lines result in less energy and hence less gestural uhh... gestures.

Remember, quick gestures aren't quick because they're drawn quickly. They're quick because we make less lines to portray the main essence of the pose and exaggerate the energy enough that you can feel it without all the intricate details. What scribbles often do is they add visual noise, that create a sense of detail when it's not really there, which makes us feel safer, but that's not what we want - we want to be confident in each and every line we make, why we make it and why is it the way it is, what it portrays. Try to do some gesture studies where you focus on portraying the pose with as few lines as possible.When I get a bit tied up in gestural drawings, I try to count them even. something like "Let's see if I can draw this pose using 15 lines". That really makes you think about how to use each line wisely, but in time it becomes a habit you don't necessarily need to contemplate for long.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck!

I believe you're focusing a bit too much on the contours and less so on the dynamics of said pose.

I would heavily suggest you check out &list=PLTlZSPbm1zgJUT_CljARO0Z1xpCaFoY8O this playlist, but also Proko in general, he's one of the best resources available out there.

Hello.

I think you're doing great job on these, however I would generally advise looking up human skeleton proportions. It's not so crucial for you to memorise super detailed measurements like that 4/7 of pelvis width fits into the diagonal line of sternomastoid (just mumbling things here, don't actually try to make sense of it :D), but rather to have general "feeling" for how, for example, ribcage is way too small in most of these, as well as the void between pelvis and ribcage being too large. Things like that, hopefully this helps, good luck!

They've mentioned they're studying distillation. It's done purposefully to limit yourself to just two colors

Hello there,

Great job on the studies, I think you're headed in right direction. As for the critique, I think you're a bit too focused on capturing the silhouette more so than gesture in a lot of these. Keep in mind, when we're doing 30-60 second drawings we aren't really focusing on capturing anything other than the movement right. That means, we have to draw lines that aren't actually there, but which better convey the flow, the movement and the energy. All done in a very few well put lines (how many lines can you put down in a minute anyway, right?).

Try looking up Proko on YouTube, specifically his Gesture drawing videos. Good luck!

Heya!

Not an expert on distillation studies but I believe one of the main points of distillation study is to unite smaller, singular shapes into bigger shapes and make said shapes appealing (shape design). While there are a lot of such united groups in your studies (Great job on those btw!) I think there are also a lot of those wild, separated small shapes that really kind of ruin the point a bit. I think it's best to sacrifice shapes like that in sake of better overall design, you can add those in later stages when the shading applies softly or at any point later really. If you absolutely have to include such separated shap during distillation phase, then I believe it's best to work on its' design (for instance, if it is a shadow shape on an arm - a generally cylindrical body part - then it should convey that information as well).

Hope this helps, good luck!

I think main reason you can't understand the 3-dimensionality of a ribcage is because you aren't projecting a 3-dimensional ribcage on the paper!
Since those are quick sketches, quickest way to get the feeling of the third dimension is to introduce cross contour lines to your drawing. That, along with simplified shapes (e.g. egg/box shapes instead of pelvis and ribcage, cylinders for hands, etc.) to later build anatomy on top of that should help you capture the feeling of depth and 3-dimensionality!
Hope this helps, good luck to you!

Hello, I bring update after previous thread (You could still reply to that one, I've posted an in-between update most people seem to have missed)

After almost one full month of doing gestures daily I'd like to ask for a critique again.


All the poses here are either 30, 60 or 120 seconds. Would you say I've improved at least a bit since the last post? What could I improve at? What should I focus on more, any repetitive mistake that is apparent in these? Anything that comes to mind, please tell me! Thank you

Update after 2 weeks. Majority of these are either 30 or 60 seconds long gestures! (There are a few obvious exceptions).
Progress goes from top to bottom of the page. Would you say I've improved at least a bit? What is the most repetitive mistake? Anything that comes to mind, please tell me

Hello,

First of all, your poses look really solid, I think you're heading in the right direction! If those are meant to be gestures/ quicksketches I believe you could improve them by considering the following:

- Exaggeration. Drawings aren't supposed to be photographs, they must convey the flow, the energy, the force of the pose! If you see someone slanting leftward - draw them slanting even further! Twisted sitting pose? - twist it further! etc. I believe that would give more life to some of the poses. Even when a person is standing still, Human body is so gestural you can always invent a few twists and bends of your own and it'll seem natural!

- CSI lines. There's a wonderful video by Stan Prokopenko about gesture on YouTube, if you haven't watched it yet, where he insists that you shouldn't use a line more complex than C or S for the curve (Lines that look like C and S) and I for straights. Anything more complex than that risks raking away from the flow, think of it as making a road too "bumpy". Same is with the eye when it is trying to follow a line that it too zig-zagged. Now, this only really applies to the first lines, the gesture lines, later on when you add shapes you can do all sorts of lines of course!

-Trying focusing less on the shape of the form but more on the flow of the pose itself. In some of the drawings I feel like you're more focused on getting the overall 2D shape rather than making sense of what your own drawing needs! You aren't copying, you are drawing from a reference and subtle differences in angles or shapes aren't just fine, they're great to have!



As for advice on how I think would be nice for you to practice: Try to separate gesture practice from form and/or anatomy practice for now. For example, you could do 1 week of gesture practice only, then another week of studying the shapes of the body and then third week you could combine the two, I'm sure it'll bear great results!

Good luck : )

Hey, thanks for your feedback.
Yeah hand proportions actually seem odd on the top left one, I see that now. Although I'm not sure I get what did you mean with the muscle training. Those are supposed to be gestural lines (At least the 5 - 10 min ones :p) meaning that there are no muscles included.

Hey,
The poses have been timed with 5, 10 and 20 minutes. The ones that are 3, 7 and 15 is just I thought "I don't need extra, time I think i'm done" (3 minutes one was timed 5 minutes, 7 ->, 15 ->20).
I've started only doing 60 and 30 second timers now, so I'll report in a week more so we could see if I'm going in correct direction, I'd appreciate if you could comment then! Thanks a lot!

Are you, by any chance, following Angel Ganev's tutorials on those?
I feel like it.
If that's the case, I think it's great, you're doing great! But you need to keep in mind those eyes are stylised and simplified. Stylisation is good, once you know the fundamentals, but if you rush into stylisation ahead of time, you risk becoming the second -insert-name-here- and not discover your own unique style! To avoid that, try drawing eyes like other artists (not just Angel) as well! That way you'll develop flexibility and figure out what do you like in different ways people draw eyes.

Another suggestion from me would be to try and draw realistic eyes as well. I know people nowadays frown upon advise of trying to draw realism, if you are not interested in drawing realism, but I think it's really important to understand reality, before you start stylising it. That might be just me though :)

Now, to a more specific critique, one of the more repetitive mistakes I see would be:

(If you can't tell what it says due to my awful handwriting it's this: "Top eyelid goes further than bottom one because it needs to protect the eye from the rain)

This is the only major flaw I see in some of those, other than that It's great! Keep up the good work :)

Well, I will keep going I guess. I just don't know what am I looking to improve at what am I supposed to think about what should I find? What must "click"? I don't understand.
I'll report the results in 2 weeks, so far I just feel like I'm developing bad habits and actually getting worse.

Happy to help :)