Practice Gesture Drawing

The term "gesture drawing" is to capture the essence of the movement, weight, and inflexion of a human figure, in a long or short time, rather than to present a realistic rendering of details. Gesture drawing is a pedagogical tool--it is hard to imagine an art school that does not have at least one classroom packed with students trying to capture 30-second timed poses--but it also has many practical purposes. The speed and style of gesture drawing allow the artist to effectively capture motion and to sketch out the general character of something in motion, indispensable qualities if you want to draw an animal in your nature journal or if you want to make a quick sketch of a runner. More than anything, gesture drawing requires practice, but a few tips can't hurt either.

Steps

  1. Choose a subject. In every art curricula, gesture drawing is associated with figure drawing, that is drawing the human figure, usually from model's poses. The subject of your gesture drawing, however, can be just about anything, just as long as you have something the essence of which you can try to capture. In the beginning, it's probably a good idea to sketch stationary objects in various angles and learn perspective in order to be able to capture the subject in a more precise way. You can then either go on and practice figure drawing on static images.
    • Most artists use websites for their static gesture drawings, but you can also find videos on YouTube which will help you get better with decreasing time. Remember that gesture drawing is not drawing the figure in detail, but the gesture, so the motion behind the movement, and the weight associated with the pose.
  2. Find the line of action and the negative space surrounding your subject. The most important part of gesture drawing isn't precision, but finding the line of action. Through that line of action, you can place the varying features of your drawing such as the ribcage, the hips, and make a coherent gesture throughout.
  3. Consider negative space. The negative space is the space surrounding your subject. This can be useful to determine the distance from one part of the subject to the next. Usually, the line of action is located where the vertebral column is, but it can go further than that if the subject is having a long, fluid line of action you can see.
  4. Find the main forms of the subject. A human body, or anything in nature, is a succession of man-made shapes such as spheres, cylinders, cubes etc. While you have found the line of action, it is useful to then add the ribcage and the arm in simple lines first, then build on those shapes at a later time. After all, you are here to capture the motion, but if your gesture is good, there is nothing that prevents you from going further at your leisure. Remember to always keep it simple, and build on.
  5. Give short glances at the subject rather than keep your gaze on it. The reason behind this is that unless both items are in front of you, it is near impossible to draw a first gesture drawing without going back on the paper. This is why, to make it shorter, you glance first, find the line of action, then draw it.
  6. Find all the other features that fit in with your subject in a easier way.
    • S and C curves. Living things will, at any given point, have one part or group of parts that are having common curves, which can be easily found throughout the figure. A human body can have S curves and C curves, such as for example the female body, which vertebral column bears a S curve shape, and the buttocks would have a C shape, contour wise. Remember that it is only through daily practice that it will get easier, and by finding those guidelines, you will certainly win time.
  7. Do not draw in contour lines. When drawing the human body, contour lines may be drawn to represent the limbs, torso, and even the head. In a way, these are just outlines, but they deter you from learning the real movement itself. A stick figure is a body drawn with very simple lines, and because only single lines are used, it's a two-dimensional representation. Because you are trying to capture the essence of the subject very quickly, you don't have time to draw its individual parts in any real detail. Drawing in shapes, or bits of the entire shape, such as the arc when an arm is folded simply shows that these parts do exist, and the lines give some idea of what those parts are doing.
  8. Keep your hand moving. The entire time you are drawing a gesture drawing, your hand should be in motion. The idea is that you let the image transfer directly from your eyes to your hand without thinking about it. Stop your hand, and you'll suddenly be separated from the action of drawing. You'll start thinking.
    • Hold your pencil loosely and keep your motions fluid. Artists sometimes use gesture drawing as a warm-up to other kinds of drawing because it gets the muscles of your arm and hand loosened up. It does this because you try to just let yourself go. Relax and let your hand and arm move freely. You're not trying to color within the lines.
    • Limit the time you spend on each portion of the drawing. Not only should you not stop drawing, but you should also not keep drawing in any one place for too long. For practice, try to limit yourself to five or six seconds on any one area. Try to capture that part of the subject as well as you can in that time, and then move on. You could jump from working on the foot to working on the hand to drawing the head. Draw wherever your eyes go, and don't worry about trying to use a logical order or making sure that everything's connected perfectly.
    • Don't erase. It is always a temptation to try to "fix" your work or try to think through your next move. Don't give in to this temptation. If you never stop drawing, and if you keep your eyes shifting from your paper to the subject as much as possible, you shouldn't have a problem with this.
  9. Set a time limit. When gesture drawing is taught in classes, a model will usually switch poses every 30 seconds to two minutes. This is good practice to push yourself to draw more quickly and, more importantly, to quickly ascertain the essence of your subject. It also has some practical applications, because if you ever try to draw a butterfly in the real world, you never know just how much time you'll have to do so before it flies away and is lost forever. Think of gesture drawing in this way. You are trying to draw a person or thing and represent its very soul in a fleeting moment. Wait a minute, wait a second, or even blink an eye, and everything may have changed.



Tips

  • When doing gesture drawing, many people hold the pencil further up then they normally would, often halfway up the pencil. This encourages more fluid, sweeping motion while still retaining control.
  • Date your gesture drawings so you can see your progress.
  • Gesture drawing is a great way to understand the anatomy of a particular subject, whether that's a person, an animal, an object like a moving car or machine. The more often you draw it, the better you'll understand its shape and range of motion, its anatomy. This is why mistakes in early gesture drawings don't matter - each time you do a new one, you become better at observing and getting it right in the first strokes.
  • Just because you want to keep your hand moving at all times doesn't mean you have to keep it moving as fast as hummingbird wings. Relax, and be efficient in your movements. Speed in drawing depends only in small part on the speed of your hand.
  • Draw lightly. Remember, you don't want to erase anything, and yet you will constantly be making "mistakes." A long, bold line that just isn't right will be hard to ignore as you try to draw. Light lines and circles, however, can easily be drawn over, added to, or simply put out of mind. If you capture the subject sufficiently within your time limit, you can then go back and accent some areas or contours with darker lines.
  • Gesture drawing can be practiced with a wide variety of media. Crayons, pastels, charcoal, ink, and watercolors all lend themselves well to gesture drawing.
  • Many artists find that finding the defining line, as described above, makes their job easier because once that one line is drawn it's easy to see where everything else falls into place. There's no rule that says you have to draw this imaginary line first, though, and many artists don't. If you've captured the essence of the subject, the line will be obvious even if it's not drawn.
  • Start copying from pictures in books or from the internet and then try to just draw by yourself and don't forget to draw lightly and then trace to make it darker.
  • There are many different styles of gesture drawings. Look at gesture drawings from an art class, in a museum, or on the web to get some idea of the tremendous versatility of gesture drawing.
  • Think of your gesture drawings as independent pieces of art. Do them for their own sake. Many gesture drawings do eventually develop into another work of art, but try not to think of gesture drawing as a prelude to something else.
  • Try drawing a sleeping pet or dozing child. They move in their sleep, fidget, hold a pose for less than a minute and turn all without waking up. If they move, complete it from memory or just leave the drawing incomplete and start a new one.

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