How to Gesture Draw 2

1) DO NOT LIFT YOUR PEN OR PENCIL. The drawing is to be one continuous line.

2) Do NOT try to make the drawing look like something you'd show your friends and family. These are either practice drawings, or the foundation on which you will build your drawing once the gesture is done.

Do NOT detail things, or worry about whether or not your gesture even looks remotely like what it is that you drew the gesture from.

3) For beginners, I recommend trying to do your gestures in 30 seconds. As you get more proficient at them, widdle that time down to 10 seconds.

I believe it was Davinci who said that he could capture a drawing of a man falling off of a roof before he hit the ground. Think FAST, and be fast.

Taking a note from Betty Edwards book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", I would also recommend that beginners keep a file of their gestures for a few months. Don't look at them until after a few months, and then check out your progress.

*Also see my other quick gesture study video @: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQTQo4Zazt4

My personal webpage is shanepeters.com.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• how
• to
• gesture
• draw
• drawing
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• people

[kirstiealexandria969]

I thought contour drawings were the ones where you don't lift your pencil.

[soulblazerz]

@kirstiealexandria969 That is true. The way I teach gesture drawing, however, insists that you don't lift your pencil from the paper, either. People take for granted the fluid flow that is easier to achieve, when you don't stop in the middle of said flow to find another arbitrary spot to start drawing. Artists who master gesture drawings aim for ten seconds or less when drawing them, and when your arm is moving that fast you create a lot of energy and momentum, key elements of great gesture. :)

[ELITExSHINOBI]

What's the difference between contour and gesture drawing?

[soulblazerz]

@ELITExSHINOBI A contour is a slow and deliberate drawing that requires you to painstakingly follow the contours of a figure or form, with your hand and eyes moving along the same point that you are viewing and drawing at the same time. A typical contour drawing could take around a half an hour or more to draw.

A gesture is similar, in that your eyes and hands should be working together, but rather than drawing the contour/edge of the forms, you are instead drawing motion, not details in <30secs

[Klebkatt]

what's that on your hand, a glove? Do you wear that for medical reasons, or is that a good way to keep the graphite off your hand and not smear it around.

If it's the latter, I wish I had thought of that first. So simple!

[soulblazerz]

That's what it is. It's an underdrawing, NOT a finished drawing you show your friends and family.

A gesture shouldn't look like anything, other than movements of form.

[tanyadawn555]

I just have to say I was born awesome and I have no need to do this gesture faggotry.

[technicalstylez]

no offense but you would fail gesture drawing at my art school. that being said, i looked at ur website/deviantart and the comics stuff is pretty cool.

[soulblazerz]

Try not to look at your drawing as much as you can. It will interrupt your flow of drawing, and slow your progress.

This is why I say it's important to keep the pencil, or whatever tool you draw with, down on the paper, as if you keep lifting it off you will have to keep finding where to place it back down at, again interrupting the flow of the drawing.

[dillpickleboocutie]

rofl,

that looked like a little kid scribbled on paper

[hlywkar]

Well. not using your eyes to follow your pencil you grasp no intentional hand skill. your brain will link your hand movements with different synapses that will incorporate what is seen to a given movement. You will also spend more time with the eyes on the subject and thus understand shapes more because of the heavier times spent looking. If you use your eyes while drawing you are learning to move your hand with specific aim. Your synapses are being built to understand which movements to make.