12-05-2019, 05:19 PM
Here's my two cents on from beginning a drawing from gesture vs the more academic block-in approach. You may already know a lot of this but this has been my experience.
There are a few main benefits to the Vilppu style "inside out" approach - flowing gestures then constructing ontop. It is better at helping you develop the intuition of how to DESIGN your own figures from the model and from imagination, vs just drawing what you see with accuracy. You get a better understanding of how to lead the eye with lines to create a greater impression of movement and rhythm, which is very important when you're trying to make your artwork feel "dynamic". Since training this way my ability to draw from imagination and put my ideas onto paper has increased immensely. I tend to find this approach far more useful to me because as a fantasy artist I am so often having to invent what I can't see.
However all of those things are kind of extra and are not important as raw accuracy and observational drawing chops, which the academic approach naturally is far better at training. Your eye can never be too sharp and your hand can never be too deft at judging and making marks. My general drawing skills skyrocketed once I learned how to simplify things visually and block them in in this fashion. As a fine artist the academic methods may be all you need to make the kind of work you want to make at a very high level. If a high level of accuracy and realism is your goal then just stick to this approach because it will get you there the fastest. I know a lot of academic artists do gesture drawing as its own exercise so perhaps squeeze it into your training somewhere.
The good news is that there's no right way to draw anything. I utilize different schools of thought depending on my goals for a piece. Portrait? What will serve me best is a more academic observational approach. When I'm just put my ideas onto paper its far more effective to get the point across starting with gestures Vilppu style.
There are a few main benefits to the Vilppu style "inside out" approach - flowing gestures then constructing ontop. It is better at helping you develop the intuition of how to DESIGN your own figures from the model and from imagination, vs just drawing what you see with accuracy. You get a better understanding of how to lead the eye with lines to create a greater impression of movement and rhythm, which is very important when you're trying to make your artwork feel "dynamic". Since training this way my ability to draw from imagination and put my ideas onto paper has increased immensely. I tend to find this approach far more useful to me because as a fantasy artist I am so often having to invent what I can't see.
However all of those things are kind of extra and are not important as raw accuracy and observational drawing chops, which the academic approach naturally is far better at training. Your eye can never be too sharp and your hand can never be too deft at judging and making marks. My general drawing skills skyrocketed once I learned how to simplify things visually and block them in in this fashion. As a fine artist the academic methods may be all you need to make the kind of work you want to make at a very high level. If a high level of accuracy and realism is your goal then just stick to this approach because it will get you there the fastest. I know a lot of academic artists do gesture drawing as its own exercise so perhaps squeeze it into your training somewhere.
The good news is that there's no right way to draw anything. I utilize different schools of thought depending on my goals for a piece. Portrait? What will serve me best is a more academic observational approach. When I'm just put my ideas onto paper its far more effective to get the point across starting with gestures Vilppu style.