What can be considered a gesture drawing?

[Tyrus]

So I'm having a rough time with gestures here and need some advice/someone looking in objectively.

What is a gesture drawing? I mean, what traits of a quickly done drawing define it as 'gesture', both in terms of roughness and quality AND time taken to produce/reproduce what's drawn from reference and life? Is there an exact time window one should shoot for before a gesture drawing is considered just a normal one? Are gesture drawings held to good enough standards to where you can make out what's being drawn or can they/should they be a bunch of squiggles if necessary? Is either a standard set by each individual accordingly? As simple as it SHOULD sound it really doesn't seem/feel that way.

I could use some clarification on the matter so I can stop making a fool of myself with this.

[EduardoGaray]

Looks like you are thinking too much :P

Gesture drawing is all about the movement of the subject.
It focuses on capturing movement in a natural way, so your figures wont look stiff or photo-copied. Because of that, those drawings usually looks like quick or unfinished sketches, because rendering or exactly capturing the subject isnt the point of a gesture drawing.

these sketches are good examples of gesture drawings.



And if i remember correctly, there is a really cool tutorial of gesture drawing here on the forums, in the tutorials or resources section.

[Tyrus]

Hey, thanks!

Kimon Nicolaides states that a gesture drawing can be "as rough as possible, as long as the general idea is on paper within 10 seconds". Other sources show that gestures drawings are much less rougher (like your example) and take anywhere from 60 to 90 seconds or more. I can understand the quality going up as more time is spent on the gesture drawing, but the different standards from the source materials threw me off, as well as what was gained from doing either/or exercise.

Then again, I think too much, as you said.

[SpectreX]

I have the same problem Tyrus, I overthink it as well.
This gives me the problem that I tried Vilppu (flow and fast) and Loomis (more mass so slower).

All in all I think gestures is a big range, and one could see many things under it.
I think the best to do is what you feel comfortable with :)

[DK]

Hey Tyrus, I made a small tutorial about gesture drawing a while back HERE

Although my methods have changed a bit slightly over time, I think it's still a good starting point; or gets the point across.

With a gesture drawing you want to capture a pose as quickly as possible. Let's say you have 30 seconds on a pose. Do you want to spend your time drawing the edge-lines/contour of a figure? Are you really going to capture the essence of the pose with contour lines? For me personally, it's a waste of time, and at best you're going to capture maybe half or less of the figure with the time that you have, and it's most likely, if you aren't experienced, going to look disfigured.

So, how are you going to go about capturing a pose with so little time?

Let's say you're working with this image and you only have 30 seconds
How will you capture the whole figure in that time?


First of all, I would look at the figure as a whole.

Try to look to look at the image as one fluid line.

Try to look at the image as one big shape.


The point is, before you even lay your pencil down to paper, look at the figure in its entirety, and look at the shape it's making.

Gesture drawing is about being able to capture the feel of a pose in it's entirety. Even 10 seconds should be enough to capture an entire pose if you approach it the right way.

The only easy way to do this is with simple lines. Forget the fleshy parts of the figure for a bit and try to think of the figure as a skeletal mannequin. Here is a great example by Andrew Loomis:


Stay loose and fluid and you have the ability to not only capture complex poses in a short amount of time, but feel a lot more freedom while drawing.

Also, don't push aside gesture drawing after you move on to do something more complex; like a finished piece of work. You should always start your work off with a gesture and build on it.

Just look at the information there is about gesture drawing, think carefully, continue to experiment, and you will come up with your OWN method of doing gestures sooner or later, because there really isn't just one way.

[Tyrus]

I read that Dennis (Kutsenko?), and I am thankful you made that as it did clarify a lot of what I was questioning. There's still a lot of work to be done (the rudimentary gestures I did do as a result of the tutorial vary in quality due to me doing better when I draw the skeleton/inner parts with my head, rather than putting them on paper), but armed with this I should be able to draw better conclusions.

That's the aim, anyway. I hate not being able to show my work right away.

[darktiste]

you want to try and exagerate the pose when you become familiar with gesture.The most important part is to be able to lay down the spine the shoulder line the direction of the head and the hips line the rest will need to follow the rule of balance.

[NeedsLoomis]

I'd say a gesture drawing is simply a drawing that you draw with the intent to understand or capture the gesture/movement/flow of the figure.

There really isnt a time requirement, and it doesnt have to look like anything specific. Sometimes, for instance, you might find a figure whos gesture you just cant nail down, and it can take quite a bit of your time. Sometimes many drawings, or perhaps a few very long ones with plenty of erasing. Maybe you'll have to use simple lines to better understand the figure, sometimes you have to throw in more detailed masses to really comprehend how they are pushing and pulling and what lines are exacerbating the stiffness. The point is that you aren't getting sidetracked by too many non gesture oriented details, because then it is just becomes a drawing with strong gesture, not a gesture drawing. Cheers!

[Madzia]

I think a lot of people confuse gesture drawing with speed painting now days. I am not expert but I think gesture drawing stemmed from animators and they need to capture movement and forces in body. For me best examples and explanation are in this book http://www.amazon.com/Force-Dynamic-Life...0240808452