Chachava's 'Sketchbook'

[Chachava]

I HATE gesture drawing, I suck at it, and as a result I've been avoiding it like the plague. I have three main problems with it, firstly, I try to put in a lot more detail than is necessary, I try and copy the figure exactly rather than just trying to capture the gesture. Secondly, I'm never sure how to draw the hands/feet/head. And finally, whenever I try to do quick gesture drawings (1-2 minute ones) I always end up rushing to finish, and it shows in the drawings, I think it's mainly down to a lack of confidence in what I'm actually doing. I want to start trying to enter the Character of the Week challenges on here and CA in the not too distant future, and improving my gesture drawing is definitely going to help me with that. So I decided to spend the day doing them.

I took a slightly different approach with them than I have in the past. I didn't set myself a time limit, Instead I spent a little while studying the image, trying to get a feel for the gesture, then trying to make sure each mark had a purpose, wasn't just a random line which 'may' be in the right place. I ended up taking me a lot more time (about 10-15 minutes each), but even after just the 25 I finished today I was already starting to feel a bit more confident and actually starting to enjoy them. I'll keep doing this for the next few days and try to keep building my confidence, with any luck I'll keep improving and eventually be able to just use them as part of warming up....I think I've been talking too much again, lol