06-27-2014, 09:59 AM
Hey Cruptic, gesture drawings is all about training your mind to see past the form of the model and capture the natural, organic energy of the pose.
Everything in nature has gesture in it, trees - the flow from the trunk up through the branches into the leaves; forest landscapes - how the canopy moves and swirls along the vista. A leopard as it readies to pounce - the jagged tension running through its bunched up muscles.
The time limit is there to try and force you to ignore the details and just see the natural rhythm in the body - is there a line that sweeps along the edge of the head and continues down the thigh towards the foot? Any other relationships throughout the body that create nice sweeping curves?
Where is the tension in the body? Which muscles are engaged?
Is the ribcage pushing out on one side? Is the weight on the pelvis on the other side of the body? Sweep a line through the bottom of the ribcage and curve it down the pelvis on the opposite side, flow it down through the thigh and bring it back over the knee if its bent because there's tension there.
It's also about creating movement though your drawing. Glenn Vilppu uses short c and s curves that curl over each other to lead the eye through the drawing - not following the contours, just the energy and rhythm of the body. The 'waves' at the top of the picture below are examples of movement in drawing, then he's applying it to a gesture drawing.
![[Image: 4gPK2MZ.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/4gPK2MZ.jpg)
You can watch his demo's on youtube.
Proko says that all figure drawing starts with gesture - get a solid gesture down and when the figure is laid down on top you will find it much more dynamic and vibrant than carefully copying and measuring every detail.
Also check out Ryan Woodward to see some really great illustrative design with gesture.
Hope that helps you! I'm really passionate about gesture drawing if you can't tell ^^
Everything in nature has gesture in it, trees - the flow from the trunk up through the branches into the leaves; forest landscapes - how the canopy moves and swirls along the vista. A leopard as it readies to pounce - the jagged tension running through its bunched up muscles.
The time limit is there to try and force you to ignore the details and just see the natural rhythm in the body - is there a line that sweeps along the edge of the head and continues down the thigh towards the foot? Any other relationships throughout the body that create nice sweeping curves?
Where is the tension in the body? Which muscles are engaged?
Is the ribcage pushing out on one side? Is the weight on the pelvis on the other side of the body? Sweep a line through the bottom of the ribcage and curve it down the pelvis on the opposite side, flow it down through the thigh and bring it back over the knee if its bent because there's tension there.
It's also about creating movement though your drawing. Glenn Vilppu uses short c and s curves that curl over each other to lead the eye through the drawing - not following the contours, just the energy and rhythm of the body. The 'waves' at the top of the picture below are examples of movement in drawing, then he's applying it to a gesture drawing.
You can watch his demo's on youtube.
Proko says that all figure drawing starts with gesture - get a solid gesture down and when the figure is laid down on top you will find it much more dynamic and vibrant than carefully copying and measuring every detail.
Also check out Ryan Woodward to see some really great illustrative design with gesture.
Hope that helps you! I'm really passionate about gesture drawing if you can't tell ^^