It's so sick that you're getting so much work in at the atelier. Which one are you going to?
As for gestures, they are supposed to catch the movement of the pose, which is much easier to do with curved lines than the straight ones you've got right now. Michael Hampton has a great book that breaks down the various aspects of gesture (line weight, major forms, landmarks, etc) that I would recommend!
first off, I recommend you get yourself a copy of Walt Stanchfield's Drawn To Life books. The man taught gesture classes at Disney and the books are collections of his handouts, all fantastic information on making a clear read and story in your poses. One of the things he mentions often is kinesthesia, sort of understanding how the pose your drawing feels so you can draw it better. You could try assuming the pose yourself before drawing it to get a batter idea.
Can't help much more than that, my critique of gestures is usually that people get caught up in details and contours, but you seem to be good at ignoring all that and going for the big shapes. Mike Matessi's FORCE book might be good to check out too.
You actually reminded me I had those books buried in my junk. It seems so much more relevant now that I'm doing gesture for hours on end. I have to give them serious study.
(09-15-2013, 09:55 AM)MonoOrder Wrote: It's so sick that you're getting so much work in at the atelier. Which one are you going to?
As for gestures, they are supposed to catch the movement of the pose, which is much easier to do with curved lines than the straight ones you've got right now. Michael Hampton has a great book that breaks down the various aspects of gesture (line weight, major forms, landmarks, etc) that I would recommend!
Studio Incamminati. Though they drill the straight angles as opposed to curves. To be honest, I just accepted it rather than it being a decision to do gesture that way. I'll have to ask about the thought process.
Some figures out of my head. Even after a week there is a new solidity to my figures but I still struggle against a lack of visual reference.
How do I apply my studies to drawing comics and vidya?
Also, If my gesture quandary interested anyone, I spoke with one of my teachers and the answer I got was that gesture in angle is for proportion. Curves can convey power and emotion more easily, but you can just as easily lose tract of the relationships between forms which can cause problems in the finished drawing. Angles are easier to measure and compare. He still suggested that one should learn both to be well rounded (or well angled).
Some bargues I've done. One little trick that I figured out is to draw miniature thumbnails of the plate before committing to the final drawing. You can try multiple approaches to constructing from the plate without commiting to a drawing, while anticipating any difficulties you may run into while drawing. If nothing else, you'll feel more confident starting when you've done it at least once.
The plates I drew from were only in line, though I spent at least 2 hours to get to this point, un-rendered. I've been told you should spend much longer, but this is my personal experience. You should strive to be as accurate as possible at the minimum. However long that takes, you're mileage will vary.
These are looking nice! very readable. Maybe try making the directions of your shading strokes more uniform, all just going one direction per shape. Check out Clause Weisbuch, he has a hatching style that feel very directional and uniform, if he made one line going the wrong way it would stick out like a sore thumb.
Cool stuff, keep posting :D
