gesture drawing - introduction

26
Gesture Drawings by professionals and students in visual storytelling concept art, comics, & animation Compiled by Honoria Starbuck for Life Drawing and Gesture classes at the Art Institute of Austin

Upload: honoria-starbuck

Post on 12-May-2015

13.845 views

Category:

Education


1 download

DESCRIPTION

Introduction to gesture drawing theory and techniques with illustrations from conceptart.org, deviantart.com and various blogs.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Gesture Drawingsby professionals and students

in visual storytelling concept art, comics, & animation

Compiled by Honoria Starbuckfor Life Drawing and Gesture classes at the Art Institute of Austin

Page 2: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

The most important, the most critical and ultimately the most difficult thing is drawing from life is to capture the action or structural rhythms of a pose.

If you are not successful in capturing the action your drawing is doomed.

I see many go through the gesture drawings of 1 or 2 minutes and then when the have 5 minutes or more they go back to doing a tedious contour drawing starting with some detail and wasting a tremendous amount of time.

I have totally gotten rid of the word gesture in my teaching replacing it with the concept of a short pose. Emphasizing that it is a start of a drawing.

Michael Mentler, Society of Figurative Artshttp://tsofa.com/

Page 3: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Deviant Art

Page 5: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Gesture Drawing by ~overcomeTraditional Art / Drawings / Miscellaneous©2004-2010

I don't usually show gesture drawings because they aren't really meant as presentation pieces . . . But I really like how this one turned out.

For those in who don't know these are one minute drawings where you try and capture "energy in space" Deceptively simple because you need direction, weight, balance, attitude, posture etc .. . in one continuous line.

Page 6: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Woman - Gesture by *rebekahlynnTraditional Art / Drawings / Portraits & Figures©2006-2010 *rebekahlynn

During my time in Drawing Bootcamp I created 150 gesture drawings from live models and I think it was one of my favorite things about the experience. I am in LOVE with figure drawing. There is something so satisfying to understanding and capturing the human form, and gestures allow you to do it in such a quick, free and completely accurate (in a totally inaccurate way) and artistic manner.

Anyway, so here is one of my favorite gestures. You can see a number more in my scraps gallery.

Page 7: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Gesture Drawings Part 4 of 4 by ~nekosamMy Drawing class went to the Ramsey Fitness Center today and we drew people as they worked out- Here are the basketball players- they were sitting around in the sketches on the right. They were my favorite to draw.I started with felt tip and then worked with the Japanese calligraphy pen Mish gave me.

Page 8: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Gesture Drawing 4 by ~Peter-James

Recently discovered from piles of drawings I did two years ago.

18x24 charcoal on paper. 2008

Page 10: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Conceptart.org

Page 11: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Quick poses are really practice at STARTING drawings in the best way, like a runner or a swimmer practicing starts for a race. You should feel focused and intent, but not rushed - no more or less rushed than in the first minute of a longer drawing.

Begin each drawing, one-minute or otherwise, by focusing on seeing the flat, 2D SHAPE of your subject, and seeing the WHOLE shape before the details.

There is a natural progression in drawing:1) Shape2) Construction of action3) Surface values

briggsy@ashtons conceptart.org

Page 12: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Gesture is the expression of the pose. The gesture lives with the model and the artist follows along in a kind of dance (rhythm again). The less intellectualizing between seeing the model set the pose and the direct drawing response, the more efficiently the artist will be able to see/feel/draw the pose.

I often suggest students use big fat soft drawing tools to respond to the gesture poses because with soft graphite, charcoal, and pastels the artist can get line and value in one stroke by pushing and pulling into to depth and surface of the pose.

Wet medium gesture techniques are also very efficient, for example with a Japanese calligraphy brush.

Personally I love to fingerpaint gestures with a gooey glob of acrylic paint or gouache.__________________Honoria--Save your pessimism for the good times

Page 13: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Dr. Sketchy gestures by Honoria

Page 14: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

I personally like to start with light, long, flowing lines: with these I establish the size, position and general shape of the drawing in the first few seconds, and then continue to feel out the rhythm and balance as well as the proportions of the shape in more detail. Then gradually I conjure up elements of the construction out of this foundation, again, the big masses before the details. But any method that lets you focus on shape before construction could work - stick figures, straight lines, whatever.

briggsy@ashtons Registered UserLevel 5 Gladiator: Myrmillo

Page 15: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Blogs

Image search on suggested keywords: gesture, life drawing, figure drawing…

Use the medium as a search term:India ink , charcoal, pastel or your favorite

drawing program

Page 16: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Gesture of a Bowler

http://kms.kapalama.ksbe.edu/art/lessons/03line/l03_line.html

Page 17: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

http://artfromintuition.wordpress.com/student-work-from-the-book/

Page 18: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

I like the quality of the Pentel color brush when it gets this drybrush texture.It's very similar to drawing with the "side" of the pencil.You can do very quick studies this way - stay focused on the gesture work instead of noodling the paper to get a tighter image.

Illustrator and concept designer for comic books Rafael Kayanan

http://rafaelkayanan.blogspot.com/2007/10/dry-brush-roughs.html

Page 19: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Posemaniacs minis by Armobot on conceptart.org

Page 20: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Layer gestures then look at them for composition and add story and drama

dharmaskamOn flickr

Page 21: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

These are two or five min poses – from our lunch time sketching class at work. Not all on the same sheet of course. The head was from a 10 where I couldn’t see much else – blocked by the instructor’s easel! hah!Watercolor and Gouache on cover stock….my usual cheap drawing setup :)

Marc Taro Holmes Concept Artist, Art Director, Game Designerhttp://tarosan.wordpress.com/

Page 22: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Marc Taro Holmes Concept Artist, Art Director, Game Designerhttp://tarosan.wordpress.com/

Page 23: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

http://notquiteripe.blogspot.com/

Page 24: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

http://halltoons.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

Here's another one, rescued from the depths of the figure drawing archives. The gesture was pretty rough, but I liked the pose, so I gave it a try. I think I liked the way her left arm was tucked up next to her body, and her hand was next to her face. That simple gesture coveys what I'm trying to get at with this character - she's sweet and dangerous at the same time.

Ed Hall

Page 25: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

Discussion

• Define gesture drawing.• How are gesture drawings going to fit into

your professional practice?• What techniques do you want to try?• What drawing supplies do you want to try?• How large do you want to draw?• How many figures do you want to pile into

your drawing?

Page 26: Gesture Drawing - Introduction

I wish to thank the artists whose work is posted in forums and blogs and used here to educate and illustrate key components of the way artists use gesture in the process of developing drawings.

Thank You!