table of contents · mastering gesture drawing will benefit you beyond drawing the human form. here...

LESSON WORKBOOK

LESSON 7 – DRAWING THE FORM © 2010-2015 Sarah Parks Fine Artist | All Rights Reserved http://drawingsecretsrevealed.com

Table of Contents Click on any page number to be taken directly to that section. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS LESSON ......................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 4 HOW TO BALANCE YOUR FIGURES .............................................................. 5

Contrapposto ........................................................................................................................... 5Equilibrium ............................................................................................................................... 6

TYPES OF GESTURE DRAWING .................................................................... 7 Basic Gesture Drawing ............................................................................................................. 8Advanced Gesture Drawing ..................................................................................................... 8

BASIC GESTURE ..................................................................................... 9 ADVANCED GESTURE ............................................................................ 12 FORESHORTENING ................................................................................ 16 GESTURE DRAWING SECRETS ................................................................... 17 ANIMAL GESTURE DRAWING ................................................................... 18 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 20 LESSON RECAP .................................................................................... 21 PRACTICE ........................................................................................... 22

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What You’ll Learn in This Lesson In this lesson you’ll be training your eyes to see the essence of any figure. I’ll be showing you two different exercises to teach you what to look for and quickly render that on your paper. Gesture drawing is about speed and freedom. Remember from Lesson 3 that the first step of a block-in is all about placement and size. You’ll be achieving that first step with figures in a fast and fun way. This lesson will loosen you up, reminding you of the fun and excitement of drawing, and injecting energy and vitality into your work. I’ll be showing you how to find that energy in both human and animal subjects and how to find it not only in moving figures but even in stationary figures. You’ll get to practice rendering that core, basic movement even in complicated poses. This lesson is a precursor to the next lesson on drawing the human form, and if you practice these concepts, you’ll find drawing the figures in the next lesson even easier and more fun!

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THIS LESSON WORKBOOK WILL GIVE YOU THE ESSENTIALS OF THE LESSON, LIKE THE IMAGES, WITH SPACE FOR YOUR OWN

NOTES AS YOU WATCH THE VIDEO.

THIS IS WHERE YOU SYNTHESIZE WHAT YOU LEARN IN THE VIDEO AND JOT DOWN YOUR THOUGHTS, INSIGHTS, AND

REMINDERS TO REVISIT AS YOU’RE LEARNING THE CONCEPTS.

WHAT KIND OF NOTES WOULD YOU TAKE? WELL, ASK YOURSELF SOME OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

WHAT DID I LEARN? WHAT WAS A BIG “A-HA!”

MOMENT?

WHAT WAS PARTICULARLY CHALLENGING ABOUT THIS STEP OR EXERCISE?

WHAT QUESTIONS DO I STILL HAVE?

WHAT’S SOMETHING I NEED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OR

KEEP PRACTICING?

WHAT ARE SOME GREAT IDEAS THIS GIVES ME?

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Introduction What is GESTURE? What are some examples of gesture in life?

Why do I teach gesture before actual figure drawing?

Why do I include both humans and animals in a lesson on gesture?

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How to Balance Your Figures Before I show you how to do a gesture drawing, keep in mind a couple of things: Contrapposto When a standing person is putting their weight on one leg, it causes a domino effect:

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Equil ibrium What is EQUILIBRIUM? Why is it so important to achieve in your figures?

What is a good technique to use to help you achieve equilibrium in your drawings and paintings? (Hint: look to the painting of the ballerina.)

Why is equilibrium not a concern with this drawing of a football player?

BALLERINA 24” X 24”

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Types of Gesture Drawing What is the objective of gesture drawing (also known as action drawing)?

How is this lesson like Lesson 3?

What is the best way to loosen yourself up so you focus ONLY on the essentials of the subject? Why?

What are the two types of gesture drawings exercises I’ll be teaching in this lesson?

PRANCING BAY 11” X 14”

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Basic Gesture Drawing What is the main purpose of a basic gesture drawing?

Some characteristics of a Basic Gesture Drawing exercise include:

Advanced Gesture Drawing How is advanced gesture drawing different from basic?

Some characteristics of a Advanced Gesture Drawing exercise include:

This drawing is too advanced for this lesson. Some things you can see in this drawing that I don’t want you to do in your gesture drawings are:

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Basic Gesture The basic gesture starts with three main components:

The tilt of these lines dictates what?

Why do I recommend a large tablet of newsprint paper (as opposed to a piece of copy paper)?

Why do I recommend you use a charcoal or graphite stick broken into a half-inch section, laid on its side?

And finally, you’ll need a timer. About how long should it be set? Why?

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What are some common traits in all these basic gesture drawings?

How would you go about creating the following gesture drawings?

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Advanced Gesture How is advanced gesture different from basic gesture drawing?

But why is it important to practice the basic gesture first?

Why would this type of gesture drawing be appropriate to develop into a finished drawing, as opposed to basic gesture drawing?

Why is your time limit flexible? Why have a time limit at all?

The objective here is to keep focusing on that big picture while still mentally evaluating (in a very instinctual, basic way) things like:

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What is a setup you can use to do this type of longer gesture drawing? What do you need to be able to do no matter what setup you choose?

Explain how you would go about doing the following advanced gesture drawings?

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Foreshortening The poses below are a little more complicated because some body parts are foreshortened. Foreshortening refers to what? You may need upwards of 5 minutes for these. Jot down the main points about each of these gesture drawings.

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Gesture Drawing Secrets Secret #1 What can help you orient and line up various parts of the figure? (Hint: see diagram to the right.)

Secret #2 What can provide great action poses?

Secret #3 What’s a technique to keep your lines flowing?

Secret #4 What’s good to keep in mind about erasing? Why are gesture drawings different in this respect than other types of drawing?

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Animal Gesture Drawing Mastering gesture drawing will benefit you beyond drawing the human form. Here you can see how it can help you capture the raw energy and spirit of different animals.

What are some things to notice about the following gesture drawings?

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Conclusion

We had to do action drawings in college and they were timed in the same way as the exercises in this lesson. My reaction to being told we had 30 seconds to do a drawing was probably one that most of the other students felt – terror! "How can I possibly do a complete drawing in 30 seconds?" we were all thinking. But we soon realized a full drawing wasn't the point of these exercises. In fact, they were supposed to keep us from having time to do that. With that short time frame, we had to concentrate and focus on the big picture and the action and movement of the model. Because there was no time for laborious contouring lines, shading, or any detail, these exercises got us out of our comfort zone and loosened us up. It strengthened our visual perception and actually improved any subsequent finished drawings because they had more vitality. It was probably the best training I ever had and I produced some great drawings from that practice. There's something about a quick rendering of movement that can be very appealing. Even today, my students attest that action drawing helped them more than anything else to conquer their habit of starting small and concentrating on details too soon – usually a death knell for good drawing, as I’ve stated before. For this reason, I feel this exercise is so important that I have put it before the lesson on drawing the human figure. Remember, drawing is not just what you do with your hands, it’s what you do with your eyes. You are training your eyes the way an athlete trains his or her body. Any baby can pick up a crayon and move it around on a piece of paper, but that’s not art. A true artist has developed the ability to really see the subject. Each of these lessons is scaffolding your ability to SEE and therefore draw.

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Lesson Recap COVERED IN THIS LESSON:

Practicing gesture drawing helps you capture the heart of your subject’s energy, and while you can capture the gesture of even inanimate objects in still life or landscape compositions, gesture really shines in figure drawings of humans and animals.

Even stationary figures have a basic energy evident in the angles and lines of their pose. Gesture drawing trains you to find that core energy and build on it.

We covered two types of gesture drawing, basic and advanced, which accomplish different objectives. Basic gesture drawing trains you to focus solely on the core lines (spine, shoulder, and hip angles and in some poses, the limbs as well). It’s purely a training exercise and is most effective when timed (such as 30 seconds). Advanced gesture drawing builds on those essential core lines by filling out the form with continuous overlapping lines. A few minutes is enough to capture that core movement or pose.

Advanced gesture drawings can be developed into finished drawings by acting as a fast, energetic first step to a more thorough block-in. They’re terrific at training you to instinctually pay attention – in a basic way – to things like negative space, distances and proportions, and alignment.

Pay attention to foreshortened body parts and draw what you see, not what you know. Basic shapes can help you draft foreshortened body parts if just sketching the core line isn’t enough scaffolding.

Action poses where the subject is moving provide even more practice at capturing the life of your subject. That action can also provide a great foundation for a finished block-in and ultimately completed drawing.

Speed begets speed: practicing both kinds of gesture drawing many times on a regular basis will train your eyes to draft a great figure – no matter the pose – in a matter of minutes by seeing the essentials first and not getting bogged down in details.

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Practice

Use the gesture poses shown below to practice both basic and advanced gesture drawing. Remember to set your timer, and remember that the basic gesture drawing shouldn’t take as long as the advanced. Try to do the basic gesture drawings in 30 seconds each and the advanced gesture drawings in 2 to 5 minutes. You can do the basic gesture for all the poses, then go back and do the advanced for all of them OR do the basic and advanced for each pose before moving on to the next pose. Remember that doing the gesture drawings more than once will only help you! And have fun with it!

DOING THE DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE LESSON WILL HELP YOU LEARN. BUT THE PRACTICE EXERCISE(S) HERE YOU WILL DO ON YOUR OWN. THE PRACTICE WILL HELP YOU APPLY THE CONCEPTS TO YOUR OWN COMPOSITIONS AND WILL BE A SELF-CHECK TO SEE HOW WELL YOU’RE LEARNING THE CONCEPTS IN THE LESSON AND WHERE YOU MAY NEED TO TAKE SOME MORE TIME TO PRACTICE.

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table of contents · mastering gesture drawing will benefit you beyond drawing the human form. here...

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