Gesture Drawings

All artists should know the importance of drawing. It is absolutley critical when it comes to realistic paintings. Landscape paintings are somewhat more forgiving in that nobody really knows if that tree is a little taller than it should be or the mountain has a bit more peak to it than in reality. However, when it comes to fiqures, buildings, most man-made objects in general, proper drawing is very neccessary. Gesture drawings are a good practice for several reasons. The artist can use the sessions to sharpen hand-eye coordination and in the case of moving objects, train the mind and the eye to capture the motion, force and sharpen the skill of observation.

Last weekend I decided to watch the play off game between the Saints and the Vikings with sketch pad in hand. It was quite a challenge to capture bits and pieces of what was happening on the field. As can be seen in the following images, I started off with some trepidation but soon got into the groove. I began to look for a certain movement or action that I found interesting and then made rapid lines in an effort capture the essence of what I saw. I quickly realized I had to rely a lot on memory of what I had seen. Slow motion replays also helped. Additionally I began to see certain kinds of actions repeat themselves. Pass receivers generally moved in a similar manner. Blockers and tacklers likewise.

One could just as easily use most any scene in a TV program for the purpose of gesture drawing. I found the effort very rewarding and quite fun. I'll be doing it again for sure. I used a ball point pen and some inexpensive 11 x 14 newsprint for this excersise. With practice however, I can see using a journal type sketch pad for a collection of these types of drawings.

As you can see here, I began with some pretty simple lines and stick type figures, finally gaining enough confidence to do two figures engaged with each other. The point was to try and capture the energy and flow of the figures.

Again, I'm still in the early stages of the game and just trying to "warm up" to the idea.

It was hard to do much analysis of what I was drawing as I was doing it because I was working quite rapidly which did allow me to react to the motion without thinking about it too much however.

This was my first effort at handling mutiple figures. Obviously I had to work it up after the action had taken place but I found it easier to do than I thought it would be.

Another "pile up".

Hope you enjoyed these results and maybe it will inspire you to try it.