Gesture Drawing

Step #1

Hi everyone, welcome to my first tutorial.

I suppose since this is my start, we should get into the basics. When people ask me how to draw, I always suggest they look into the most essential method of learning motion and form: figure drawing! In figure drawing, the idea is to achieve a grasp of drawing using the human anatomy as example. Unlike still life drawings, where you take example from a static object, we're going to get an idea of motion by everyday actions, and from there, get an idea of how we move our bodies and turn them into more dynamic poses. Let's get started!



______________________________________________________________________

Step #2

Now one thing about learning from life is you'll need reference. This is where your keen eye comes in... By usng reference, you're helping yourself get examples to improve your outlook on how you wish to style your art. Use what you think best helps yourself! Look into picture and photo books that feature people, search for images on the internet or just go to a park and view people in everyday action. Comics and such are also some good examples, but I don't recommend them, after all, how do you suppose they learned to make poses? The point is to make sure you know what to look for before you bring pencil to paper.

Note: Although I highly suggest going into a figure drawing class, it's not always easy to find one nearby, but if you're determined and manage to find a class, you should look into them.



______________________________________________________________________

Step #3

Now it's time to get your tools. What I often suggest is a large pad of recyclable paper, you're going to be going through a lot of practice sheets, so you might as well practice on something that's not expensive. And since you're going to be using a lot of sways of the hand, the best tool for the job is probably a graphite pencil or charcoal pencil. You'll probably get a little messy using these tools, but don't let them scare you, there's nothing wrong with a good hand washing afterward. Although these tools seem to be the best option, you're not limited to them.



______________________________________________________________________

Step #4

Now that you have your reference, it's time to get that graphite rolling. The first step is to get an idea of motion with warm ups called dynamic sketches. These are probably the simplest drawings you could ever do, because they literally just consist of strokes and simple lines and shapes. Let's start off with taking a photo for this example.



______________________________________________________________________

Step #5

Getting a sense of the pose, take your pencil and create strokes that accent the motion of the pose. This often starts off as a curvy stroke with the pencil that starts at the head, down the spine to the feet. Match it up with the photo above to get an idea of how this is done.



______________________________________________________________________

Step #6

Next, get a hang of those limbs, look at the motions of the arms and legs, bring some strokes to accent those. Pinpoint those areas of where the head is placed, as well as where the hip and chest areas are turned. This gives a better sense of dimension to your sketch.



______________________________________________________________________


Step #7

Now we get into detail, get a sense of limb size, torso, etc. Just use simple shapes and pencil strokes to get that sense of curve. Got the hang of it? Trust me, it may look like a mess, but this is how you get a sense of motion. Don't be afraid to go all out on these sketches, be confident in your strokes.



______________________________________________________________________

Step #8

Gesture Drawing




If you're worried about how it looks just remember that these are practice sketches. The whole point of these drawings are to get a sense of motion and form. They're simply warm ups to the greater picture of getting your character in the right pose. Use the time to get more poses and examples into your system, it's all about the process of getting used to way the body works.

Of course, this is just a way to loosen your grip on drawing anatomy. Keep your pencil scratching that paper because in my next tutorial, I'll be teaching all you need to know about drawing the body, what's important, and what you can improvise. 'Till next time!



______________________________________________________________________

http://andrewdickman.deviantart.com/

http://www.starfieldcreations.com/

Step #1

Welcome back! If you're reading this since my first tutorial, I must be doing a good job in helping you out. Well now that I have your attention. we'll be moving onto the next lesson. Now that you have an idea of the human body in ways of roughing them out, we're going to work on getting some greater details into those drawings.



__________________________________________________________________________

Step #2

An important element is to know the body itself. This takes a lot of observation of different details of anatomy, and since gesture drawings are simplistic, we only know about body movement more than the body itself. Now that we've gotten that squared off, you should take more time to acknowledge the separate parts of the body and the types of shapes they produce. To give off a clear view of what I'm talking about, Let's start with the male anatomy, check the drawing provided.



__________________________________________________________________________

Step #3

First, we'll have to simplify the anatomy into shapes, keeping in mind of the skeletal system, let's layer down this detailed image to see where everything is connected, which is pretty simple for some, but can be difficult when you're starting off, just use the image as an example, but practice makes perfect!

The head is (very cliche, but true) a circular shape with a point at the bottom to accent the chin. A line connecting the head to the lower torso makes up for the spine, while the crotch area itself is a box. Within the center is also a circular oval shape, accenting the depth and shape of the chest. Ignoring the circle, a line connects the shoulders just below the head and at the base of the neck. The limbs are lines, extracting from the shoulders (also circles) keeping in mind to also place circular shapes to point out the elbows, hand placements and knees. The feet are a little complex, but can be easily shaped out as triangular shapes that open at the base. For lack of better explanation, view the image at the side, the dark blue areas are simplistic shapes gesturing the anatomy, as the pink area connect outer shapes.

Since we can't really get an entire idea of shapes and details just using one example, let's go through all the separate areas and concentrate on them one by one.



__________________________________________________________________________

Step #4

The head is, as mentioned, rather simple. There are many different ways you can go about with the head, but for the sake of this tutorial, you should take note of where the eyes, nose, ears and mouth take place. The eyes are often below the center of the circular shape made for the head. Obviously, the mouth and nose are placed at the center, below the eyes. Notice how the nose curves to meet the eyebrows. The ear, placed at the side of the head, makes it were the eyes are also positioned. Check the blue line that lines up where the ear is placed from the eyes and nose.

I'll get more into detail about heads in another tutorial, but right now I hope you get the idea.



__________________________________________________________________________

Step #5

Now we move down to the chest. Which is another circular shape, this basically gives you a clue as to what and where the ribcage is placed as well where the spine curves down the back. There is a separate line that accents where the shoulders meet in symmetry to one another. Note the accent of the chest (pink lines) You need to get a sense of the collar bone, chest, and upper abs that lead down to the belly. Keep the depth of the chest in mind, depending on the size of the ribcage, depends on the size of the character, or how muscular he is.



__________________________________________________________________________

Step #6

The lower torso isn't seen much as a circular shape, but works better in straight lines. Though it mostly helps to figure out the position of the hips. Connecting the spine down to the tail end of the body, it meets with the "box" of the hips, depending on the position, stance or movement of the body, the lines shift and lean according to the hips. The pink areas show details of the abs and crotch. Between the ribcage and the hipbone there is only the spine in terms of bone structure, so you'll have to note the outer body shapes.



__________________________________________________________________________

Step #7

Before moving on, an important note about the human body is the hips in connection to the shoulders. There's a big to-do about weight, when a character leans to one side, they put all their weight and movement to one foot during a stance, arching it downward. This also makes the shoulders balance the opposite way. But this is often when a character is leaning to one side or balancing.



__________________________________________________________________________

Step #8

Remember I said opposite! When you line up the shoulders with the hip, they have to be pointed in different direction as apposed to at the same angle. This just makes the pose look silly, and disproportionate, as well the spine won't be able to support it. So keep this in mind when you do your poses.



__________________________________________________________________________

Step #9

In this tutorial, it's rather easy to set up legs and arms, however, they're not just lines and circles, muscles should be thought about before getting into them. I'll get into greater detail about legs, arms, feet and hands in a later tutorial, I just want you to get a sense of the idea where joints come in handy to a pose.



__________________________________________________________________________

Step #10

Ah but don't forget, we've still yet gone into details of the female body. Keeping in mind that the female body structure has the same types of features (arms, legs, etc.) but with noticeable differences. The female body is a bit more curvy, the hips are noticeably different as they connect to the legs, as well, you must know where to place the breasts upon the chest.



__________________________________________________________________________

Step #11

Here we go, using simple shapes, you get an idea of the similarities and subtle differences. Keep in mind that the female body is generally more slender in proportion to the male body. I'll explain more about the female anatomy in another tutorial, for now I hope this gives you a general concept of what to practice on.

Well I hope you get a good idea about the body in detail, int eh next tutorial I'm going to talk about the face, how to give your characters expression! See you then.



__________________________________________________________________________


www.starfieldcreations.com



andrewdickman.deviantart.com