Loosen Up Your Hands With Gesture Drawings!

What are gesture drawings? Well, to put it bluntly, it's the exact opposite of contour drawings: it is the ability to feel objects in motion instead of a static pose.

In other words, while you concentrate on the shape of the object in contour drawings, you will start to look at how the object moves in gesture drawings. To do that, you will draw furiously and fast without regards to the actual shape.

On a deeper note, the object of this exercise is to realize what the object is doing rather than what it looks like. By doing so, you are penetrating the inner workings of the object and how it functions in relation to the space it is in.

1. Getting started

Before starting, have you done at least a few contour drawings? The more you do, the more you will understand it. If you think you've done enough, we will start with gesture drawings.

Ready?

Again, start with a fresh new canvas or continue with an existing canvas. I will also do it along with you just to illustrate what you are expected to have once the exercise is over.

First, you need to have an image in your mind of what you want to draw. You just need to vaguely draw an outline in the example listed. I recommend a figure as that the most type of subject for gesture drawings.

Moreover, while you can choose any animate or inanimate object to be the subject of the study, it's best to use an animate object as it prepares you for the next step of speed.

2. Timing yourself

As mentioned, unlike contour drawings, which are slow, gesture drawings are quick and take just as much concentration to do effectively. How do you get yourself to do quick drawings?

Easy! Your subject has to be moving constantly. This is why it's best to use an animate object. I recommend a few minutes to start off and then gradually go quicker.

If you don't have a model, that's ok as well! Just see if you can draw all the kinetic energy of your mental image! There are no breaks in between! This is to be done with your eyes totally focused on the subject in front of you and letting your hands go in a continuous motion!

Within a few minutes, I will try to do as much sketching as I can. You should do the same as well in your gesture drawing!

As you can see from the sketch, it's starting to come alive! Within these precious few minutes, I captured the form and then elaborated on the flow of the figure with the time remaining.

It's straight forward, right?

3. Creating flow

If you haven't noticed yet, gesture sketches gives form to your subject. For example, the flying motion has my character learning over.

You may even also have noticed that you emphasize certain body parts to further exaggerate the pose. Why did you do that? Perhaps you were focusing on it more than other parts of the body?

In any case, you have begun to put substance into a 2d form! Unconsciously, you're giving your subject depth rather than just leaving it as an empty drawing!

Now you can start slowly filling the form with little details however you see fit! As a beginner, your initial gesture sketches will be not as refined.

That's why you need to do a lot of them, while studying your subject, to really get your gesture drawings down! But once you do, you will use that experience gained to give dynamic motion to your drawings!

4. The benefits

When you do a lot of contour and gesture sketches, you begin to feel a sense of the whole. You are no longer focusing on one aspect of the painting. Instead, you will look at the entire painting, how it flows, and how it interacts with other subjects.

As such, these drawings are the basic fundamental techniques that will drive these skills. It's like learning your alphabet for the very first time and then using it to create your first few words.

However, regardless of your progress, you shouldn't display your contour and gesture sketches. These are drawings that the public will not see, and yet, it will be incorporated in your final paintings.

With that said…

Look at the potential effect once you start refining in the details of your gesture drawing when you are doing it digitally!

At the end of the day, every contour and gesture sketch can be thrown away or continued to be drawn into a finished product.

You won't have to waste physical resources either when learning digitally as these sketches will give you several samples of the same idea to be refined later!

On top of that, it saves time so you can focus more on learning and less time on correcting mistakes. That's the digital advantage!

Like always though, keep motivated make sure to upload any artworks to this site's galleries!

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