#definitely don't pass it up; they're not all nakey people

[dawnthefluffyduck]

Gesture & Figure Studies

I mentioned in a previous post that a professor of mine gave me some resources that I find super helpful, and that once he fixed the links to those resources, I would share them here.

So, as promised, I'm making a post to compile the various online goodies I've been given/stumbled across on my own. All of these are super good resources to practice gesture drawing for free, and in a more comfortable environment than staring at a real person three feet away from you. Some of these are also good references to have for longer drawings, so feel free to use them in whatever way helps you! Links put below:

Before anything, I think it's important to explain what exactly gesture is. At its core, gesture is simply looking at some form of reference, and drawing what you see as quickly as possible. Gesture drawing isn't actually exclusive to drawing people; it's helpful with pretty much all subject matter, such as still-lifes or landscapes. This post focuses on figure studies, but the techniques found here can be used elsewhere too.

These exercises are typically done in increments of 30 seconds-5 minutes. That's not a lot of time, so it's very important to not get hung up on details while working. Instead, focus on whatever you're drawing in its entirety; the point is to capture the energy of whatever you're looking at, not each individual shape. These drawings tend to look a little goofy and that's perfectly fine! The important part is proportion and energy, not form.

Below are a couple of videos that I think best help introduce gesture drawing. Seeing it is action explains it better than words can, in my opinion:

A demo of figure gesture drawing (this is closest to how I was taught)

Short video that explains good things to watch out for while you work

And for the poses:

Playlist of timed poses (non-nude)

Playlist of timed poses (nude)

Pose image library (nude/non-nude/hands/more+)

Timed image library (nude/non-nude/hands/more+)

Another timed image library (nude/non-nude)

Pinterest board of hand/feet references (helpful even outside of gesture drawing)

HUGE pose reference library (very helpful even outside of gesture drawing)

DeviantArt page for the above (more poses I believe, but harder to navigate)

I'll update this post if I add anything else to this list, but this is all I have for now. Hopefully a couple of people can find this useful :D