Got back into learning gesture, critiques and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Quite a while back I was learning gesture and figure drawing but ended up getting jaded because of how fixated I was on them. After switching focus for a bit to refresh, I'd thought that it would be a good a time as any to get back into the swing of things. Hopefully assistance from others can keep that momentum up.

https://imgur.com/gallery/kuworZo

Things I struggle with:
1) The torso: This is my #1 struggle, aside from finding difficulty in gauging its size, and connecting it to the arms. my main issue with the torso is trying to make it adhere to the line of action. Whenever I let the LOA dominate, the torso becomes stiff. whenever I ignore the LOA, the torso becomes more fluid, but the balance of the gesture gets thrown off. I suppose i'm not too good at LOA aswell.

2) Arms: Occasinally I find myself drawing generic curves for the arms (and rarely the legs too), partly because I'm not trying to follow contours and partly because I'm trying to be fluid/i'm running out of time.

4) Sitting/curled up poses: I cant really put a finger on this one, suppose Its because I can't see the torso too well? honestly I havn't seen many gesture drawings of curled up poses so be sure to share some if you have them on hand, i'd love to study off them.

5) Line quality: Putting this here because you've no doubt noticed it, Its something that i'm personally working on and really its just a matter of time before it gets better, I promise!

Thank you so much for reading this, I look forward to any critiques you can cook up for me. You're all wonderfull and i hope you have a great day, stay safe!

There is hope for you. Look at my figure 26. One thing you will want to do is get part lined up. From the head through the elbow, knee, the right leg and the right foot these are all lined up. From the head, through the back, down the left arm & left leg are lined up in a reversed "c". See if you can imagine the items lined up. This organizes the figure. You can then go in & make the items fit the various guidelines. If you have problems with hand, feet, Line-of-Action (L-o-A) has sections to address these items. Notice that the elbows line up. At this point, I had not drawn anything. Once the various parts are organized I proceeded to fill out the figure.

You need to find on the internet how to divide the figure (measurement is done with the head as the measurement). Go to my Figure 13 in which the figure is standing upright. The legs are equal for top & bottom (2 heads each). If the legs are seen foreshortened, draw the shape (example: my Figure 8). The left leg is foreshortened & the right leg is not.

At this time, do things you feel comfortable with. Get those under. Then move on to other problems. I wish I could draw the figure for you but I can not. I hope I have not confused you. It will take a while to get things going. But if you stick with it you can do it. Remember: Practice makes better.

Don't sweat it, i see what your getting at. I know how to measure the figure using heads or "cranial units" but I never got into comparing and lining up other parts with themselves, so ill give it a shot! I'm not too concerned with proportions because I'm trying to get comfortable doing 30sec gestures, but ill be sure to keep these tips in mind when I'm going for 2 minute poses.

Seing your input and drawings gives me hope. thanks again for your time.

• Noah T edited this post on September 12, 2020 12:12am.

Go to it!

Hi NoahT. I've been looking at your life sketches lately. And it states that there's some marked improvement with each new sketch.

Take for example, I've looked at some line of action poses, it's clear that you're on the right track. Very solid, very fluid, but the liveliness is really getting there. You could have made those poses with the LOA more fluider and vital-er. Why don't you go at those gestures again, in a 30 second drawing. Why? Because your line of action will become the most longest, fluidest, vital-est, and energetic-est.

Hope that it's been most friendly.

Polyvios Animations

Ahh, its really refreshing to hear that I'm on the right track. After going back and re-watching some videos on gesture i've gotten a new-found apreciation for the line of action, spesifically when Alphonso Dunn stated that the LOA should dominate the pose, that really resonated with me! I'll certianly be giving my best effort to improve the LOA.

Thank you again for the input, and have a wonderfull day.

Ola NoahT, você esta no caminho certo, certamente com mais treino você irá se aperfeiçoar, treine as posições mais fáceis, e depois as mais difíceis. Treine a linha de ação, para você ficar melhor no rascunho simples. Você desenha muito bem. Beijos

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i think what may help for your torso sizing is, after you put in gesture lines put in the ribcage circle approximate size and a ball for the tummy, this helps me a lot but im still a beginner and am off drawing things exagerated too big or small especially usually the arms and legs though. i think when working with this phase of gesture line quality isnt as important but when you finish a piece is when line quality is important and you ought to focus on a single line rather than redoing it over and over, to make it as clean as possible. its nice to see your work, and how your improving, keep at it!

For the torso and folded up poses you might try using the "bean' method. You think of the torso shape as two balls in a sock, which you can twist or fold however you want.

Here's a video on it.

This second one is on the robo-bean, which is a more complex version where you make them boxes.

Thank you kindly, i'll give them a watch.