Day 1: gesture and faces

Imgur link: https://imgur.com/a/2RFoD0O

First of all, I am a newbie and this is my first day, this is why you see a lot of errors.
I also have lots of questions!

First question: is best to practice gesture and faces separately (one month gesture and another face) or together?
I am trying to decrease the amount of stiffness that my drawing show. With gesture I struggle with anatomy and detail (for me is easier a two-minute pose than a ten minute one.) With faces, I distort the expression one way or the other.

For faces, I don't know what I should capture with the quick sketches. I particularly struggle to draw people who smile with their mouths and teeth open.

Also, any good resources, exercises and books on said arguments are welcomed.

hi!!

So, im not a professional but I can give you some pointers. You said you're a beginner and your work looks really good, I would say, to answer your first question, I would say pratice them seperate as when you do gesture, the details of the face are some of the last things you need to focus on. I reccomend learning general body structure which includes face, look at anatomy books and images as they'll help you understand anatomical structure (which will help with your figure drawing). I also really reccomend praticing base strutures of the body. with faces you seem to struggle with general structure and youre jumping into details too quickly. try to get overall structures correct before adding details. when doing faces the most important thing in my opinion is eyes and mouth and nose bridge.

i hope this helps a little bit

Hey welcome to the game newbie ^^

When it comes to choosing to focus, its a good idea, but you have to make sure that you are not burning yourself out. So pick something and focus on improving it, but be sure not to kill your love of ddrawing.

When it comes to faces, they are one of the most difficult things for humans to draw, you need to destroy a part of your mind that has representational shapes for what you "Think" a face looks like, build up what reality is, and then come up with how you want to enhance reality (or just go crazy and do photo realism). So it is important that you KNOW that faces are hard first, really take that to heart and accept that it will take time.

A very popular way of drawing the face and the proportions of the body/head was developed by Andrew Loomis, the book "Figure drawing for all its woorth" is very good and includes both gesture, anatomy and facial anatomy. Most of the people that teach any drawing of humans teach an adaptation of that method, even if they don't realize it. And of course Loomis didn't really create it, but he has one of the best and earliest books on it, so he gets the credit.



Keep at it and have fun! Love what you do and keep doing it ^^

In addition to the previous advice, one could add that it is not always necessary to draw the whole head. Sometimes you can draw only the areas of the eyes, mouth and nose. Individuality is often found in that area. And as others have already written, draw a lot and have fun.

DragoNano, way to go on learning the gesture lines on your figures and expressive faces. Great job on your first-ever attempts!

Well, after flipping, rotating and graying those drawings you've posted on your link, I feel that there are some errors. 1) You're right on your drawings' rigidity. You need enough practice and patience for yourself. After all, this process is a marathon, a real marathon. And 2), you have a kinda bad habit on drawing your faces in terms of the tooth details, when you should've worked out the forces, first and foremost. Would you please loosen up your kissing-the-paper-skills with your dominant (cross-dominant) hands with 30 minutes of 30 second figure pose warm-ups, plus 30 more minutes of 30-second faces and expression warm-up drawings.

The two reasons is because: First of all, to help you focus on your large and longer lines on your traditional pencils on papers. And second, to aid and assist on your liveliness and expression of your pictures of drawings. For even further details, I'd like to recommend you 3 book titles: Volumes 1 and 2 of the Walt Stanchfield Series, and Action! Cartooning by Ben Caldwell. Check them out on Amazon, if you totally can.

https://youtu.be/VUKd7BF8yC0 But wait, there's more, this video.



Good luck on your marathon, and I hope these are beneficial.

Thanks for the reply! I completely forgot about this site and post. Yep, I have to get the face construction right first.

Thanks for the reply! I should read that book, they told me that many tutorials are a worst version of that book.

How can I have more fun while drawing?

Thanks for the reply! Yep, I should practice individually.

Unfortunaly those aren't my first attempts XD , you are absolutely right, this is a marathon. And I have the bad habit of thinking of it as a sprint. I checked Action! Cartooning and was strangely good. To be sincere I need a routine (of about an hour) that covers the warm-ups and basics. What is your routine for the basics?

Thanks for the reply!

For my routine on warming up I start with circles and lines, and I give myself about 20 minutes of time to really hone in on curved, S shaped lines, and straight lines, or as they call it "CSI" method. These are the most common lines you can find while drawing the human form. It also gets my head into a good spot to look for the simple lines, to look for the forest in the trees, if you will. Laying down good foundations takes a lot of time, and my art mentor described what we're trying to achieve here as mixing the mortar for that foundation, if the mortar doesn't stick, the bricks in the foundation won't hold together and we don't have a foundation at all. Give yourself those 20 minutes, don't be afraid to fill up your sketchbooks with "stick" figures that have a lot of expressive form and CSI lines. Good luck and feel free to reach out, I'm always happy to help!

Sam

Hi! A few things: Great work! You have very confident, sweeping lines that are pleasant to look at! When it comes to quick sketches, it's often best to focus on the emotion of the subject. what about the image evokes the most feelings for you as a casual observer? Remember: Art is about sharing your vision with the world. This means emphasizing the things that are important to you. As far as drawing open mouths and teeth is concerned: Sometimes, less is more. Don't feel like you have to draw every line or tooth. Just focus on the expression. As long as it reads like a mouth your viewers will gt the hint. Human brains are designed to fill in the details.