Session 1 - Intro class Gestures - Pg.2

Firebunni,

Well, it looks like you are off to a great start.

I think you may benefit from a two pencil method. Take your H pencil and work the gesture. Then take your B pencil and emphasise the parts of the motion you find most compelling. This works well with drawings that are about 5 minutes or more.

You could also play with an art buddy, "Thicker Thinner Darker Lighter".

-In this scenario, you each have a blank sketchbook page and a B pencil.

-One will be the caller, and one will be the drawer.

-The caller, calls the kind of line being made. So, say you are Drawing a dark and thick line the caller might call thinner, so you will have to change your line quality. But! Not the shade of that lines levels of darkness.

You keep drawing until you make a mistake or are too slow to change your line or shade the quality of your drawing lines. (Most give 3-five seconds to change line quality. But you can make your own rules.)

Mistakes are tallied, and whoever has ten tallies first loses.

You can still play this game without a drawing buddy but someone who wants to be the caller. In that scenario, you still don't want tallies, but they do. Again you play till one of you wins or loses by ten computations. If you each have, say, three reckonings, they cancel each other out. There has to be a clear winner with ten marks in their favour or disfavour.

---My husband and I play this game, and whoever loses does the dishes. Or some house chore. It's fun, competitive and encouraging to get both housework and my skills keen.

Lastly, I can not recommend enough Classical Human Anatomy. I found it to be one of the best quick references with lots of practical mechanics for the beginner and above.

If you play, please mention it on your subsequent critique request and let us know your results.

Enjoy scratching surfaces.

All the best,

JCML Fine Art