Any suggestions for gesture type drawing, animation type drawing, etc

**Hyptosis** · September 28th, 2008, 03:50 AM

Hey guys, thought I'd pose a question about learning to draw anatomy (specifically human) from the mind. I've been drawing for about 8 years now and I feel that the last two years I've really hit a plateau. I mean, you give me a photo and I can reproduce it on paper. Or you sit me in front of a model, and I can get a decent likeness. You sit me alone in a room, and it is like I forget everything sometimes.

I spend about 30 minutes to an hour a day just drawing people. I try to squeeze in two hours a week of animals too, but often neglect that. I go to a coffee shop, the mall, I use photos from the web, comics, study other artists, read books. I’ve read countless books… I study bridgeman and mentler at least once a week.

I feel I’ve learned some stuff pretty well, you tell me to draw a human arm, I can usually get it done. The same applies ot other smaller sections, chest, back, legs, stomach. I know where the muscles lay, the bones connect, how they turn, but once it comes time to do an entire figure I seem to forget stuff like mad. Everything is stiff. This tells me I need to do more gestures right? Like an animator?

I figured it is more just me not being comfortable and confident in the initial building stages. So here is what I’ve been doing the last 8 months to try to defeat this.

I’ve been drawing panels form cartoons and freeze frames from movies, randomly, and in ten minute time frames each. Action poses, non action, everything at random. I still go to the mall and draw people walking, eating, etc as well. I’ve been drawing gestures like crazy the past months, but I feel like I’ve learned nothing.

I workout a lot, and I sometimes train people. And the first thing I do is make them take a photo of themselves and I keep it in a drawer. Because you can never see your own progress, unless you have a frame to look back to. In a month I show them the old photo, and they’re amazed and suddenly filled with confidence.

I don’t feel I’m making the same jumps. I look at my gestures/drawings from a year ago, and my new ones don’t look that much strong or confident, if at all. It’s becoming very frustrating. So I’m asking if any of you have any ideas that might help me jump this hurdle I’m tripping over.

My work is so inconsistent it’s killing me. One day everything seems smooth and easy, the next every person I draw looks like a robot.

I suppose, ultimately, I’d like to be able to casually draw a guy battling a monster in the middle of a forest, without having to spend 6 hours looking up references or drawing thumbnails that never seem to work. I’d like to be able to get it right a lot faster.

So hit me, what do you think I should do? Thanks for reading all of this. ^_^

-Hyptosis

**Bowlin** · September 28th, 2008, 05:38 AM

Can you name 3 or more different artist that you really admire and would like to be up to their standards? Sounds like you feel your running in circles without any type of specific goals. Your sketchbook looks very focused on comic art, which is very heavy on contour lines. Perhaps focus more on modeling exercises (much like gesture drawings). You'd proably also get a lot out of practicing Andrew Loomis's proportion drawings (doing them over and over).

**entdroid** · September 28th, 2008, 06:05 AM

For gestures, Vilppu is your man. His anatomy approach is mostly directed to animators, so he puts the accent in movement and flow, which may be what you're looking for here. If you can get a hold of his dvds, all the better! I've only seen one and it was really great, I don't doubt the others will be just as good

**Hyptosis** · September 28th, 2008, 08:49 AM

Hey thanks guys, Bowlin, I DO draw a lot of comics and comic related things, but I don't just want to be a comic artist, it just happens to be the field I ended up making a living in. I really wanted to be a concept artist but I don't get much conceptart work. But yeah, I used to read and study loomis a lot, I've not been studying him much the past few months though I admit.

Entdroid, that sounds very much like what I'm wanting to study right now. I'll look up the name, thank you very much. ^_^

I kind of think that if you could get comfortable enough drawing like an animator, almsot anything with the human figure would be more easy. I know animators tend to leave out a lot of details, but you know what I mean, it to me is one of th ehardest thigns to do. I'd love to have that animated feel, movment, life in my drawings I see in others.

**Hyptosis** · September 28th, 2008, 11:42 AM

Entroid, I wanted to say I've been reading some of Vilppu's stuff and he seems brilliant. Thanks again for the suggestion.

**kingshaj** · September 28th, 2008, 01:00 PM

how large are your short gesture studies?
i would suggest you try to work large, life size,
out of your comfort zone. this will force you to use your whole arm. and loosen you up gesturaly and when you return to smaller or digital work...this will show