Gesture Drawing

[bono3d]

Hello friends...
I trying to learn myself figure drawing with help of Mr. Vilppu videos. I´m loving it, he is a great teacher and artist.

The first lesson that I doing is to learn gesture drawing and after a lot of training, I beginning to figure out what is all about. In Vilppu´s Drawing Manual he says that gesture drawing must be do in 30 seconds. I didn´t understand why I need to do it so fast. Anyone knows why?

Thank you for attention.

[Asatira]

Gesture drawings are done to get the gesture or the impression of the action of the body. They have to be done quickly to keep from getting bogged down with details or the desire to draw details. Very good for getting you trained to capture moments like the action of a sporting event or people doing every day activities when you can't control them as you would in a life drawing session. And, again, it's to get the gesture of the figure, which often sets up the sense of life in a drawing.

Hope this helps.

[bono3d]

Nice....make sense. I will try to do it.
How often you guys practice this. In a regular class, how much exercise is do it and how often?

Thank you for your reply Asatira

[Ryan K]

It's good to practice gesture often, no matter what level you're at. Especially before getting into spending a lot of time drawing - it'll loosen you up. It's like stretching before and after a workout. Gesture is what will give the form more life and rhythm.

[Asatira]

I don't do it regularly, but I should. As Ryan K said above, it's good to practice it often and they make good warm ups because you aren't focusing on details but action and rhythm.