Okay - here is the straight dope on Gesture.
WHAT IT IS
Gesture is the composition of the body's motion. Which is an abstract thought.
Whether or not it is Dynamic - or Iconic. (moving or stiff)
Gesture is also - the connecting line between different parts - or shapes.
Remember this ^ for the rest of your life.
The gesture is the placement of the figure on the page, with the action and scale all blocked in. In a sort of abstract representation of a figure.
What gesture is not - perspective, construction, detail, anatomy.
WHERE YOU IS
Your lines are dynamic and in motion. You have long and strong lines.
Your 1/9/25 thirty (30) second gestures are great. You can't ask for much more during thirty seconds.
Your five (5) minutes poses are getting there. You are adding some actual structure to the initial sketching 30 second gesture. But you are also adding some anatomy which can start adding much detail and be distracting. It is not bolstering the motion and composition of the figure - it is rushing to finish.
As I observe your last 30 second and 5 minute poses - I can see that you sometimes hit the basics that always always always have to be hit.
Top,
Bottom,
Side,
Side.
But you dont always...- sometimes it's
top,
side,
side,
limbs,
muscle, muscle, foot
WHERE YOU GOTTA BE
Think of how you are doing the torso with the top, bottom, side, side.
These two for example are great.
You need to also do that with the limbs. The resources section below can illustrate that.
But to keep things simple in your gestures - Remember your landmarks. Specifically the landmarks of the acromion processes where the collar bones end at the deltoid - and great trochanter of the femurs lining up on the opposites at bottom of the hip bowl)
Those are your landmarks for top and bottom of the torso mass for figure drawing.
The sides need to be thought of as the following
Action Line - The longer side that is always convex
Character Line - the second line that short and concave
It is called the character line because it decides the width of the torso or appendage.
Recognize that short poses will have a specific purpose.
30sec to 1min - gesture action line, and height and scale of the figure - you may not finish every time- it is mostly warm ups.
2 Minutes - you are trying to finish the abstract representation of the motion connecting the whole body together - think if you 'finished' a 30 second gesture. Ok? Moving on.
5 Minutes - You can now add some structure to your finished 2 minutes gesture by defining the action lines and character lines of the torso and limbs - and maybe - a center line defining the form of the figure and limbs, and maybe some design of shape and motion.
We could go on to how figure drawing progresses into 8, 10, 15, 20 - but now we get into long pose theory - contours, anatomy, design, notan of shadow, focal points, on and on and on.
SOME RESOURCES
Dont click on them yet - finish reading
Proko - Draw Any Pose From Any angle - Rhythms
Proko - Demo Rhythms - Level 2
Proko eBook - Rhythms - download
He will explain his process - where he will start with the pit of the neck etc. What you need to notice is that he will follow that process every single time. And is very consistent. If you dont follow your process every time, whether or not it is his or someone else, the inconsistency will be present.
Conclusion
Words give you power over the abstract. I hope that this can define what gesture is for you. There are other entries I've done in the critique section and you can go find those where I expand more detail on the process of gesture.
It takes time - Know - Pro - Go.
Try what you Know. (learn from videos and practice)
Ask a Pro. (not your peers, or watch your tutorial again and critique your stuff)
Go and try. (try again - hit what you missed) Rinse and Repeat.
It is a lot to learn - it is a hybridized system - with teachers from many different pedigree of thought that has been handed down from dojo style art studios to the internet - to simplify the thinking process of figure drawing. You have to unfortunately wade through a lot of poor information. Or similar information.
later
