Gesture Drawing: Old Master Examples.

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Gesture drawing is a great way to improve your art. It keeps your drawing loose and helps get the overall pose. Also, since they are done with speed, they improve your ability to see shapes and proportions quickly.

Here are some examples. The first is by Delacroix.

The overall goal with gesture drawing is to capture the moment. You are not concerned with detail. Just get the overall pose.

In this example by Delacroix, you can see multiple figures and animals, but all done with minimal detail. Quick, curved lines are used to capture the "gesture" of what the figures are doing.

Basically, try to get the angles, proportions, and shapes in. Don't worry about details or shading at all.

You won't be going back over the drawing anymore once it's done. This isn't an underdrawing. When you get to doing your finished work, it will be on a separate sheet of paper.

Use a scrap sheet of paper and a pen or pencil capable of making quick, dark, sweeping lines.

Here are some more examples.

These next few will all be by Sargent. He did them as studies before he did the final painting.

This first gesture drawing shows how to use less lines to achieve the overall effect. He used light, sweeping lines combined with straight, dark lines.

Keep your hand light and flowing. You can make straight lines or curved lines, but either way, concentrate on the overall figure's pose rather than the smaller parts like the hands or facial features. Also, don't feel like you have to put in any unimportant details or background details.

This next gesture drawing shows that you don't have to be precise with your lines. Don't worry about making mistakes here. Put down as many lines as you need to get the pose down. Of course, you don't want to put down so many lines that you can't see what's going on.

If you need to, you can erase some lines, but neatness is not required. Instead of trying to "fix" your drawing, instead just do another one. Do it on the same page even.

Notice how you can usually make out what the figure is doing. There is a sense of movement.

The goal of a gesture drawing is to show movement. You want to capture the figure in the moment of whatever he was doing. That means you have to be fast or he will have moved on to the next pose.

If a model is posing for you in a "simulated" action pose while holding still, you can take your time, but still try to keep it loose.

You don't have to actual "draw" the figure. Your lines might fall outside of the figure entirely. That's fine. Show action, not detail.

You can draw these examples for practice if you wish. Then you can draw real people or people in paintings or pictures for more practice.

Here is one last example.

This gesture drawing was done with ink. Using some kind of ink will result in bold strokes and less detail. If you find your work is not loose enough, try using a different medium. There is pencil (2B-9B), charcoal (soft), ink, conte crayon, or even a brush with ink or paint. Experiment a little. You might find one you like that you never would have tried.

In this example, look at the way Sargent handles multiple figures. Some have very little detail. You can still feel their poses however. There is only a hint of a floor.

Try doing two different drawings. One will use lots of lines, and the other will use as few lines as you can.

If you practice this, your drawings will improve and your work will become more expressive.

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