Gesture

I love gesture drawing. It's a great way to warm up before painting or trying to focus on a bigger project. When I have only seconds to capture something, I get out of my way. Or, maybe I bypass my over-thinking brain and just let my eye and my hand figure it out. Sometimes it feels like magic.

I often practice drawing moving people. When I'm sitting still and others are moving around me, I can often get a quick gesture drawing that captures the feeling and shape of what I see.

In figure drawing sessions, we usually begin with gesture drawings for the first 10-15 minutes of our three hours. The model often strikes dramatic poses that are possible to hold for a minute or less but would be too taxing to hold for longer. Here's an example of one of my gestures. It's a crazy scribble (I was experimenting with not lifting my graphite stick while drawing) but there's something there that's definitely human and interesting to me.