Introduction to Gesture - working through the assignments
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Assignment 2: People as Shapes.
I've always struggled to simplify people into shapes. But hopefully I'm getting better at it with this class. I really liked the "bean and noodle" exercise, so when I was stuck I just made a kind of bean of the shape. Thank you!
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@lucy_gow One thing to look at is shapes where the body is bigger or rounder. What I see is you give one girl a ball body, but the limbs are the same size, and thin, as on your other bodies. Look at Luisa from Encanto. She’s big, rounded squares. Very sculptural. Her limbs have girth from her muscles. Her neck is thick,but she has narrow waist and hips.
Félix has a big barrel chest. Look at the size of the neck and limbs. Bruno is a narrow rectangle with limbs to match.
Study people, their shapes. You know how they break people down into pear shapes, weight mainly below the waist. Apples can have huge round bellies, but smaller, flat butts. hourglasses are a double triangle, or overlapping circles where they’re big on top and bottom, but have the same narrow, hourglass waist. Some people are long or short waisted.
This will help you see what to start with and then have fun and exaggerate them.
Edit: thought I’d add - it doesn’t mean larger shapes can’t have thin limbs. It was more that I wasn’t seeing any variation in what you were doing. have fun and try again. Practice shapes every day.
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@crispalomino Thanks so much for your advice! I was a bit confused about whether the shapes were meant to be based on the actual shapes of people or not.
I tried drawing some more round figures. They're still a work in progress, but I'll keep practicing.
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Looking through the work you've posted, something I think you may benefit from is playing more with the placement of the shoulders as well placement of the neck and head. Shoulder placement in relation to the head/neck can really say a lot about a pose. Shoulders down, pushed back, head and neck forward can really show aggressiveness. If you keep the head and neck the same, but then pull the shoulders forward, it can say an entirely different message. Shoulders pulled forward, then raise either up and down, could further change to mood of the pose. What about one shoulder up, with a head looking over it, chin obscured? I think you successfully played with placement of the shoulders on the first image you posted with the kid on the bike. I think you could explore even further and see how it can effect some of your poses.
Website: www.tessawrathall.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/tessawrathall_art/
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@TessaW That's a really interesting point. I hadn't been thinking about shoulders at all. But now I'm paying more attention to them and will try playing with that and the neck/head more. Thank you!
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I'm just posting the rest of my "Assignment 2". I think I'm getting more confident at gesture drawing now, so I tried using my iPad again – then I could just draw the shape in color and then go over it.
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@lucy_gow Great job! It definitely shows that you are getting more confident. This latest batch is looking more expressive and natural.
Website: www.tessawrathall.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/tessawrathall_art/
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@TessaW Thank you.
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Assignment 3: wait and weighting (half). This is an interesting assignment, but it's hard to do all at once. I'm kind of halfway through it. I'll keep observing when I see people waiting and come back to finish it. So far all I've noticed is that people try to take the weight off their feet if they have to stand waiting for ages. I've maybe gone backwards a bit because there's always so much to think about.
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Just keeping on with the course.
I'm up to the hands and feet now. 
I work as a substitute teacher, and also drew some hands of students while they were doing a math test this week.
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Lots of heads.
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Finished (sort of). This is my attempt for the last assignment on interactions. I struggled a bit and didn't do that great a job. Also, I tried out lots of Procreate pens trying to find one that was good for expressive sketching. I found Inka was pretty good.
I hope you don't mind me sharing all my assignments here. It helps me make sure I actually do them. Thank you! I'll keep sketching.ETA: actually, I just saw there's one more assignment.
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@lucy_gow Very nice work! I can see your progress in these from some of the beginning sketches to the more recent ones, which is awesome!
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@lucy_gow Thanks for posting and sharing all your work, I am struggling to get through this course, so your work has been an encouragement. I get the ideas but find it hard to implement them in my work. Such a useful course with loads of helpful practice like the first drawing course before it.
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@Kristen-Lango Thank you! It really is a very good course with so much in it.
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@PenAndrew I'm glad if it helps. This course has been a lot for me, but it's really helpful and thorough.
After I started this, I found another thread from a couple of years ago: https://forum.svslearn.com/topic/9864/gesture-drawing-class-work-anyone-want-to-post-their-work-with-me
Their drawings are amazing and they show how they did a lot of the exercises. -
@lucy_gow Thanks for sharing this Lucy. I like your drawings very much.
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@lucy_gow These are fun, and I see progress in them, as they get more and more expressive. I especially like the ones where you drew the shape underneath in green and some of the facial expression ones. Also, I recognized some of these poses immediately! (One really gets to feel like they know that couple after a while
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@lucy_gow Nice! These are looking great! I would’ve never thought that hands by themselves would be a gesture. It makes sense though.I am doing the figure drawing course right now but this is next on my list. And then I think I need to learn how to color digitally. Too many things to fit in!!
