Point of the 30 second sketch?

[ROCKON]

Hey there, I am not sure if this is the right section to post in, or if this topic already exist, but please bear with me.
For some time now I have heard the "life-drawing stuff" get nothing but praise, so in order for me to revive my drawing, I decided to follow a link to posemaniacs.com through this site.
But I really have no idea what to do?
Every time a new pose comes up, I keep finding myself confused and fumbling the pencil.
So could anyone here please tell me exactly what I am supposed to encapture in the short time I am given?

Thanks!
- Simon

[CheeseRoca]

Hi ROCKON! Welcome to CA! I'm fairly new here too but I've tried posemaniacs and well... I guess the technique to that is to get the basic shapes and forms of the figure before you go into details.

When I first started drawing from posemaniacs I fumbled with my pencil too. I think it's better if you start off with 90 secs per figure then work your way up to draw faster :D

Also, practice everyday :) In a couple of months I'm sure there'd be big progress in your part :) Good luck!

[Maidith]

I agree, try doing poses longer than 30 seconds.

when I use posemaniac, I set it to 60 seconds. 30 is too fast for me.

[J Wilson]

The thought is that the faster poses are for just capturing the basic impression of the pose. Working fast you'll (hopefully) get a better feel for the most important elements and retain some of the energy of the pose. 30 seconds IS a bit fast, but it's all a matter of what you are trying to capture. At that speed it's not so much strict accuracey (although if you can do it accurrately even better!) as the feel for the pose.

[TMG]

What has been said is true. It might help to look at animation sketches or very primitive drawings used for animation. You'll find they look a lot like good 30-second figure sketches. The point is to get the basic action, movement, and weight of the figure. The details don't matter, it's how much you can convey to the viewer with a minimal amount of visual information and detail.

[Robert.B]

Oh boy we used to do 15 second gesture drawing at my old school, the model would change poses every 15 seconds and then then it would become 30 and 1 minute sessions and so forth until the second half of class when we would do 1 hour poses. The 15 second gesture drawings were always the best because it forces your mind to rapidly contrsuct whats being depicted in front of you. You also have to search your visual library for information you have retained from practice, and then take artistic license while contrsucting what what might not be visible under the tight constraints.

[Elwell]

The idea of quick poses is to practice starting drawings, seeing the important stuff first, and nailing action and proportion. Ideally, the only difference between a 30 second drawing and a five hour drawing is how long you go before you stop.

[dbclemons]

I always felt I was just wasting paper on short poses (< 1 min.) but they help in loosening or warming up. However, when I've creating a pose from scratch in my head, it's necessary to work out the pose very simply.

Focus on how economical you can be with your marks. Some people do this with continuous scribbled lines, others use quickly drawn shapes, or what's little more than a stick figure. Whatever works. It's not a race, by the way. Take as long as you need, or as little time as necessary.

[Mirana]

I think it also helps train your brain to "capture" the details of the figure quickly. A pretty good skill to learn if you're going to draw from life that is not sitting still. After you have the rhythm of 30/60sec down, a 15minute will seem like forever. An hour is torture... ;)

[ROCKON]

Surprised by the number of responses!

Thank you all so much! :)

[dose]

I did some 10 and 15 second poses in college. The main thing I gained from them is that afterwards a minute seemed like a long time in comparison!

So I guess I would agree with dbclemons that a big part of their value is warmup...

[Elwell]

Some oldie-but-goodie threads on gesture/short pose drawing:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=52023
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51554

[briggsy@ashtons]

Nice to see those oldie threads aren't forgotten!