Beginner needs help with sketches

[Lamuness]

Hello all, this is the first time I've posted but I've always looked around in this forum. I've been trying to draw everyday, but I've noticed something I would like some advice on. I don't have the time to goto a life drawing session, so I've been trying to look up a bunch of pictures in different poses and treat them like life drawing. There was a website posted in the inspirations section that I frequent and it helps a lot.

My question is: when I do gestures or quick sketches, how do I break my habit of making a scratchy mess? There are lots of thick and thin lines that don't seem to help the drawing at all, and instead it makes it look horribly unrecognizable. I don't scratch every 2milimeters, but if I have a line, say about 2 inches or so long, it will have about 10 different lines that build on it. I can't seem to be able to draw accurately enough to lay down one line and call it a day. How do you guys get over that? Thanks for the advice in advance!

[Viridis]

How big are your sketches? If you're drawing very small, using mostly the wrist, that might be part of the problem. One of the reasons why art teachers in a class often make you draw at 18x24 or bigger is so that you will use your whole arm for sweeping motions (and smoother lines) rather than concentrating everything on your wrist, which can lead to scratchy, small lines. I would try working bigger, and especially for gestures, try to work on capturing the essential motion with as few lines as possible (like a circle for the head, line for the spine, then a few other lines to define the body).

Other than that... just practice. I'm not great at doing smooth lines myself all in one stroke, but I've gotten better at blending the multiple strokes so it at least looks like one line.

[Grief]

gesture drawings are used to get a quick impression and to block in shapes speedily. having the finished gesture drawing look like a masterpiece isn't really the focus.

as long as you can get a clear idea of what your lines mean, and youre getting a handle on composition and pose then i wouldnt worry too much right now.

practice and confidence will guide your hand and you'll make less of a mess in the future.

heck use the broad side of a flat piece of charcoal or graphite. dont use a narrow laser-thin tip (unless youre doing a mass gesture, scribble-line gesture, or such). think simple and work big.

[Lamuness]

Whoa, my thread's been moved lol.

Thanks for the input, I'll definately try to draw larger. Sometimes my gesture sketches look totally unproportionate, but I can get the basic direction of the main parts such as the ribcage, pelvis, and head. So I shouldn't worry about that until I go back and refine it? Some of these quick sketches I've seen from other people's posts look like recognizable people. I want to get to that level.

Other than that, what should I be looking for when I sketch? I feel like I'm just putting down random lines that make my sketch look worse. I feel like I need to be thinking about something as I'm putting down a line so I start to understand things more.

Thanks again!

[Alex Chow]

I can't seem to be able to draw accurately enough to lay down one line and call it a day. How do you guys get over that?

I've always tried to find some secret technique that can do that, but the only answer I've discovered was to simply practice a lot in order to gain confidence on the strokes (hand-eye coordination). Watching Bobby Chiu sketch beside me put me in awe but also made me realize this. His sketches are very clean, and we're talking about little tiny portraits of people and not huge bodies on 18x24 paper.

It's not like I hold the pencil differently than he does (that said, he taught me how to hold the pencil right a week ago and I didn't look back :/ ). He doesn't use special paper and he doesn't do an ancient ritual before every sketching session. It just comes down to many years of practice in order to coordinate your pencil holding arm according to what your mind wants on the paper.

That said, do not expect masterpieces in a gesture since it is, as Grief said, a gesture. If you can capture the essence of a person anyways, trying to get absolute photo-like accuracy is not necessary.

EDIT: Opening sentence didn't make sense.

[AndreasM]

Other than that, what should I be looking for when I sketch? I feel like I'm just putting down random lines that make my sketch look worse. I feel like I need to be thinking about something as I'm putting down a line so I start to understand things more.


I think..

No one can expect to make fairly accurate or well expressed figure drawings out of quick figure sketches/gestures if they don't have a solid knowledge on all the forms of the human body. People who make those nice, solid gestures, don't record all the info on the spot - they have allready (f.ex. through the study of anatomy, morphology etc) mapped out the main landmarks to look for, and they have probably allready learned how to draw the complex shapes of the head, torso, hips, legs etc in simple masses. Knowledge of construction helps in establishing the general proportions, while a keen knowledge in anatomy will direct the eye towards the more specific landmarks that makes the figure more beliveable.

Robert Beverly Hale said:
"first, you draw what you see, then you draw what you know. Finally, you see what you know."

I think that going through that process will bring you up a few levels..