a question

[AttackCat]

I just finished a class where we mostly drew long poses and worked on details, likeness and clothing. We didn't really cover a lot of quick gestures, almost each pose was a 3-4 hour drawing. My question is, what does one try and get out of the shorter poses, like the 2,5,10 minute poses? More proportion, lights and shadows? Not quite sure what the aim is. I tried a few, and if anyone has any suggestions of things to focus on, please let me know, Thanks

2 min. poses
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/331012/LDquicksketches3.jpg
2 min, 5 min.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/331012/LDquicksketches1.jpg
10 min.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/331012/LD5-10minutelady1.jpg
3 hourhttp://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/331012/LDgirlwithbigshoes.jpg

[mtw]

Originally posted by AttackCat
My question is, what does one try and get out of the shorter poses, like the 2,5,10 minute poses?
Shorter poses get you thinking about gesture. It also forces you to try drawing quickly, so you don't get stuck working on detail. The beginning stages of a drawing are important because you make sure you have proportions correct, the figure is placed in a good position on the page, and it's easier to see the basic lines and masses. The basic lines and masses are what you should use to add expressive value to your work. But that's another topic all together.

[Main Loop]

gesture, #1, proportion is secondary but you should pay attention either way.. major masses.. contours should for the most part be avoided..

[AttackCat]

thanks for the helpful comments.
MTW- so its gesture you say...and trying to get more of an expressive mood. I often get stuck trying to get the perfect lines in place and then....ding, time runs out. Then when i realize what i have drawn, it doesn't seem totally right.

Main Loop- Ok, Gesture again, and major masses. Yeah, contour lines are something i constantly battle. I guess it's a matter of finding the important ones.

[magnut]

AttackCat, think of it this way... most times, with proper gestures in your figures, you're able to tell your 'story' (getting your character to become 'alive', as it were), to get your character to be BELIEVABLE, or CONVINCING, even it your character is holding a carrot.

Todd McFarlane (the creator of SPAWN) is (to my mind) very similar to Bill Watterson (the creator of CALVIN & HOBBES), as it pertains to their gesturing.

McFarlane draws people with cauliflower ears, polio-stricken hands, and goofy-as-hell faces. Watterson draws his characters with basically a combination of simplistic circles, squares, & rectangles. Yet, they both have a marvelous sense of GESTURE!

McFarlane's gestures are subtle when they need to be, powerful when they need to be, and sexy when they need to be. Watterson's gestures are sweet, gentle, scary, lithe, and flowing, when they also need to be.

Two radically different stylistic levels, yet with the most importantly basic thing in common: GESTURE!

If you want your portraits, paintings, art studies, trees, buildings (yes, buildings... meaning, also every other inanimate object) to be CONVINCING & BELIEVEABLE (for others to look at it and say, "Damn, I FEEL that"), then you need to concentrate on getting those gestures done.

Think of the gestures as a CONCEPTUAL thing. You already have a skillset that's awesome (nice work you posted, btw). Now, you just need to figure out how to apply them.

To do that, you'll have to make a priority judgement. You're going to have to choose which is more important to you, ultimately: to have all/only pretty lines, or to make your characters/whatever LIVE in your drawings! You are able to have a blending of both, but that comes with crippling tons of practice. But, after all that practice, do you know what you have?

INSTINCT!!

And, when that instinct (for how to make your illustrations full of CONVINCING LIFE) becomes second nature... then it'll be like breathing to you! After that, then you can go out and run all new marathons (take on new and more challenging projects) with your great newfound Artistic Philosophy.

Suggestion: when you're doing those 5-10-15 second poses, think of what you're doing as a 'philosophical' excercise. You just might surprise yourself by getting into a whole new 'interpretation' of what you're drawing, instead of just drawing things ONLY representationally. It just might broaden your viewpoint.

Good luck... ;)

[AttackCat]

Magnut- first, what a wonderful comment, thank you. I do in fact see how both McFarlane and Watterson create such great 'life' in their characters while maintaining very unique styles. This 'gesture' of which you speak has been somehwhat void in my drawings lately. I've known that something was missing from the drawings but have never really known how to better them. Thanks for the advice, i'll try and work on getting the soul of the drawing (whether person, object, or even building as you say) more than the perfect line. Afterall, a skilled man can draw a perfect circle, but who would want to look at it?

[AttackCat]

some recent life drawings.
quick one
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/331012/dogstudy.jpg
25 min.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/331012/Tom.jpg

[Matt Elder]

Short poses start off with gesture as the fundamental basis. If you get this right, then your character becomes believable. One thing I also think about with gesture when doing sketches from models is where the 'weight' of the pose is. With someone running, sitting, lying, kneeling, there is always some relationship between the wieght of the person and the ground. It is very important to nail this as if you don't, the person will appear to be floating or something and just not believable to the eye.

With your 2min pose, bottom right, you've got the weight working really well, the person feels like they are on the ground with weight being supported by their arms. With the 2min top right, you've gone close and you get a sense of the weight of the upper body resting on the leg through the arm, but because of the way the characters right foot looks, it doesn't feel like that weight is being transferred to the ground, it appears floating. It could probably be fixed with a line or so.

The 10 min lying one captures gesture and you get a real sense for how the upper torso is being supported. However the legs are just floating, how are they resting on the ground. This could be improved with just a couple of lines to show the relationship of the legs with the ground.

Just a couple of thoughts.

[AttackCat]

Matt, thanks for the valuble crits. I never really considered the 'weight' of the model before. I guess i just got lucky with the ones that seem to work. Maybe it would be better to give a couple of lines, as you said, to show what the model is resting on, or where the ground is. Or even give a shadow of a nearby object. I will take this into consideration...thanks once again.

[cateaic]

Hey,

You definately have some skills here with these posts. Have you posted this on deviantart? That 25 min. head is awesome. You have a handle on the sense of mass and shading when it comes to the 2 min. 5 min. I think you just need to let go and do some free lines.
If youre ever doing a character pose or something you can do some loose lines to get the energy and then take it to a light table and use the lines you like but also building more structure. This guy has some really good gestures on his site. http://www.joachimart.com/
See ya