速寫練習

Gesture sketching is an important part of our daily artistic routine, it helps us to quickly gesture out our thoughts and edit them into shape. We can consolidate information without dwelling on the details, and helps us to try variations without sacrificing too much time and effort. Gesture drawing has dozens of important functions. In this video post, we will focus on some of them. We will be looking at developing solid forms in the gesture sketch. All of the examples were done between 2 minutes and 10 minutes in length, using charcoal and smooth newsprint as the study tools. Let's get started. The carving tool is a charcoal pencil, with three key areas to use. The belly, this produces a soft edge on both sides of the stroke. The point, which produces a strong, sharp edge on both sides of the line. And the combination of belly and point. This produces an edge that is sharp on one side and soft on the other. Great for edge shading. I'd like to point out that the reference images are not shown here, but all of them can be found on the internet. Everything here came from the internet. Use figure drawing reference for your keyword search, and you can find them. Rhythm is the flow of the pose, the flow of the limbs, the way the figure moves in 3D space. Rhythm is the long flowing lines cascading from head to toe. Tying the top of the figure with the bottom. The figure flows upward and outward, while gravity pulls it all back downward. Our gesture line captures this physical battle. The rhythm organizes it and gives it purpose. Rhythm lines are drawn from the shoulder, capturing the longest lines of influence first, before getting lost in any part or detail of the pose. The smaller rhythms should also be gestured in with a long line way of thinking, to prevent them from becoming stiff or irrelevant to the pose. Rhythm is also through or across the figure form. The shoulder is made up of most of the upper torso mass, and has a huge influence on how the muscle rhythms flow across the figure. The combination of the arms and legs and how they influence the torso can add a multitude of smaller rhythms within the bigger gestural lines of influence. There is no end to the number of minor rhythms we can find within a single pose. Combining rhythms and landmarks can create a very realistic looking figure in action, fully fleshed out and ready to step off the page. To better understand the extrusion of the forms and how to shade them, we need to familiarize ourselves with the landmarks of the figure. These landmarks represent the skeleton, the foundation for the soft tissue or muscles and body fat, and the tendons. These landmarks help us measure across the figure. They also divide one mass from the other because they are the anchor points for these muscle groups. These studies can be done at any speed, but once all of the anchor points have been found, the drawing is finished and should not be shaded, just to remind you of the goal, searching for the landmarks and what that goal should look like when accomplished. These last three demonstrations are all developed the same way. The drawings can take anywhere from 2 minutes to 10, 15, maybe even 20 minutes, depending upon their scale and their complexity. This gestural practice is like trying to finish a complete figure drawing, but in a short time burst, consolidating all of your realism skills into a burst of energy until it's completed. It helps us to quantify what we know and consolidate it into our professional workflow. First,I look for the abstraction of the gesture, the long lines of rhythm, and make adjustments to them until they fit together and feel convincing to the action I'm copying. Next,I move across the figure, plotting the landmarks and reshaping the contours of the pose. I'm looking for the balance between the sides of the figure and I'm also looking for any obstructions of shape that might stiffen or break the rhythms. To make the figure more dynamic, the figure does not need to be curved or bent more, as some tutorials might lead you to believe, but a stronger feeling of perspective overlap within the core of the pose. This is where most drawings fail. We want it to be something easy, easy to recognize, easy to fix, like the silhouette, but it's not the silhouette, it's within the interior. The reality is, the better you understand draw-through and anatomy, the more dynamic your figures will look and feel, period. Once I've blocked out the gesture and tightened up its construction, I then look for the shadow shapes, blocking out their terminator line with the appropriate edge types. Hard for cast, soft, firm, or lost for form shadows. When the edges have been blocked out, I then fill the shadow shapes with a uniform tonal field, defining the light side from the shaded side. I work on cleaning up and harmonizing this value or notan pattern until it all fits and is all uniform from top to bottom and side to side. Then I look for the occluded spaces and define them by starting their gradation at the darkest point within and then triangulate a gradation outward until it fades into the bigger notan pattern. I'll accentuate the deepest darkest notans, adjust edges,and call it complete. The next few drawings are done in a very similar way. I'll leave you with those and some sounds to keep you company. So I hope this post has been helpful. I did do it a little differently and make a video this time because I wanted to show demonstrations along with the talking points. If there's any hang-ups in your professional or student workflow, leave me some suggestions in the comments below so I can address them with future video demonstrations as well. All right, everyone. Enjoy the video. Thanks again and have an amazing creative experience.