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  • Hey there, I'm Stan Prokopenko, thanks for watching Proko. This is the first video of

  • the figure drawing series. And it's probably one of the most important. In this lesson

  • I'll be covering "gesture"

  • What the butt-munch is gesture anyway? Gesture, rhythm, motion, action, flow - these are all

  • words that are used interchangeably and they basically mean the same thing.

  • They all refer to the movement between things. It's not the contour, or the form, or the

  • tone. It's the movement that connects the contours, the forms and the tones. For example

  • if you have 3 balls, the gesture here would be a c curve that describes the relationship

  • of these balls. This would be the contour, but this is the gesture. It's simple to understand,

  • but difficult to put into practice when you're actually drawing a human figure. We're so

  • tempted to draw the details of the anatomy and all the little bumps of the contour because

  • we think that detail will make our drawing look better. But the reality is, the detail

  • is nothing without the gesture. You might accidentally find some gesture while you're

  • copying the contours, but I don't like to rely on accidents.

  • A better approach would be to practice finding the gesture of the figure so many times that

  • it becomes second nature. Quicksketch is a common exercise in art school that involves

  • drawing the model from life within a few minutes. A typical quicksketch session lasts 2-3 hours

  • with poses ranging from 30 seconds to 10 minutes per pose. Gesture is the primary concern.

  • Doing this exercise will train you to see the gesture immediately. You can feel it.

  • Then you will be able to design the details to complement the gesture instead of copying

  • details randomly.

  • Your journey of mastering quicksketch will be a long but exciting one. There's a lot

  • to learn and every time you learn something new your sketches will show improvement. During

  • a normal session you'll finish anywhere from 25 to 100 drawings. Think about that... You're

  • drawing the human figure up to 100 times within a few hours. If you do this on a regular basis,

  • you're going to get better.. The best thing about it, is it's actually fun, if you don't

  • stress over it... In this video I'll go over all concepts you need to know for a successful

  • quicketch drawing that focuses completely on gesture. In future videos I'll build on

  • to that and introduce additional concepts all of which come together. And in the end,

  • with enough practice you can use all these concepts to produce a completed quicksketch

  • drawing in 5-10 minutes.

  • So basically gesture is in everything around us. It's an approach to drawing that you can

  • use to draw anything.

  • Use gesture to tell a story by capturing the body language. We use our whole body, not

  • just words to communicate ideas and emotions. This is what the gesture should capture. What

  • is the person doing? What is he feeling? What did he just do? Or what is he going to do?

  • This can be told through just a few lines, which the viewer will recognize as the body

  • and can identify the emotions that person is feeling just like we can intuitively identify

  • emotions of the people around us. It's a good idea to exaggerate the pose to tell a better.

  • As you become more skilled in exaggerating, you will also improve in capturing the subtleties.

  • You're probably thinking, stan, is this another April fools joke? Are you drawing another

  • stick figure? no.. Don't think of it as a stick figure. Because that could make your

  • drawing stiff.. They're not sticks. They're not straight lines. They're action lines.

  • Observe the pose and analyze the movement. It's more about how it feels, rather than

  • how it looks.

  • Later, we will add more structure to these drawings to make the figures feel more solid

  • and real. So, for those of you who don't find this inspiring and are thinking "I don't want

  • my people to look like spaghetti" remember that this is not meant to be a finished drawing.

  • It's a exercise to practice a concept. You're training your mind to see rhythm in everything

  • you draw. You're training your mind to consider more than just the contours when you're drawing

  • shapes. It's an important concept that needs to be intuitive. In all these drawings that

  • you're seeing now the element of gesture was applied to the anatomy to make the figure

  • dynamic.

  • Let's go over some important concepts to remember while practicing your gesture drawings.

  • Longest axis

  • When you look at a form and try to find the gesture, look at its longest axis. Going down

  • the length of the torso, down the length of the leg, down the length of the arm.. It's

  • in the longest axis of each form where you'll find the fluid motion from one form to the

  • next.

  • CSI

  • To eliminate the unnecessary information in the contours and to capture that gesture the

  • lines you use should be simple. Don't use anything more complicated than a c curve,

  • s curve, or straight.

  • You can use combinations of these curves as you move down the figure, but attempt to do

  • it in as few lines as possible using the simplest lines, C S or I.

  • Line of Action

  • The gesture should be drawn with as few lines as possible necessary to capture the idea.

  • Start by finding the longest action line of the body. Try to find a curve that could connect

  • the head to the toes. Not all poses can be efficiently described with one long line that

  • connect the head to the toes, but there is always one main line that shows the directional

  • flow of the pose. This is called the "Line of Action". In this pose the line of action

  • would be a c curve showing the major flow from the torso to the legs. But this doesnt

  • tell the whole story, so this pose would need to be broken up into more parts. I think this

  • sharp turn in the hips is important, so describing it with a soft curve isn't right. In this

  • case, I would use a combination of a c curve for the torso, and s curves for the legs.

  • Relaxed and tense curves

  • The "bendiness" of the curve you use changes how the gesture feels. A longer, fluid curve

  • feels relaxed and moves the eye quickly through that flow. As you start to bend the curve

  • more, you show more energy and more tension in the gesture. Eventually, when it's bent

  • far enough you can use a zig zag. A zig zag indicates tension, sharp corners, very sudden

  • changes in the movement.

  • Nature presents this very well with water. When the water is calm the waves flow in an

  • S curve rhythm. During a storm, when there's more energy in the water, the waves flow in

  • a zig zag pattern.

  • So, when you want to create tension, think zig zag. When you want to show something is

  • relaxed, use a flowing curve.

  • Asymmetry of the body

  • Consider the asymmetrical aspect of the body from the side. The forms alternate in angle

  • from head, ribcage, pelvis, upper leg and lower leg.

  • This causes alternating c curves that lead the eye through the body. Like a river flowing

  • through a stream...

  • The tendency for us is to make things symmertrical, but this stiffens the gesture and makes the figure

  • look like a snowman

  • Next week I'll show some examples of gesture quick sketches and guide you step by step

  • through the process. But, I suggest you attempt to practice these concepts on your own before

  • watching the step by step video next week. You'll have an idea of what it's like and

  • will be able to pull more information from it because you know what to look for. You'll

  • have questions you can focus on, and you can compare what you did with what I do. If you

  • need reference photos, I have some posefile sets you can get at proko.com/poses.

  • If you want to see a more detailed explanation and plenty of examples.. oh cmon! Really?!

  • if you want to see a more detailed explanation, plenty of examples and more additional videos

  • check out proko.com/figure. For every free video that I post during this figure series,

  • I'm posting additional premium content on proko.com. This week I have...

  • If you like this video, share the wealth. Tell your friends, post it on your favorite

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  • want to be updated about new videos. buh bye!

  • Ahem.. Squeaky squeaky

Hey there, I'm Stan Prokopenko, thanks for watching Proko. This is the first video of

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