By Charles Salmon
Look at the Mona Lisa. It is just an ordinary lady with a smile, but why is it so that this image strikes a chord with every person who sees it? Yes, art can bring life!
What gives it the essence to come alive? The answer is gesture drawing.
What is gesture drawing?
Gesture is defined as "a movement or position of the hand, arm, body, head or face that is expressive of an idea, opinion, emotion, etc."
Gesture drawing is the most basic and a loose interpretation of an image. It is a preliminary effort, which is put into an image before it can actually become a more accurate and detailed drawing. The basic aim of gesture drawing is to capture the movement of a body.
It aims at capturing the movement or change in the structure of the body. During gesture drawing you need to understand that every living creature has its own unique personality and character. You try to capture that uniqueness through gesture drawing. Through gesture drawing you try to breathe life into your drawing, by giving it movement.
This type of drawing is essential for drawing living things. Here the actual body parts are not important, but it is important to get the curves and the angles of the creatures correct. You need to stress upon the action performed by the living thing. Visualize a ballet dancer and see her gliding through the air, in gesture drawing what you actually do is, capture this movement or rather the action. In this type of drawing, it is the form of the object which matters and not the object itself.
Here the size of the living being is not important. You can take down several forms on a single page.
What do I need to begin gesture drawing?
Drawing paper: You would require a sketch paper. You can take any inexpensive paper. The size of the paper does not matter.
Pencil: Take any 2B, 3B or 4B pencil.
The above mentioned equipment is easily available everywhere.
How to begin
To begin you do not require much. Get the equipments mentioned above to get started. You will find your subjects everywhere. Anybody can become your subject, it just requires you to interpret the action or rather the direction of a moving body. You may just have a couple of minutes to get into the feel of the movement, for this you require to concentrate on your subject completely. You may not have the opportunity to look at the object and draw; therefore, you have to continue looking at the subject as you try to capture the living thing on paper.
Conclusion
It may appear to be difficult, but with practice it will become easy. In reality what matters is what you are trying to express through your drawing whether it is the spiritual or the physical movement of the body; you need to convey it to the viewers through your drawing!
I Askd.com offers a large variety of information - from how to draw animals to how to draw a manga character.
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