Okay, gesture drawing is a quick rapid sketch. But why should i do it? What's the real purpose and idea of gesture and what exactly should you try to catch in such small window of time?
People say that main thing is that gestures train you to capture "life". How exactly? What is this "life" and what to think about to capture it in static image?
Let's think a little about it.
We use gestures to capture life, okay. It's easier to figure out when you have something opposite for contrast. So there should be opposite idea that gesture can't be applied to. Which is something lifeless.
What comes to mind first when you hear word "lifeless"? Cold motionless gray stone that just lies on the ground.
"Full of life" and "Lifeless" - are best described by associations that come with these words. Visual arts are basically a language. So, painting or drawing life is basically translating associative array of words, terms and thoughts to the corresponding visuals.
Full of life: Dynamic, flow, motion, bend, energetic, distribution, tense
All of these words can be explained by one term - energy distribution. Even simple act of standing, which is resisting gravity by distribution of mass and correcting itself, uses some energy, which is visible by corresponding interactions between parts of the body and ground.
Every object have some mass that is distributed through its shape/form. If objects have any kind of energy distribution between them - they are related.
Showing associative visual cues of energy distribution between related objects in some point of time before, at the moment or after interaction - main point of gesture drawing.
That's all about purely physical side of gesture. One that is based on physics and anatomy. There is a different side to gestures.
Poses and gestures are used synonymously in language. Some poses have strong social context and used to deliver emotional or any other message through context.
Relations in this case exist between different social objects and their interaction. Couple of objects in some physical states, even if not related physically, can still influence each other, in that having strong emotional or any other contextual connection.
Combination of physical and contextual aspects gives the fullest understanding of gesture.
That's about it when it comes to pure theory. Practice is learning vocabulary of gesture and how to distribute energy in the image. It always varies but main principle is that More energy present = more dynamic the image feels. It can be stored in one spot or distributed through whole scene - that's for you to figure out.
Next thing about gesture needs to be about vocabulary, I guess.
And I really need to learn which stage of drawing process gesture is. It's cool and all when you can draw cool gesture but kinda useless if you cannot implement it in your process and build on top of it.
Okay, now when I kinda know what fundamentals I need to study and practice, it's time to learn how to do it properly.
It's 2023 and we have like a billion ways to learn anything. As a person with highly pronounced decision fatigue, that many options is a worst thing imaginable. Art classes, online courses, YouTube tutorials, books, talking with fellow artists - kinda too much for me at first.
Out of all options, courses and books have the most structure, but it's kinda hard to listen, watch and analyze all of that info at once in a video. Books have the least sensory input on me, I guess.
Books for artists that I plan on reading:
Scott Robertson. Thomas Bertling. How to draw. 2013
These two have killer skills for information delivery.
Purely construction fundamentals book. And a little bit of concept art.
Whole book is about of drawing from purely geometric point of view. Freehanded. It's written in simple language but with depth.
Half of this book is about perspective, how to use it, how to construct with it, what useful geometry tricks you can do with it from a very strict and technical point of view. Without any water, just straight usefulness.
The other half are examples of using that theory.
In theory, learning this book gives you definitive set of tools that you will use for your whole life for construction, sketching and lineart.
It looks too packed and useful as a starting point in drawing so I'll start with it.
Scott Robertson. Thomas Bertling. How to render. 2013
These two again.
How to draw depth on 2d planes: the book.
How light works. how to render it. Full workflows. Textures. Value and Color. Reflections. All this in depth with every example possible. And each example is explained.
Light is a difficult topic, so this book is a bit heavy on the brain too. But everything that could be simplified was simplified to its core.
It heavily relies on How to draw.
Gotta read it after the first one.
Joseph Sheppard. Anatomy: A complete guide for artists. 1975
Human anatomy reference book. Half century old, but last time I checked, humans still have same anatomy.
It's basically medical anatomy book without any medical stuff artists don't need.
Every image in this book is hand drawn with pencil with visible roughness - it's basically a really detailed anatomy sketchbook with explanations.
Michael Hampton. Figure drawing design and invention
If Sheppard's book is a medical handbook, this one is purely artistic anatomy book that looks at anatomy from gesture standpoint.
So, everything in human anatomy is here, but simpified.
James Gurney. Color and Light: A guide for the Realist Painter.
Everything i saw and everyone i asked said to get this book. Don't know why.
Fundamentals are what applies to any image no matter what technique was used, what style, materials, medium - it does not matter. You can analyze any image through those fundamentals.
Each fundamental contains multiple skills. Each of them have infinitely large skill ceiling.
It would be stupid to not use someone's knowledge about the subject, so I'll just find some good article by experienced active artist and write my thoughts about it.
This will be good enough for start.
I guess, I'll need to break down each fundamentals in smaller details under close inspection later.
So. David Revoy has good and easy to understand article.
list the skills you need to know and practice to get better at drawing and painting figurative artworks by David Revoy
For now, I cannot train each of the fundamentals separately. I need to get a basic understanding of applying every one of them simultaneously and thoughtfully. Later I can concentrate on some specific things. David says so too.
I won't copy the article one-to-one but capture my thought process while reading it.
Being an artist in visual field is based on techniques of creating visual illusion. Which are based on rules of perception of human eye. Idea is to trick eyes so when they see that illusion, it feels natural and meaningful for them.
For convenience and ease of understanding i separated fundamentals into technical and expressive as they even if connected, need different approaches to learn and use.
So, fundamentals
Technical fundamentals.
These are skills that on the most part are purely technical. That don't require expression of emotions, story or anything that is traditionally associates with artistic expression.
They don't require much choice and operate by sets of very strict rules that are dictated by our perception of environment.
Geometry, Physics and Math define and describe how technical fundamentals should work. Which you need to follow if you need your art to be technically correct.
Artist's journey from technical standpoint is to understand rules of nature and figure out how to use them for their advantage.
It's important to know that strict set of rules equals easy predictablity of outcomes. Which means that there are a lot of grids, rulers and another guides that you can simply follow and it will look right.
Structural fundamentals.
These are sets of rules for creating objects in scene. And to make them look right from constructive point of view.
For them, in theory, you can use any material or tools to train or show them, as these are purely structural and don't need more than simple lines to work.
Idea of structural fundamentals is that they are purely a structural carcass of an art piece. These are the main culprits of tricking the eyes and brain into thinking that they see something three-dimensional and with volume even without shading and color.
1. Perspective
Eyes have certain rules of perceiving depth. To simulate that depth perception on two-dimensonal plane, you need to use rules of perspective.
There are a ton of guides, grids and other helpful tools for perspective that artists invented. While learning, start from most basic concepts like grids, how to use them, and how basic shapes act in perspective.
2. Proportions
Proportions are a weird one. I think David made them into separate fundamental skill as many artists orient themselves by proportions in the process of drawing.
Right now I think about proportions more like of combination of fundamentals like: visual library, composition, anatomy and communication. Just because proportions are never the same and can mean too many things at once. And proportions of all things are the most manipulated thing in art. Yeah, there are golden ratios and ideal proportions in anatomy that you better know. But it's more of visual library thing in my head than anything.
But, I'm not professional artist or expert so.
Proportions are relations in size between anything. Between different parts of the body. Between negative and positive space on canvas. Between objects in the scene.
There are numerous things that are easily recognizable for their proportions. Aaand I lost myself trying again to separate proportions from visual library. Proportions are like sub-class of visual library that includes stereotypical sizes and relations that you just remember. Anatomy includes learning proportions too. I dunno why it is separate.
Okay... If we separate remembering of proportions from methods of using them... that will kinda work as separate fundamental skillset. Does not matter how many proportions you remembered. It matters how you can apply them into your work.
3. Anatomy
Structures are complex objects that consist of other simpler objects.
Anatomy is a study of how those structures function. If you understand how object works and what parts it consists of, you can create more believable image of this object.
Anatomy includes basically everything mechanical about any structure (humans, animals, mechanisms, plants, etc) and how parts of these structures connect, look, what shapes are they, how they work together and etc. (Bones, joints, muscles, shapes, how they change)
Readability fundamentals
These are for effective delivery of specifically visual information. Structural are more about geometric/wireframe side of things and expressives are for delivering the idea. Readability fundamentals are there so your image is easier and more intuitive to read.
4. Composition
Composition is basically how you place your elements on canvas. These elements can be grouped not just by objects but by color, level of depth, distance and really any other way.
By separating and grouping elements, your piece is easier to read and it generally gives more expression. If you can say what happens in the picture by little thumbnail - that's composition that works.
Learning composition is more or less visual library thing plus ease of reading on par with meaning.
5. Lighting/Shading
Shading is a term I like better.
Shading is a skill that communicates lighting though different values/shades of color. Proper illusion of light is the goal here.
This skill is vast in theory. You need to learn how light works, how it changes with intensity, multiple light sources interaction, how to cast shadows properly, light bounces, how different materials interact with light and most importantly, how to deliver all that through different values of same or different colors.
6. Edges
After infinitely large skillset to not so vast in size.
Edges are how you split shapes and silhouettes from each other. That's it.
You know, when two same colored objects overlap from your point of view, it's kinda hard to know when one ends and second starts sometimes. Just because they lack a specific edge and blend into each other. Yeah, you can separate them with composition, but sometimes it kinda ruins everything so you need to solve this problem with edges.
Overlapping is fundamental rule of perspective, so by splitting objects with hard edges you not only make things more easy for eyes but make closest object pop. Or you blend them with soft edges, it's your choice.
So, for paintings these are edges(hard, soft, lost) and for line art are line styles(weight, speed, ghost)
Expressive fundamentals
Thing is, with enough understanding, any fundamental skill can be used in expressive way by changing or even breaking the rules in meaningful ways to express your idea more clear.
Expressive fundamentals are for delivering idea or emotion to the viewer. Mood, message, flow, energy, symbolism, taste, invention, associations - all these are expressions of artists' mind in the first place.
7. Colors
Why is it in expressives, not communicatives?
In short, you use colors as emotional information transmitter or as an aesthetic choice. Lighting will make basically any color work, so choice of color from technical and readability point of view is insignificant.
People associate different colors with different things and emotions. Just by placing couple of colors near each other will tell some people a clear message or association.
So, learning colors is basically learning different color systems, how they look together, subcontious meanings of them.
How colors change in different lighting is more of shading thing.
8. Gesture
Gesture is a weird one when you hear about it.
Gesture as an exercise is quick rapid sketching with no little to no restraints with next in mind:
Gesture as a skill is about transmitting dynamics(movement, tension, flow, expressions, actions) and capturing "life" in static image.
Okay, gesture drawing is a quick rapid sketch. But why should i do it? What's the real purpose and idea of gesture and what exactly should y
9. Style
Style is a series of aesthetic and technical choices to "sell" particular artwork to specific audience in appealing way.
It covers all aspects of life. From clothing to way you move. Traditional, symbolic, expressive... Anything can be merged into style. Also anything can inspire it, from movies to music to everyday life.
Fashion is a good synonym for style.
10. Concept
Development of an abstract design in visual form.
Basically, taking any kind of idea and developing its visual. Making something new.
More you know about ideas, their realization in real life and how things work the better.
Anyway, it's purely creative process and it's implied you'll have some happy accidents. If you have some idea - draw it. If it's not really what you wanted to draw - you now have something that captures that idea(even if poorly) and now you know what you need to learn to make a better idea or capture it better. Win-win.
11. Communication
Storytelling through image.
Sometimes it's much easier to show than tell.
You can encode a message or story into image. You just need to learn the nonverbal language.
Effectivity fundamentals
Okay, these have nothing to do with David's article but in my head these are still essential skillsets that every artist uses.
There are million ways to draw and paint. So there is always easier or faster way to do anything.
These skillsets will make you more reliable, faster and overall make your life as artist easier over time.
12. Visual library
It does not really matter how vivid your imagination, if you have aphantasia and cannot visualize things or really bad at remembering things. You still can develop a visual library.
Visual library is a collection of objects, styles, compositions, proportions or anything visual that you remember in small details and can recreate at will. Things from this library are drawn Intuitively and waste no brainpower to do so.
To add an item to visual library you need to learn everything you can about it for some time. Then draw it from every angle possible. Once you don't even think about how to draw this thing - it's safe to say you're finished with it. More knowledge about this item like its purpose, how to use it, what materials and whatever you can imagine - the better.
13. Simplification
Making things simple have many purposes. Simpler things are easier and faster to produce. Also it's harder to lose track of things if they are simplified. It's easier to communicate with simpler things. And you always can make simple thing more complex. Thing is, it's harder to make something complex and working from the ground up than from something simpler.
All this relates to your process, thinking and everything you make on canvas equally.
From two equally skilled artists, best one is who thinks in simpler terms. One who's process is so simple to him, so easy to navigate, he can replicate any thing he's done before. One who can explain his process so it's easy for his listeners to do it themselves.
14. Stealing
Well, analysis is a better term. But stealing is more motivating way of thinking about it.
Best way to understand how to steal properly is by learning how to use references. And what people generally mean when they say it.
When you look at reference, analyze it. What do you see and what can be the idea behind it? Why is it that way? The way it looks. The way it's constructed that way. You will have some suggestions, no matter what you look at. Only problem is putting it into words. From answers to these questions you will have some idea.
Some idea you can freely steal. And realize it on paper or whatever.
It works not only for new concepts but as learning tool too. Its easier to learn general idea of any thing before learning/practicing it's exact realization.
And yeah, it's kinda wrong to steal realizations rather than ideas. And counterproductive in the long run from the perspective of being able to learn/express yourself
Fundamentals rely and interact with each other. If you break one thing, you probably break many of them. Same with success - if everything is good about one fundamental in the piece, others are easier to work with.
Also, it's important to point out that your whole drawing process can be founded by one fundamental in particular. And it can be any one of them. If you prefer to use construction grids to build your image from ground up and have no understanding about any other fundamental - you still can make a masterpiece if you master your process.
Some workflows may just have no need of some fundamentals whatsoever.
It's been hot af lately. Couldn't even think of anything. Here's 15°C drop where i can breathe at least. Until it's hot again, time to write some basic learning plan.
Okay, before i even draw something, i need some kind of hierarchy and structure in image development.
Before that i need hierarchy in learning fundamentals, what they are and how to study them.
Also, there are different mediums to visual arts and i need the most versatile first that i can learn everything in and how to work with it. (Basic techniques). It's important, because realisation in different mediums can be drastically different and i would rather learn a full kit in one medium than something in different.
So,
0. Art is not about copying things. Even if you use references, your goal is to express some idea through that object\scene\etc. Basically, there is no real need to capture objects as they are in reality - you can distort them in any way to achieve your idea and goals. It doesn't really matter if you study something and it doesn't look exactly as it is to your eyes. If you conveyed the idea to your or someone else's eyes - you succeeded. So, you better have even the smallest idea or goal before you start drawing anything.
1. Find what are the visual arts fundamentals to be confident enough to start drawing. Being confident and lil' brave is kinda essential to draw.
It's really hard to continue drawing if it annoys you. And I have really short fuse for those things.
Fundamentals time.
Fundamentals are what applies to any image no matter what technique was used, what style, materials, medium - it does no
2. Find the medium you want to work with.
3. Find what are the essential techniques and parameters of that medium.
4. Distill fundamentals on basic skills through that medium
5. Find what are best ways to learn each skill separately.
6-99. Grind every skill separately at first then try to make work every one of them together.
100. Distill full image creation process on separate easy-to-understand and easy-to-digest stages that you wont find confusing when you are in the middle of it.
101-200. Find a specific genre you want to try, digest on its elements and give it a go.
201. I dunno what's next.
Think, ill just pin this as general plan and update.
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