Once again motivated by YouTube I set to practice on some new concepts for drawing figure gestures and I’m calling it Structural Figure Gesture. I’m not sure if that is what the teacher in the video is calling it but it seems fitting to me.
So this was a very interesting and short video on the process that Chris Warner uses to draw gestures of the figure. Even though the video was short it was packed full of useful information and I ended up watching it 4 or 5 times while I drew from a different figure.
I even took note of his basic process of moving through the figure to complete a gesture. Of course when he gives an example of the actual process in a sub 2 minute pose he burns right through it in no time. I on the other hand find I need 5 minutes or more just to hit all these points of his process when drawing the figure.
- Recognize the gesture (probably the most important part)
- Top head mark
- Fluid line through the entire body to the floor
- Vertical reference line
- Axis of shoulder
- Axis of hips
- Divide full height in half to estimate placement of pubic symphysis
- Sternum mark, right angle to shoulder axis
- Egg of rib cage
- Hip bowl
- Square of rib cage and hip bowl
- Neck
- Frontal line, from sternum to navel to pubic symphysis
- Head shape
- Double the height from the top of the head to the pubic symphysis to get the full height of the figure (approximately)
- Weight bearing foot in relation to head
- Tibia and leg shape
- Non weight bearing leg shape
- Hands in relation to body, draw a bit larger than you would think (I always draw hands too small)
- Find the elbows
- Connect upper and lower arm shapes
Geez that is a ton to think about in less than two minutes! Repetition is key here, I just need to draw a ton of these to figure it out well.
