Month: September 2017

This lesson will explain how to go about adding more detail to a figure gesture by breaking the simple curved lines into more complex articulations. You do not need to make it extremely detailed, it should be enough to break a long line into 2-4 sections.

I recommend watching the accompanying video while reading through this lesson as a lot of the concepts will be clearer if you watch me demonstrate them. Click here for the video.

Sighting Angles and Alignments to Improve Accuracy

Even if you’re using you eye to copy, it is useful to pay attention to relative angles and alignments while working. This will stop you from getting tunnel vision about any single aspect of the drawing and keep you thinking about the big relationships that govern the overall proportions.

You can compare angles by flicking your eyes between your drawing and the subject. Your eyes will spot if an angle is different because there will be a shift as your eyes move back and forth (like how an animation works). The same is true for lengths of lines between the angles.

Alignments are even simpler, imagine a straight horizontal (or vertical line) lying across your subject (you can also use any straight implement, like a ruler or knitting needle) and see what point in the subject line up. If they don’t line up in your drawing, you know that something is off and you can correct the mistake.

If you can get the alignments and angles right, the drawing will naturally fall into place without too much effort.

High Point and Low Points

When looking at natural forms you will find that most are made of gradual curves. These curves make it difficult to break down a form into simpler construct lines (or articulations). An important aspect of producing an effective line drawing that captures the essence of the subject is an ability to pick high points and low points effectively.

A high/low point is essentially the point at which the curve turns back on itself in a noticeable manner. While a curve is (by nature) always changing direction you will tend to find that there are specific point along the curve where this change in direction is more pronounced. Thing of a parabolic curve, it is gradual changing direction until suddenly reversing rapidly before becoming more gradual again. It is these marked changes of direction that we refer to as high and low points.

When beginning to articulate a gesture drawing, start by finding these high/low points along the curved lines. Only find one or two points to begin with, otherwise it will become over complicated quickly and it will be difficult to make corrections where necessary.

Overlaps

Any representational drawing (or painting) is a 2D interpretation of 3D reality, so there will be aspects of your drawing that omit parts of the subject that are hidden from view. In complex subjects (like the human figure), this results in a number of overlaps. Places where one form partially blocks another form. These overlaps usually result in a angle change and placing them accurately will help to give a sense of all the forms relating to one another accurately. They are also crucial when trying to capture foreshortening (a form of perspective that is caused by the aspects of the subject closer to the viewer appearing bigger).

Naturalistic Rhythm and Avoiding Repetition

The final consideration when producing an articulated drawing from a simpler gesture is to ensure that you keep a naturalistic rhythm when adding more lines. There is a tendency for humans to make things regular and repetitive, which makes for a dull (and unrealistic) drawing. Nature is full of ordered irregularity which is inherently beautiful, so an important aspect of producing an effective representational drawing is to appreciate and translate these natural rhythms into your drawing. If you notice yourself adding identical lengths of lines or identical angles it probably means you’re drawing automatically and not looking at your subject enough.

After watching my ‘Gesture Drawing’ lesson (see below) and reading through the  accompanying notes you can try your hand at this exercise. If you’re signed up to OCAD Studio then you can scan or photograph your work and send it through to me and I’ll give you some feedback.

I’ve attached a sheet of classical figure drawings for you to use as the basis for your first set of gesture drawings. One version is lighter, to make tracing more obvious.

1. Print out the sheet or copy them from your computer screen.
2. Either copy by eye, trace over the lighter sheet or use a sheet of tracing paper over the darker sheet (whichever you prefer)
3. Try to distil the images to just a few straight lines and simple curves, in order to capture the energy of the figure.
4. When you’re done with this set, find some of your own references to keep practising, or better yet, sign up to a local life drawing class and try your hand at making these gestures from a model.

Gesture lines describe the movement and feeling of a figure. They are a way to quickly capture the essence of a pose without focusing on the details of the contour (the specific shape of the forms that make up the figure). To see how gesture drawings are made, check out the accompanying video.

Tips

1. Limit your lines to straight lines, C curves and S curves, to keep things simple.
2. Look for the motion not the contour.
3. Draw what you feel rather than what you see.
4. You can use combinations of lines, but always try to use as few lines as possible.
5. Tighter curves have more tension than gradual curves, this will affect the sense of energy in your drawing. A coiled figure will feel more tense than a relaxed flowing figure.
6. Think about the relationship between the head, feet, shoulders and hips.
7. The head will usually sit above the centre of gravity.
8. It is common for the hips and shoulders to counter one another.
9. I often talk about the importance of straight lines when constructing forms, but with gesture we are using curves to encapsulate tension, energy and movement.

Life Drawing Groups

Quick sketching is common at life drawing groups because the limited time forces you to focus on the general relationships and feel of the subject rather than the detail. Most groups will begin a session with a lot of very short poses, which are ideal for practicing gesture drawing. If you are able, I recommend finding a local life drawing group to practice, as working from life is a great way to get a real sense of the different types of energy and mood that different poses convey.

Other Uses of Gesture Drawing

The concept of gesture isn’t limited to figure drawing and painting, it can be applied to any subject or group of subjects as it is an integral part of composition. The relationship between objects in a still life or the elements in a landscape can also be described with gestural lines.

In this exercise, you will be creating a sphere, but the same principles apply whenever you’re drawing or painting any form in a representational artwork.

Use the diagram below, watch the accompanying video lesson and read my introduction to form as guide when you create your own sphere.

Materials

Drawing

• Paper
• Pencil or charcoal
• Eraser

Painting

• Toned canvas or panel
• White paint
• Either black paint or
• An earth colour paint (such as burnt umber or raw umber)
• 2-3 small to medium sized brushes
• Odourless mineral spirits
• Palette
• Cup for mineral spirits
• Cleaning rag

Steps

Determining the Light Source

1. Draw a circle on the page or canvas, this will be the basis for your sphere. Then draw an ellipse on the ground plane, this will be the shadow cast from the sphere and determine the direction of light.

2. Draw the ‘bedbug line’ (the line that divides light from shadow) onto the form.

Establishing the Shadow

1. Fill in the the shadow shape with an average shadow value (about a 7 on the value scale).

2. Next, fill in the cast shadow on the ground with a similar value.

Adding Variations to the Shadow

1. The shadow isn’t usually evenly dark, because in most cases, light will be reflected into the shadow after bouncing off other elements in the scene. This will cause the centre of the shadow to lighten, becoming darker towards the bedbug line (the ‘core shadow’).

2. The shadow will also become darker where two forms meet one another (like where the sphere meets the ground). This is called the ‘occlusion shadow’, it is dark because neither direct light or reflected light reaches it.

Adding Halftones and Refining the Form

1. Begin adding halftones from the bedbug line, these are the ‘dark halftones’. As the halftones move further away from the bedbug line they will receive more light, and begin to lighten as a consequence.

a)  If you are painting on a toned panel, at a certain point you will reach a value that matches the canvas. When this happens you should stop adding dark halftones and start working out from the lightest values. You will find these values at the part of the sphere that faces the light source. Once you’ve added all the lightest halftones, they will meet the darkest halftones.

2. If you are drawing your sphere you can just keep adding halftones gradually. The further that halftones are from the bedbug line, the lighter they will be. At some point you will just leave the white of the paper.

• In stronger, direct light, the transition from the bedbug line will be more harsh.

• In weaker, diffuse light, the transition from the bedbug line will be more gradual and softer.

2. Now that all the halftones have been added you should have a roughly correct sphere. At this point you should spend time correcting value relationships and neatening up your painting or drawing.

As always, if you have any questions about this exercise, please let me know.

To enhance your understanding of colour,  it helps to know about the three different variables (hue, chroma and value) of every colour that you come across. Gaining a better understanding of these three variables will make mixing, matching and discussing colours much easier.

Hue

Every colour has a specific hue, which is determined by where it falls on the colour spectrum (blue, green or red etc.). While hue is most evident in bright primary colours, such as the yellow of a McDonald’s sign or the bright red of a sportscar, most of the colours around us have a less obvious hue. This means that we will often have to describe a colour by using compound hues, such as a yellow-green leaf or a red-brown brick. There is no definite way to describe these mixed hues, so just go with what you feel best matches the colour as you see/feel it.

Chroma

The chroma of a colour is determined by how intense it is. In other words, how much of the pure hue is present. Every specific hue has a maximum purity, when this diminishes, the colour will become more washed out and grey. Think of a bright red shirt, the more you wash it the more dull it will become. The shirt’s hue hasn’t changed but it has become less intense over time, this is caused by the chroma lessening.

Value

Value is determined by where the colour falls on the spectrum of between absolute light and dark – with black being at one end and white being at the other. This means that you can mix a very dark red-brown or a very light red-brown, with the the hue and chroma being identical but the value changing. The steps between black and white are made up of a gradient of greys transitioning from light to dark. Take a look at How to Make a Value Scale in the General Skills and Concepts category on the front page for more info about value.

Conclusion

Hopefully this introduction helps you to understand colour better and makes it easier for you to use and discuss colour.

The way that these three variables interact is the most complex aspect of colour theory, so we will be looking at their relationship in more detail in future lessons.