Ever see a sketch of a graceful, fluid dancer that makes you almost feel the euphoria in their pose?
Or the simple lines of a tennis player whose entire body is intensely focused on the serve, a split second before their racket swats the ball? You can feel the power in that moment, yes?
Getting that kind of emotional intensity into a whole-body pose in your artwork is definitely possible, even if you’ve never taken a shot at gesture drawing before!
What's gesture drawing?
Gesture drawing is the expression of motion and movement of a pose. Gestures can be simplified by a few simple action lines that you can combine with the human form to create the perfect gesture.
These sketches can be very quick, taking just a minute or two (or 15), with very little (or no) detail in the face, lighting or shadows. The goal is to warm-up for a figure drawing, and explore what shape the form will ultimately take.
How to practice gesture drawing
Join the Paintable Discord community to participate in our monthly thematic art challenges, including the one starting this month (at the time this article is published) tackling the subject of gesture drawing!
Once you’ve joined the challenge, check out the the Sketching module within the Digital Painting Academy to help you with the challenge.
Gesture drawing examples
Today we have a collection of inspiring gesture drawings for you, drawn by some of our favorite artists in the art community.
Get inspired by how brilliantly they capture motion often using only a couple of loose sketch lines. Ready to try it yourself?
DRAW DYNAMIC POSES IN 7 STEPS
Capture the movement, action, and emotion of any pose following the 7 easy steps described in this Gesture Drawing Guide.
DRAW DYNAMIC POSES IN 7 STEPS
Capture the movement, action, and emotion of any pose following the 7 easy steps described in this Gesture Drawing Guide.
