In the first blog about AESA's drawing workshop I discussed blind contour drawing.  In this entry we'll be looking at ways to better understand the human body and how it moves.  During the workshop the participants explored gesture drawing.

A gesture drawing is work of art that is done rapidly.  In terms of figure drawing, it means that the artist is concerned with capturing the essence of the pose. During the workshop participants drew a series of poses in a short amount of time, ranging from as little as 30 seconds to as long as 2 minutes.  Creating gesture drawings
allow an artist to capture poses that cannot be held by a model long enough for a detailed study.  As well, this practice reinforces the importance of movement and action which can be overlooked during a longer drawing session. 



Below are examples of gesture drawings done during the workshop.




The primary purpose of gesture drawing is to help artists understand how the human body moves.  Gesture drawings allow you to focus on the effects of twisting on the body, the exertions of muscles, and the natural range of motion in the joints.  By making gesture drawing a regular warm up exercise, your students will develop an instinctive understanding of human body proportions which will help them when they go to create more elaborate drawings.


Try This Trick
Having students mimic a model's pose for a few minutes before drawing also helps them to physically understand how the model's body is in tension.



 
As promised here is a more detailed blog on some of the activities that were done during AESA's Beginners Drawing Workshop.  The workshop began with an exploration of blind contour drawing.  Blind contour is a method of drawing that involves drawing the contour of your subject while not looking at your paper.  For the workshop each participant found a partner and had 5 minutes to draw their partner's face.  The key to blind contour drawing is to draw one continous line in a slow and steady manner without lifting your pencil from the paper.  While the drawings produced may seem more akin to scribbles, blind contour drawing does help students to draw more realistically, since it trains students to focus on all the details of their subject.  I have also found that blind contour drawings are full of character, can be a good classroom icebreaker, and can ease students' anxiety of not being able to draw realistically.

Below are a few examples of blind contour drawings - including the one I did at the AESA workshop.


 
I thoguht I'd share a few sketches done at the recent figure drawing workshop organized by AESA.  In a future post I'll be writing a more detailed account of the tips and tricks that were shared during the workshop, but for now enjoy some awesome drawings!

 
Picture
Source: http://tinkerlab.com/2011/03/art-dice/

I recently found this tool for generating art on tinkerlab.com.  Art dice offer the perfect solution for students who fear the blank page.  Using these dice can also work as a method to introduce or explore shapes, line, texture, colour, and other drawing skills.  Visit AESA's Resources page to download printable templates of the Colour, Line, and Shape Dice and start drawing!