Obviously we need to look at the model or subject to sketch, but I'd like to impress that we are impressionists and not realists when it comes to our sketches.
Looking up and down TOO much can lead to disconnected shapes.
We concentrate on a head, a torso, a leg or any part individually and forget about the gesture as a whole. The truest example of this is when the time is up and the model has moved and we only have a partial sketches done.
What I believe is happening is the brain is trying to capture shapes of the body in segmented thinking because we worry about the correct shapes of anatomy and it bogs us down. We should be starting with large shapes that cover the whole pose first then work over that trajectory with more detailed work.
Remember the gesture is the whole complete idea of a pose. It's not a gesture of an arm then a gesture of a body, then the legs. It's everything in one!
My advice is to record a complete mental picture into your mind by studying the model or subject for a moment. Then go down to the paper and draw until you've forgotten that mental pic and go up for more info. This will help you draw your impression of the whole pose and not get caught up in segmented sketching.
I was at my son's first Tball game yesterday and sketched a few pieces. It was so rewarding to experience such young kids playing America's oldest past time.
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| Coaching the batter |
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| Assistant Coach |
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| Paying attention to the game |
8 comments:
Thank you Dave! This is very helpful. I have noticed that I tend to rush into drawing before observing and it does lead to segmented drawings. Thanks for the advice!
thanks so much for this post! I was wondering - with this approch, when do you start thinking about design in your sketches (straights vs curves etc.)? because it seems as though even your quickest sketches are so well-designed...
your blog is so full of useful tips!! thank you for sharing them!
That's great, Dave! My son started soccer recently, and (believe it or not) I've been assistant coaching. A lot of fun, but I wish I could get a chance to sketch!!
It is my son's first year of t-ball too that just started and I am coaching the team:) Your batter gesture has spoken to me so much that I wanted to post my appreciation:) It's so spot on! I see our kids at play:)
Thank you so much for the tips! They're very helpful. Do you prefer using a brush pen to get the best gesture drawing? It seems like since it's a pen, you have to be economical with your strokes, but you learn faster because of that.
Great work! The looseness of the lines makes your work come to live, love it!
Thanks everyone.
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