gesturez

  

The three gesture drawings shown, are characteristic of my work at the beginning of the semester.  I will write about them generally as they are fairly similar in the way that I chose to address the figure.  Early on in the semester I chose to focus on outlining the figure, I didn't consider the bone structure of the body.  My lines, considerably more so in the first two drawings, are quite meek.  It is difficult to see the line variation because of this and also because there isn't a great amount of variation.  I had a lot to improve on at the beginning of the semester.  The last drawing, however, shows some improvement, there is more confidence in the lines and there is also a greater variation in line quality.  

   

Throughout the semester I've not had a problem including the entire figure on the page.  I've been quite consistent in at least that.  I think that I've also been fairly successful in placing the figure in the picture plane proportionately to the overall piece of paper.  When doing gesture drawings, I began the semester by sectioning off the page into separate drawing planes, this helped me to think of each section as a separate picture plane.  However, when drawing so quickly, it is sometimes difficult to be accurate in placing the figure and I sometimes end up off the page (this is not illustrated in the gesture drawings shown).  As we learned more about the anatomical landmarks, I began placing them when doing gesture drawings.  In the 30 second drawing, I didn't have enough time to place the rib cage or pelvis, however, it was fairly easy to place the spinal column as well as the structural aspects of the femur and tibia.  In both the longer drawings I added the rib cage, pelvis, and spinal column, while focusing on long axis lines rather than outlines.  As the semester progresses, I've learned to incorporate line variation more successfully,  in the 30 second drawing I've used line variation to describe the leg.  It helps to communicate the models pose and suggests the character of legs in general, as they act as a sort of spring for the body.  The 60 second drawing uses line weight to describe the weight the figure is putting on the back leg, as well as what is closer to me (the right shoulder) the 1+ minute pose achieves this too.  I chose to use greater line weight on parts of the body that were closer to me.   I think the 30 second pose and the 1+ minute pose are more successful in capturing the feeling of the pose, the 60 second doesn't seem to do the same things the others do.  It might be that there isn't as many exaggerated angles in the drawing.  Overall there has been a great improvement in my gesture drawings since the beginning of the semester, I've learned a lot about using anatomical landmarks which helps in figuring out the placement of the figure as well as making the drawing more believable, I've also been able to incorporate a greater knowledge of the use of line to help capture the feeling of a pose and help rely less on outlines.