New e-book!

 

A collection of notes, sketches and draw-overs on Gesture Drawing. A guide to the essential building-blocks of capturing the essence of a pose quickly and efficiently. All the notes I posted on the Artof_GestureDrawing IG page summer 2020 are included + more sketches, draw-overs and text.

Available in my Gumroad store here

Buy my new e-book 'My Life, Drawing' on @Gumroad (link: https://gum.co/hiNFG) 222 pages on my path from classical life drawing to character/story based gesture drawing. Overlay notes & tips included. Quick link to the product here:


   Buy 'My Life, Drawing'

 

GESTURE DRAWING e-book

This is my book of sketches made in the life-drawing room at Pixar over 4 years. I studied the approach to Gesture Drawing where the pose is used as a springboard for the imagination. Story and character are the focus rather than anatomy.

Available as a digital e-book on Gumroad here


Practice is, of course, paramount to success; I would attend drawing classes twice a week at Pixar. When I worked in France with no regular art classes I still practised gesture drawing every day sitting outside cafes and drawing the people in the street. I have a book collection of these too available here

How I approach Gesture Drawing

 In the video you'll see how I follow these steps:
-a quick study of the LINE OF ACTION
-a SILHOUETTE study
-placement of the MAJOR FORMS (rib cage & pelvis)
-rapid gestural sketch
-how to use the pose as inspiration to suggest STORY and CHARACTER

My digital book collecting all my sketches from Gesture Drawing Class at Pixar is available on Gumroad here

Gesture Drawing book-digital edition

Now available on GumRoad. Go here to check out the page.

Gesture

Gesture Lab

Latest from Gesture Drawing class. . .

Incredibles Gesture Class

More Gesture Class sketches where the poses were inspired by 'The Incredibles' (digitally coloured later).

 30 sec. warm-ups

 1 min. poses

Gesture Drawing Class

This is a test video made under ad-hoc conditions; i-phone balanced above my shoulder on a shelf, me drawing while trying to keep an eye on the phone and the paper in view. Not ideal but several people have asked me to video myself drawing in gesture class and I hope to make some better quality clips soon. These drawings aren't very good and I break all the rules you're supposed to use but this will give you an idea of my approach. 1 minute poses and I'm drawing slooooooow! It's weird to watch yourself draw.

Leeloo

A Gesture Class model recently turned up wearing the 'bandage' outfit from the Fifth Element! She even had an orange wig and really looked the part.  She had been part of a stage version of the film and re-enacted the story in her mind as she posed.  It really helped give authenticity to her poses and the 'bracelet' nature of the outfit turned out to be perfect short-hand to define volume.  It was a really fun session.  I don't usually add colour to gesture sketches but I felt the orange hair and white outfit needed highlighting.

1. Thirty second warm ups

2. One minute poses

3. One minute poses

4. One minute poses

More Incredibles gestures

We had a model recently who was a perfect fit for some Frozone poses (plus some Mr. Incredible's too)

Latest from the Gesture Lab

A selection of some of the characters I've been work shopping lately in gesture class.  It's interesting which characters emerge from the subconscious on each session. Sometimes they're inspired by the body type of the model or by a film I may have watched recently. After 3 years of regular gesture class I've now built a mental library of characters that I can choose from very quickly under the brief time limits we have. These are all between 30 seconds-1 minute poses.

Around Christmas we had a stocky, middle-aged male model who naturally became Santa Claus

Often models, male or female, will hit poses that I can't resist turning into Gollum

When the news of a sequel to 'The Incredibles' was announced I couldn't resist drawing Mr Incredible in that day's class.  We had the Michael Giacchino score playing and a model with the perfect physique. I've never drawn the character before so I need the practice!

Of course Frozone had to make an appearance too!

'Mr Smee'

Drawing with FORCE!

Late last year we had a guest drawing instructor come into Pixar- Mike Mattesi-who specializes in dynamic drawing and did a 10 week course.  I only caught the last 2 sessions but it was refreshing to pause the Walt Stanchfield 'story' driven gesture class and let loose with some more muscular sketches.  I haven't worked this big and bold in several years- dirty charcoal & thick markers on newsprint!

Around the same time Glen Keane visited the studio to deliver an inspirational lecture on tapping into creativity by thinking like a child and ensuring 'play' is present in the work environment.  His impassioned and sincere speech was extremely motivating, and seeing him animate 'live' is magical!
He flipped through a sketchbook he had kept while visiting France last summer and found a sketch of a young girl carrying a baby while walking across a playground.  Glen took this as his jumping off point and animated her across the page- straight ahead-dealing with the weight distribution as he went.  He said viewers won't SEE the weight changes but they'll FEEL it.  The point of focus will be in the eyes-we look for the connection between the girl and the baby and how their gaze meets at that close distance.

2013 Gesture Drawing Class

I've  realized I haven't posted any sketches from Gesture Class since last year when I put out a book collecting my first 2 years of class sketches.  This year I've filmed some of the other artists gesture sketching and posted them to Vine.

Terry Song

Domee Shi

Stanley Moore

Here's a selection of some of my own efforts