Gesture drawing for creative ruts

Gesture drawing of horse by Amelie Hegardt via Besottedblog.com

I have been trying to teach myself how to draw for what seems a lifetime, I hope to pull together a list of resources that have helped me and I have had a modicum of success with. My problem is that I don’t practice and to successfully master a skill, you really must practice. I have a lot of excuses of why I don’t practice, some are stupider than the next, like I don’t have the right pencil or paper, or I don’t know what to draw, so many choices and on and on. Now of course there’s that little bit of not having any time, which is true but really I could figure out some time to practice, but alas I find myself often just admiring the work of artists from afar and wishing that I could draw (unfortunately that does not make for progress friends).

Lately, I have been reading a lot of Roald Dahl, he of  the”Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, ‘James and the Giant Peach’, ‘Mathilda’ and too many titles to list fame. Most of his books were always accompanied by illustrations by Sir Quentin Blake and my envy rises with each new turn of the page. Mr. Blake’s drawings are so effortless, they are like rapid fire sketches that spilled from his brain to his pen. It got me interested in this ‘gesture drawing’ and looking into further. I mentioned it to Michelle and she said she took some lessons in gesture drawing and it was great fun. I can see where it would be, you need to rapidly draw/sketch your subject within a 30 second to 2 minute period.  Most of the masters used it to warm up, but I find that it’s perfect just as it is, as beautiful as a ‘finished’ work. There’s a whole movement going on right now utilizing this skill and I will discuss some more tomorrow, but for today I thought I would leave you with some quick resources to explore if you are feeling in a bit of a drawing or creative rut. You don’t need to be an artist or even know how to draw to do it, it’s very ‘loosey goosey’ and that’s the beauty of it (in fact the more raw and naive the better!)

//RESOURCES//

Gesture Drawing Definition

Gesture drawing tutorial

Pose generator

illustration by amelie hegardt

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the co-creator of the world’s best + easiest product photography editing tool-Foto Rx | Shopkeeper’s Helper and one of the writer’s of this delightful blog. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

2 thoughts on “Gesture drawing for creative ruts

  1. I love this post! I also find myself attracted to the rough unfinished style of gesture drawings – looking forward to tomorrow’s post :)

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