Nathan Smith's Art Ed Blog: Week #3: Gesture Drawing Exercise

This week in class we had a discussion about gesture drawing and performed a few exercises that would help to loosen up students and get them drawing freely. Unfortunately I missed this discussion, however I wanted to complete a blog entry about a possible gesture lesson anyway.

I would introduce gesture drawing to my students as a way of capturing the motion, the energy, and the essence of a thing quickly. Most students in high school are very invested in their art looking “right,” so I would stress that the gesture drawing is meant to be quick and messy.

I would start them off with a large scale drawing exercise. I would either have students draw on the black board or on large upright drawing pads, and I would ask for a volunteer to pose. The students would then be instructed to draw the model as completely and largely as possible within particular increments of time. They would do 5 drawings at 10 seconds each, 5 drawings at 30 seconds, and 2 drawings at 1 minute.

Examples of 30 second gesture sketches.

(Retrieved from: http://ctrlpaint.deviantart.com/gallery/37760550/Week-3-Gesture-Drawing)

Example of longer gesture sketches.

(Retrieved from: http://jenheydtnelson.weebly.com/gesture-drawing.html)

Following this exercise I would have the students begin a new drawing of a new model and allow them to draw for 10 seconds. Then I would ask them to rotate around the room – to a new position, a new drawing, and a new viewpoint – and work on the new drawing for 10 seconds. We would continue this process with slowly increasing lengths of time. This process would allow students to work objectively, unattached to their drawings.

After doing these exercises and effectively opening up students I would have the students begin a longer full-figure portrait pastel drawing. This portrait would be based upon live models from the class, and started as large scale gesture drawings done in pencil and pastel. After the initial gestures are completed, the drawings can be developed into complete, detailed portraits.