Figure Drawing: 13 Gesture Drawing Techniques

Free eBook on 13 Gesture Drawing Techniques

Learn how to draw human figures and gesture drawing techniques from the experts in this free eBook from Artists Network. You’ll learn different thought processes to guide your artwork, and gain an understanding of what design elements to highlight to bring your human figure drawing to life.

This FREE eBook is packed with tips and inspiration on how to capture the animation and movement of your subject!

Download Your Free Figure Drawing Techniques Today!

Bringing life to your human drawings is about drawing what the model is doing. The most important part in sketching figures is being able to show things happening. Those events are expressed in the action lines of figures in your pieces than in their surface information.

Creating a life-filled figure in your art is essential to communicating with your audience. Dynamic expression of movement brings purpose to the composition of your pieces. The concepts described in this free eBook will give your gesture drawings of figures the breath and movement you’ve been looking for.

What’s inside my free eBook on gesture and figure drawing?

See how master artist Patricia Hannaway surpasses drawing proportions, approaching human drawing in a whole new light. Figure drawings encompass some of the most celebrated works of art today. Painting and all other artistic endeavors are fueled by the base that these drawing skills define. This eBook is full of examples and is a wide-ranging drawing tutorial that you can turn back to whenever you like!

You’ll learn essential figure sketching and gesture drawing techniques like carefully placing action lines to capture movement and gesture. Learn to express engagement within the piece as Hannaway walks you through how to draw human movements by capturing the energy of the body. She suggests keeping your pen or pencil on your figure sketching surface and drawing from your shoulder, not your hand. It all needs to go down on the page in one flow. Use the figure sketching skills you’ll learn with this free eBook to create figure drawings that stand out from the rest, moving and full of life!

Capturing Poses

Free guide to gesture drawing techniques and more.

Hannaway strongly believes that the best way to start sketching figures is by first laying down the action line—a line that shows the shape, force, and direction of the figure’s movement. “Sometimes I distort the forms of the body to accent the action line. Whatever makes the drawing work and read properly on paper, that’s what I try to achieve. I don’t copy what I see; I push the pose, using the model as a reference.” Hannaway stresses that an artist can always tone it down if the action line is too extreme. “But always go to the extreme, then pull it back,” she advises.

Gesture Drawing

Learn about gesture drawing in this free art tutorial.

Hannaway began taking note of the ways master artists from the past built their drawings on the larger gesture of the figure. She noted the swinging hammers, rearing horses, and vigorous wrestling depicted in Leonardo’s notebooks and the fleeting moments captured in the work of Velázquez. “A drawing stressing movement is more truthful than a photograph that freezes a figure in an instant of time,” Hannaway says. Instead of drawing what you see, you draw to understand something.

How to Draw Human Figures

How to draw human figures demystified in this free guide.

Hannaway stresses drawing what the model is doing, not what it looks like. She explains that this way of thinking promotes a dialogue between the artist and the model, which enables the artist to capture the larger relationships and “feel” the pose in her own body as she draws.

The sketch at the left illustrates how action lines show not only direction but also force. A line bowing upward along the figure’s back will suggest a relatively small force, while an action line of the back bowing outward implies a strong pull.

Get expert techniques in these gesture drawing lessons.

Experience the thought process that figure drawing artist, Patricia Hannaway uses in developing powerful ideas about design and strategy in these figure drawing poses. Learn how she chooses which design elements to highlight, thus engaging the viewer in the human figure drawing itself. See how important action lines are to figure drawing poses and how learning this important step can greatly help you learn how to draw figures.

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  1. […] of Drawing is now available, and it's full of resources for artists, especially if you are into figure drawing or figure painting. Here's a quick look at some highlights from the […]

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