Scribbles With Purpose

Gesture Drawing, or scribbling with purpose as we like to call it, is an essential practice to capture movement and expression when drawing anatomy.

It’s most often practised at the beginning of a life drawing session, using short, timed intervals that can range form 30 seconds to 2 minutes – yes that quick! The focus of these short sessions to draw are rather than building up intricate details, the aim is to sketch quick and fluid marks that come together to convey movement, weight and pressure. Each line will form the shape and pose what what you are drawing. Finishing isn’t necessarily the end goal, rather the focus of using using your eyes and hand to work together to create something that captures the liveliness and dynamics of the human form.

Sounds like fun right? Let’s have a look at some of benefits of adding gesture drawing to your sketching practice.

Undersatanding Proportions 

By repeatedly sketching the human form in various poses, artists develop a more intuitive grasp of how different body parts relate to each other. As you quickly sketch, you need to make quick and logical assumptions about how the body works- your mind will start to ask questions like where are the joints? How is this leg connected to the rest of the body? Eventually these things will come intuitively to you. An invaluable skill set that can be applied to all other areas of your creativity.

Encouraging Expressiveness

Some artists tend to focus on minute details too early in the drawing process- gesture drawing means there is no time for this. As the pressure to create something to exact likeness is taken away, this helps relax the need for overly controlled drawing techniques. The shift in focus is encouraged on promoting looser lines and the result is artists often find their work becoming more expressive and dynamic, with a greater sense of life and movement.


Quick and Effective Warm-up

As gesture drawing exercises are intended to be quick, minimal supplies and set up time is needed making the whole process really easy to fit into your creative routine. Just a pencil, pen or stick of charcoal are required- anything that can make some lovely marks. After a few quick sessions, your hands and eyes are all warmed and our concentration levels are ready to get creative. This of course then serves as an excellent foundation for more detailed and complex artworks. You even have the option to use your original gesture drawings as preliminary sketches for more comprehensive works, ensuring that the final piece retains a sense of movement and liveliness.

Gesture drawing serves as a great warm up tool for artists of all levels. It allows for focusing on movement and posture rather than intricate details, aiding artists to develop their observational skills, fluidity, and confidence. Even with just 10 minutes to devote to it, it helps sets up foundational skill that supports and enriches more detailed and complex artwork. So, grab your paper and pencil, set that timer and get scrawling!