How to draw dynamic poses
How to draw dynamic poses
Quick Tip: Create Dynamic Poses Using Gesture Drawing
Characters looking stiff? Illustrations repeating the same old poses? Animation looking boring? Fret not, I have a cure! Dynamic gesture drawing is a great way to really loosen up and make your work interesting and more importantly fun!
Following along with this video over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel.
What You Will Need
Optional:
What Is Gesture Drawing and Why Is It Important?
«A gesture drawing is work of art defined by rapid execution. Typical situations involve an artist drawing a series of poses taken by a model in a short amount of time. «
It’s an important skill to develop because you learn to capture motion very quickly, which is helpful for creating interesting and dynamic artwork. Gesture drawing can really help you capture a subtle motion, a look someone gives a loved one, or a fabulous action pose you see in a wrestling match that would work great in your superhero comic!
Gesture drawing does not always have to involve exciting, explosive poses like this image from PhotoDune.
Gesture drawing captures the rhythm, the motion and the flow of an action. Even stationary poses can look dynamic. Remember these are not stick figures, these are action poses.
The Line of Action
The line of action is very important and is not necessarily the spine of the person or creature. It’s the shape the form takes. This is where my gesture drawings begin. Really look at your subject and redraw the line of action several times if need be. Here’s an example of the line of motion in these five teenagers.
Moving on from these lines of action you can rough in limbs, torso and head. Keep the lines fluid. Even jagged lines such as the legs in the central character are fluid. Remember, though, that smooth lines can show calm and flexibility, whereas jagged lines show tension.
How I Work
I start with a line of motion, and then plot out the legs. Working quickly helps me capture the motion. When working in a life drawing class I was trained to draw poses in 30 seconds to two minutes. As much info needs to be put down as possible.
Practice
You won’t always get it right first time, but that’s cool. These are not meant to be finished pieces.
Be scribbly, be quick! Remember to look at your work afterwards and see what you need to improve and what you’re doing right.
If you do find a dynamic pose that works well, then try working it up with some basic anatomy. This can be a great confidence booster.
Another use for these quick gesture drawings is working out a complex, long pose in a life drawing class. Not sure where some anatomy should go? Do a few rough gesture poses first. Not happy with how the model looks from your spot? Try walking round the model and other students (quietly, of course!) and rough out poses to find the best one. I am a big believer in planning out my artwork before I start—it might seem like a waste of time, but it will save you time later on in the piece.
Keep It Simple!
Start with a line of motion and use whatever shapes help. Sometimes I use bean shapes for the body, other times I use rectangles and triangles.
To show head direction, draw an oval with a horizontal contour line of where the eye line is and a vertical one for the nose.
How to Improve
It’s nothing more than Practice, Practice, Practice!
An option is going to life drawing classes. This isn’t always possible, but there is nothing like drawing from a model. At art college I loved life drawing classes—we had them every Friday. These ranged from long poses studying anatomy to 30‑second poses to study movement. In these the model would change pose, often with a prop such as a stick or perhaps a cloth. You never knew what you would get next! By the end of a morning session of a few hours I would have pages and pages of sketches. It helped my capturing of movement and gesture improve very quickly!
A fun way to practice is to watch films and pause scenes with some cool action and try to capture the pose. Try timing yourself.
Do you have a commute or some time on a lunch break with no access to life drawing classes? Try some observational drawing! Look out of the bus window and try to capture poses—this is good as you can’t sit and analyse the pose, go back and redraw.
Find a medium that works for you. When not working digitally I like to use brush pens. They do not have to be expensive—just plain children’s colouring pens are great. An advantage of having different colours is that you can have your line of motion in one colour and the pose in another.
Quick poses do not have to be humans either. Got a pet? Live near a farm? Apply the same principles to Tabby the cat or Daisy the cow.
Most importantly: keep it simple.
Remember these do not have to be anatomically perfect—it’s just a case of finding motion and fluidity.
Conclusion
I hope you have a lot of fun creating these sketches. Do not be precious about these. Use the cheapest media you can, like copier paper or news print, felt pens or charcoal. Make this a regular exercise, and even use it to warm up before a long day of drawing!
Bring Energy and Life to Your Poses!
Learn how to express balance and force using action lines to bring more life to your poses! Artist Eridey explains with illustrated examples how to create dynamic poses for your characters.
Understanding the figure
To draw a pose correctly, you don’t need to always carry an anatomy book with you. It’s not as difficult as it seems: observation and practice are your best tools. If at any point you get curious about trying something new (which I hope you do), it never hurts to take a look at that anatomy book.
Even if your drawing style is far from realistic, the aspects that make a pose interesting and credible remain the same: strength, rhythm, action lines, construction and perspective.
Observation:
Your closest reference is yourself. If you look at yourself in front of a mirror and start moving, you will notice that your body works as a single element.
When you raise an arm, the arm is not the only part of your body that moves, unlike how the removable extremities of dolls work. The changes in your body don’t resemble figure A, right? For example, your shoulder also lifts, and many other parts of your body adapt to the movement as in figure B.
This is what observation means: paying attention to the details and characteristics of the body.
Strength and rhythm
Your characters move thanks to their inner strength. They can walk, jump, dance… whatever comes to mind! But unless they are floating in space, it is not the only force that acts on them, as gravity makes their feet stay on land.
When two or more forces interact with each other, a rhythm is set, which provides balance and sense to the movement.
If your character is pushed to the left, his body will fall in that direction (A), unless he puts up resistance to stand (B).
If the character wants to pull something that refuses to move, his body will lean in the opposite direction. Obviously, once the cat gives in to the force, your character will fall, as the cat was what kept him standing.
Strength and rhythm provide a lot of visual information you can work with: the weight of your character (1), the balance of his pose (2) or the lack of it (3).
Action lines
The action line is the imaginary guide that indicates your character’s movement. It focuses on actions and helps to unify the whole figure.
Below you can see a couple of examples where strength, rhythm and action lines interact together.
Example 1:
The character (1) has a relaxed stance, resting on her right arm. In the figure (2), we can see her action line, which covers her whole body up to the foot. The shape is slightly similar to an S.
We can see it is a relaxed pose because her weight rests on a single point (3) and all she needs is to keep the balance with her left foot, which remains taut while the right one is resting.
Example 2:
The next pose is more dynamic, so there are more things going on in this image.
This time you can see three action lines, but the most important are (1) and (2), the ones that really tell the story. The first one covers the whole figure from head to toe, and the second one goes in the opposite direction, keeping the balance and forming an X. The third one simply provides greater stability to the pose.
In this drawing we can see that there is a force that pushes the character in the opposite direction to her gaze. Elements such as the hair, the clothes and the dust on the floor suggest that the force comes from the right side, and as these elements are light, they are affected by the speed with which this force acts.
However, this girl wants to overcome this force with her own strength. She has no intention of losing the fight.
Example 3:
This time, our character is a baseball player. He’s spinning his body to get enough momentum and counter the ball’s force to hit it far away. Don’t you get the impression that it will be a home run even though you haven’t seen how the scene ends yet? It’s the magic of anticipation. If you know how to properly handle the strength, rhythm, and action lines correctly, you will be able to guide the spectator along the path you have set. This is very important for any comic artist.
It’s important that you don’t overpopulate your drawing with too many action lines, because it could confuse the character’s intention, make the force go in different directions, and take the emphasis away from the most important action.
Construction
The body is quite complex and it is difficult to draw correct proportions and move away from the 2D plane. I recommend you shape a base that helps you discern the volume of each element. To do this, we will use geometric figures such as spheres, cubes and cylinders to represent the structure of the body.
These figures can be freely rotated, stretched, flexed, and twisted according to the pose.
These figures represent the direction of the different elements of the body. You must pay special attention to the limits of the joints, since at a certain point you have to turn or twist the body to keep moving in that direction, changing drastically the pose.
With practice, this process gets simpler. The better you understand how the figure works, the fewer guides you will need.
Perspective
Perspective turns the 2D plane into a 3D one and adds more depth and visual richness to the composition than just looking at it from a frontal plane.
The eye level or horizon line represents the actual height of the viewer’s eyes (1), and the vanishing points are the lines projected from a point on the horizon (2). The following image has a perspective with two vanishing points with which we can appreciate two faces of the figure.
The body is more intricate, but the principle is the same. For example, this figure’s feet and hands are smaller due to the perspective, and even suggest us how we should project the vanishing point lines.
Action poses always look more dramatic when the perspective is exaggerated. Even when the poses are not entirely realistic, the figures seem credible and the scenes look more interesting.
I recommend you to practice and read about perspective as much as possible, as it is not something you can master in a day. Analyze as many references as you can. Eventually, you’ll end up seeing vanishing points everywhere.
Essential lines
You can speed up and improve your observation skills by drawing poses using photos or actual people as a reference and setting a short time limit for it. The aim is to capture the essential information of the figure and, of course, to draw as many poses as possible.
This exercise will also help you to increase your confidence when drawing. Don’t be afraid to draw the first line, and even if you make a mistake, avoid erasing the lines. Try to focus and draw clean, clear lines.
Below you can see some examples of poses that I have drawn within 45 to 60 seconds:
At first, focus on drawing the whole body with smooth lines. Then, if you have more time, detail and build the shape better.
Don’t be afraid to draw what you don’t see or what is hidden, as it will give you a better idea of the figure’s structure.
Try to exaggerate the lines. It makes them softer and more credible, however crazy it sounds.
Unless the model is in a very rigid posture, try to avoid straight lines. The most natural poses are built with curves.
I hope these tips have been helpful!
If you want to see more of my work, from these links you can access my social media pages and my portfolio:
Thank you so much for reading this article!
– Eridey
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How to Draw More Dynamic Poses: Tips for Fluid Gesture Drawing
Sketch by Salgood Sam
Sketch by Salgood Sam
Do you find that your figure drawings lack the sense of movement and momentum that you would like them to have? Don’t be disheartened! This is a common problem faced by many artists. Beginning artists are often attracted to the simplicity and straight forward approach of the constructive method; using simple geometric forms to construct a figure.
From “How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way”
However, the problem is that often a drawing composed with geometry as its foundation can come across stiff and lifeless. In contrast, gesture drawing is an incredibly powerful tool for imbuing figures with a sense of fluidity and momentum. What is gesture drawing? Developed in Kimon Nicolaïdes’ seminal book The Natural Way to Draw for the first time in a modern text, gesture drawing is an old form of loose sketching technique, that attempts to capture the essence of the human figure quickly and fluidly. Its primary purpose is to capture the human body in motion, enabling the artist to: better comprehend the inter-connectivity of musculature, become familiar with the sinuous convolutions of the human figure, as well as, understand the range and capabilities of the joints in the body.
“Don’t be precious, make mistakes. Make mistakes work for you.” ‒Salgood Sam
Gesture Sketch by Salgood Sam
The practice of gesture drawing allows you to break out of your shell, placing an emphasis of mood over precision. It loosens your hand movements in order to break out of stiff representations and allows you to focus on movement, action, and direction.
“Do not stop to refine.” ‒Salgood Sam
Gesture Sketch by Salgood Sam
So, how can you master the art of gesture drawing? You can just hit the streets and draw people in the streets. Or, you can find videos online to draw. There are some great videos with all kinds of bodies in motion. The important thing is to try and find a video where people are engaging in repeated patterns: dancers, tai chi instructors, boxers, etc.
Combat Models from Dynamic Drawing
Try this video of two combat specialists from our Dynamic Drawing class:
Step 1: Before you begin drawing, observe your object. The act of drawing begins first with seeing the object, seeing the object “the way an artist sees” it as Betty Edwards says in her book The Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. This allows your brain and your hands to absorb the natural rhythms of the figure, to synchronize your hand/eye coordination with the movement you are attempting to recreate.
Step 2: Loosen up by circling your hand over the page, feeling out your working space. This may seem oversimplified but if you want your drawings to be loose and fluid, your body needs to be loose as well. Stretch before sitting down to draw. Do some warm up exercises with your hands. Remember, the energy of the drawing begins with you!
“You won’t get the energy of the pose, if you don’t start with that energy. If you’re trying to draw with dynamic energy in your art…you have to understand the energy is going to come from you.” ‒Salgood Sam
Step 3: Start with the core. Begin by drawing the chest and then quickly work out from there. Don’t worry too much about the head, hands or feet. Just try to capture the movement of the body and its internal sense of movement. Draw quickly. Not so much that you lose control but enough that you push yourself to draw in long continuous lines. Try not to lift your pencil from the paper, just keep drawing in a fluid motion. Move through the forms.
“Find rhythm in your motions.” ‒Salgood Sam
Step 4: Once you have completed the initial gesture sketch then you can go over it, adding in some contour details of the clothing and solidifying the structure of the body with some constructive shapes to give it a three dimensional feeling. Even if you lay some alternative rendering approaches over your gesture drawing, it will retain the fluidity of your initial sketch.
“No one’s looking for accuracy, they’re looking for the impression of accuracy.” ‒Salgood Sam
Gesture Drawing by Salgood Sam
So there you have it. Now you can master the art of drawing figures in motion. Equipped with the power to do quick, expressive gestural sketches you will find that your drawings will take shape faster and with more power than ever before!
Master Gesture Drawing With This Ultimate Guide to Drawing Poses!
If you want to really improve your art and your character poses, gesture drawing is the solution for you. This is why I’ve created this big article on drawing poses using gesture drawing practice.
For some years I struggled with how my art was going. I didn’t feel like I was getting better and felt stuck. I wanted to draw the human body but the way I was learning just didn’t click with me.
That’s when I discovered Gesture Drawing! I can say, without a doubt, that this technique saved my art and my confidence in it.
So, what is gesture drawing? Gesture drawing is capturing the motion of your reference image or character in as few strokes as possible. By using gesture drawing you improve your own artwork by focusing on the general figure, instead of the details.
With Gesture Drawing, I learned that first, there’s no wrong way to do art and to learn it. And second, that it doesn’t need to be perfect. You can’t spend an hour in that one line that you’re not happy with. No. Doing quick doodles of the things you’re seeing will help you learn more about it and capture the essential parts.
This exercise helped me move forward with my work and that’s why I’m doing this post for you. Hopefully, it will help you as much as it helped me!
We’ll go through each of these steps and talk about them in detail, but first, let’s talk about what exactly is Gesture Drawing!
I also have everything in video format with assignments and a bunch more info on each body part in my online drawing course: Introduction to Figure Drawing: Create a Dynamic Character.
What is Gesture Drawing in Art?
Gesture Drawing is capturing the form, movement (action), and pose of the subject.
So if you’re drawing from a reference photo, you want to capture the whole figure in as few strokes as possible, with basic shapes and simple lines.
Usually, when doing this you set a timer of a few minutes (or even seconds) and draw the entire figure and pose in that time limit!
Doing this will make it much easier for you to draw the figure, as long as you keep practicing it constantly.
Since you’re getting used to catching the overall feel of the image as quickly as possible, you won’t get stuck as much thinking exactly how a head or limb should be, but actually drawing the shape you’re seeing in the reference image you’re using.
This might sound weird if you haven’t done it before, but it really becomes second nature very quickly once you start getting into it.
It will also help you create more dynamic characters.
This isn’t an exercise where you just copy the reference image and make it exactly as it is. It can also help if you’re aiming for realistic drawings, but in my experience, it’s better for other more exaggerated art styles.
So if you really want to improve your art and create better and more expressive characters, this is the way to go.
Let’s now talk about some of the specifics of doing this, some tools later on, and then the exact step by step on how you can practice gesture drawing! As well as, some bonus specific exercises at the end of the article!
Gesture Drawing Tips
As I mentioned, there’s no wrong way to go about art, and that applies to gesture drawing.
But there are always some guidelines for you to follow and don’t feel too lost. Drawing can be very intuitive, but at times, it isn’t and that’s when you need these guidelines.
So yes, in theory, gesture drawing is making quick sketches of poses, catching the essential movement through very simple shapes.
So, let’s go over some tips for drawing gesture!
1) Start with the Line of Action
The line of action is the first line you want to draw.
Especially at the beginning, you can just focus on this line, to make it easier to see and understand the pose.
What is the line of action then?
It is an imaginary line! Imagine a line going down the character’s spine.
You look at your reference and you see that line that evokes the whole movement of the pose.
This line is usually curved. We try to avoid straight lines as much as possible.
Very simple: straight lines are very tense and not that interesting. Usually, you’d want your character to give a sense of movement and to project attitude. Even if it is standing still.
This is why we also try to exaggerate our lines in Gesture Drawing. It makes everything more interesting and more dynamic. But we’ll talk more about that later.
Before jumping into drawing the whole human figure, take some time and fill a bunch of pages with lines of action based on reference images (such as the ones from these free websites)!
I’ll give you some examples to look up later on, so keep an eye for that.
2) Tell A Story Using Body Language
We’re drawing actions.
So we’re telling stories with the poses we’re drawing. As you get more used to this exercise, you start picking up on certain details and exaggerating them, to give more emphasis on your character’s action.
Remember that in Gesture Drawing you’re not aiming to make finished, complete drawings. What you’re aiming here is to learn the rhythm of the poses, so you can apply to your drawings later on.
Don’t worry if your anatomy isn’t 100% correct. Focus on capturing the movement and to know how to best represent it on paper.
Tell your viewer a story through your character’s body language!
In the example above, you can see how I exaggerated the lines and the pose, to make my drawing more dynamic but also depicting, to my viewer, how my character is feeling.
Maybe if I’ve kept my lines more subtle you wouldn’t pay much attention as to how my character feels. But changing some details, through exaggeration and curves, will transmit more urgency to you and its body language will speak to you more easily!
3) Draw What You See (forget what you think you know)
You’re using reference images for this exercise.
So you have to look at it and draw what you see in it.
Remember that all we’re changing is how dynamic it is. The pose is always the same, asides from that, we’re just pushing the shapes to its limit and see where we can go until it looks weird.
You’re learning here.
You might not be learning each part of the human body in detail. But you’re learning its proportions so take the time for that as well.
Look at your images, trace the shapes or your line of action on top of it if it helps you.
Sometimes, when you’re drawing side by side or looking at the computer and drawing on a piece of paper, it can be hard to get the places or proportions right. When that happens, don’t be afraid to draw the shapes on top of the image.
It will help you understand better and from then on you can do it more easily!
At times, I’ll show you and draw the shapes on top of our reference images, so we can better visualize and understand certain parts of the body.
Reference images are tools that we use to learn. You need to see and study them, to learn how to draw something!
4) Exaggeration is Key! Don’t Copy The Reference
It seems like I’m contradicting myself here.
But what I mean here is mostly the exaggerating part. The pose will be exactly the same that you’re seeing. What you’re adding here is a twist!
Exaggerate some lines here and there.
Especially where you feel that will make your pose pop up more.
Push those lines, to make the story you’re trying to tell more exciting to the viewer!
Don’t be afraid to push your lines.
Push your limits and get out of your comfort zone. With this, you’re not only making your drawings more dynamic but you’re also developing your lines, making them more interesting and smooth and you’re also learning more about you and your own artistic style!
5) Keep your Lines Loose, not Stiff
Rule number 1 of drawing: Relax!!
You’re drawing because you like it and you want to have fun. Sometimes this will not happen.
You’re just too worried about the quality of your drawing and your lines, you just want it all to be perfect!
Believe me, I’ve been there, I still am at times. This is the curse of any artist.
But that is when Gesture Drawing comes to the rescue! You sit down, relax and make quick drawings, with quick lines.
If you suffer from stiff lines, this is the perfect exercise for you!
If you’re too tense, not only will your lines look tense as well, but you’re also tensing all your body. After an hour of drawing, you’ll feel that!
Like I always say, there are two reasons why your lines are too tense: you don’t feel confident enough about them and you need to practice more.
And what better than 30 seconds or 1-minute sketches to help get rid of that tension?
You’re both practicing AND helping your lines getting loose. I suffered from stiff lines as well, until I discovered Gesture Drawing!
It was really the exercise I needed to stop worrying about each line and to make it perfect. With it, I learned to embrace imperfection and even a more messy style.
So, always remember: loosen up and don’t worry about your lines!
Your line quality will improve with this exercise, believe me.
Draw them smoothly and you’ll see that your drawings will become 100% better!
Don’t stress too much about how good your gesture drawings will be.
You’re not achieving perfection here. These are not finished works!
Sit down, grab your sketchbook and some image references or go outside and watch the people around you.
Relax, draw some quick poses or just a few lines of action and have fun.
6) The Longest Axis gives you the Balance
Look for the longest lines in the pose.
From head to toe and from one arm to the other. These are the lines that will give balance to your drawing.
Finding the longest axis will also let you find all the movement you need in your pose.
Now, you just need to draw the rest of the figure and exaggerate your lines! Of course, before going to the full figure, feel free to practice these lines only.
Find a bunch of images and study the main lines.
Just like we talked about in the Line of Action section. Fill up some pages with these until you’re a pro at it!
7) CSI (not the TV Show!)
Enhance, enhance and enhance, perfect! I can see the license plate now!
Alright, CSI here does not stand for crime scene investigation, but for something simpler than that: C curve, S curve or Straight (I).
What do I mean by this?
You want to avoid adding unnecessary information and, as a rule, we’ll try to avoid unnecessary lines.
Try to use a mix of these curves and try to use the least possible. This way, you can capture the essential movement of the pose
Simple, easy and fast!
8) Tension vs Relaxed Lines (Zig Zags and general Flow)
Depending on the tension of the curves, how your drawing feels will change as well.
Using more tensed curves, like zigzags, will depict a more tensed pose.
On the other hand, curved lines, give us a more fluid drawing.
Choosing these lines depends on what you want to convey.
The more you bend your curves, the more energy and tension you give to the drawing. Using zigzag lines, for example, means that you’ll have sudden changes in the movement.
Flexed arms are a good example of this tension!
Even though we tend to use a lot of curved lines in Gesture, pay attention to the flow of your pose and create the perfect balance between your lines!
9) Time Your Gestures
Time your gesture drawings to help you practice drawing the poses.
Either with a tool like the websites we mention in this article or by using a simple alarm clock or alarm app on your phone or Computer.
The idea of Gesture Drawing is for you to capture the essence of a pose in a small amount of time.
If you still tend to keep yourself too long on details, set up a timer, so you force yourself to move on to the next pose!
30 seconds, 1 minute and 2 minutes are the usual times we go for, but if you prefer, you can go up to 10 minutes at most!
I wouldn’t recommend doing more than that, because then it kinda stops being Gesture and now you’re actually working on a detailed piece.
You’re not merely trying to draw as fast as you can.
You’re trying to capture the essence of a pose in the shortest time possible.
The idea here is for you to not get attached to every detail.
The Best Gesture Drawing Tools
You don’t need to go through magazines and 134 websites to find poses for you to draw. And then save them in a folder and pick up your phone and set a timer.
Those are too many steps to draw gestures!
There are already some places you can go to, select some options, and bam, just start drawing!
Line of Action and Quickposes are two wonderful examples. They work very similarly to each other.
Before starting, you can change some options, for example, if you want the full body or just specific parts like hands or just the face, among others.
Then you can choose if you want to draw male or female models and if you prefer nude or dressed figures.
Of course, you can have everything on and you’ll have tons of options during your practice!
Finally, you just need to set up the timer. You can choose from the default options or even add any time you’d prefer.
You’re now ready to start!
As you practice, you can always pause each image, if you feel you need to study it for longer.
Lastly, another favorite of mine is Senshistock. You might have seen her work in Deviantart already.
She’s really popular and at some point, all artists have crossed paths with this amazing model!
She has stock photos for every taste and recently you can access her website, which works like the two above.
Simple go here and it will start giving you poses right away! Again, you can pause at any time. The only difference here is that you don’t have as much customization.
If you end up using any reference from Senshistock for your drawings and post them, be sure to give her some credit, because she sure deserves the love!
What Medium Should You Use In Gesture Drawing?
When doing gesture drawing, it’s always best to use a dry medium or a medium that dries quickly.
The reason is that you want to draw quick lines, shapes, and forms without having to wait for the medium you’re using to dry.
For this reason, I recommend you to use mediums such as:
If you’re looking for pen suggestions, I really recommend checking out this article with the best pens for every budget!
About the paper to use for gesture drawing, any paper should work just fine.
But just remember that if you’re going to use markers, for example, you should get marker appropriate paper.
With that said, you don’t have to worry too much about what exact medium you should be using for gesture drawing.
Simply pick up a pencil or pen and a piece of paper, and you’re good to go!
So How Exactly Do You Draw Gesture?
Alright, you’ve been reading me rambling on and on about Gesture Drawing and all its theory.
Below let’s talk about each step more in-depth.
1) Choose Reference Images/Tools
Choosing reference images for gesture drawing is pretty easy! You can go with general photos that you can find online or in magazines, or just go through one of the tools we mention here!
2) Start With The Line Of Action
Start with the Line of Action by focusing on the Longest Axis of the character’s movement.
If you don’t feel comfortable doing the entire gesture drawing exercise, you can stop your Gesture exercise right here with the line of action.
Pick up your references and focus only on the Line of Action!
Fill up 10 pages if needed. Once you feel you got the hang of it, you can go to the next step.
It’s one of the most important steps in gesture drawing, in my opinion, so really try to nail it and practice a lot!
3) Draw the Base Shapes
Draw the overall shapes for each part of the body.
Keep them very simple for now. Just the general idea and shape.
I like to start with the Torso, then the head, followed by the arms and the rest of the body.
Sometimes I trade places, I start with the head and then the torso. It all depends on what I’m feeling like drawing or what I’m comfortable with at the moment.
It’s totally up to you what works best, try different ways to approach it!
You don’t need to fill the drawing anymore! (unless you really want to)
To practice gesture drawing you just need to focus on these 3 steps and you’re good to go.
You can worry about adding details later!
Gesture Drawing Exercises
Ok, so we went over Gesture Drawing, step by step, but let’s try to spice things up!
Here are some specific gesture drawing exercises, that you can use if you’re feeling like doing something different or even do some silly exercises to relax and have some fun.
Just go to one of the gesture drawing sites we talked about before or pick other reference images, and try some of these exercises:
1- Draw Each Photo In 30 Seconds
A great gesture drawing exercise is to quickly do a gesture in 30 seconds.
If you do more than 30 seconds, punish yourself somehow!
No dessert this evening!!
I’m jesting, but really try this one out.
Half a minute goes by very quickly and it’s quite a challenge to finish the whole pose and make it clear.
It will also be very interesting to see your own progress.
The first drawing you’ve made will surely be very different from the last one.
As you get used to the time you’re given, you’ll master your technique and make your poses better and better!
2- Draw The Whole Gesture Using A Single Line
This gesture drawing exercise can end up being very silly!
Just imagine, putting your pencil down and now you cannot lift it before you finish your pose. It is not only challenging but fun!
Once again, you’ll always see some interesting progress.
As you practice, you’ll understand better what are the best places to start, so you can draw your pose perfectly!
If you’re interested, this is also a fun exercise to do in a group.
Join some fellow artists and all of you need to draw the same pose in a single line.
The results will surely be hilarious and you’ll also be able to see the different paths each person can take while drawing!
3- Try Drawing With Your Other Hand
A similar exercise to the one above, but this time, instead of using a single line to draw our gesture, we’re going to use our other hand.
It can be even more challenging than our previous exercise!
We use our dominant hand way more, so picking up a pencil with the other one will be… interesting. But doable!
And who knows, with enough practice, maybe you can even master drawing with both hands.
4- Use A New Material or Tool
Using a new material or tool on your gesture drawing exercises can, and will, make a big difference!
For example, you might prefer pencils, but let’s try a pen this time.
Trying out different materials is always important, especially if you’re feeling bored with how your art is going or you’re just not feeling the fun at the moment.
Sometimes all you need is a change of tools.
It has happened to me.
I stopped liking my sketches and feel like everything is too stale, so I switch from a pencil to a colored pen or a brush! Most of the times I perceive my art in a whole different light and now I’ll be drawing with this specific pen for a few months until I get tired of it again.
5- Draw the Gesture of Your Favorite Artwork
This is part of a tip that I’ve mentioned in my drawing tips for beginner artists article. You are allowed (and encouraged) to do this gesture drawing exercise!
Surely you have artworks and artists that inspire you.
Learn with them! Choose one of your favorite artists and draw the gesture of one of his/her pieces.
It’s fun and you’ll be learning a lot about their process.
Just remember, as always, do not claim these pieces as your own. These kind of exercises are something that you do for practice, learning and nothing more!
Famous Gesture Drawing Artists
Gesture drawing practice has been around for a long time. And so, there are many examples of famous artists that have used this exact technique to improve their own artwork.
So let’s got on with some examples of famous gesture drawing artists!
Leonardo DaVinci Studies
As you can see in these famous gesture drawing studies and exercises, Leonardo DaVinci focuses on the main shapes of the person and the horse.
These are very well done lines that simplify the main shapes.
Of course, there are also two drawings there that you can see he took way more time to do, but you get the idea!
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
These gesture drawing studies by the famous artist Rembrandt capture the main shapes of the head and hat of the person.
Remember that even if you’re doing gesture drawing exercises, it doesn’t mean that you have to draw the whole figure! If you’re interested in practicing just the head, the arms, the legs or anything else that you’re having difficulties with, go ahead and do gesture drawings!
The important thing is to just practice your gesture drawings.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
You probably know Michelangelo’s work and have seen them several times before, but have you watched carefully the gesture drawings of this famous artist?
In these gesture drawing studies, he captures the form perfectly with just a few lines.
You can see the layout of each muscle in the body and understand it perfectly even from a distance. I’m sure he has done MANY of these gesture drawing studies over the course of his life.
That’s why he was so great at art: he studied a lot and did a bunch of practice!
Alex Woo
Alex Woo is a famous story artist at Pixar that has done countless gesture drawing studies and believes that it’s a very important practice to improve your artwork.
From the example, you can see how he just focuses on the lines and the directions of the lines in the gesture drawing studies to capture the moment and movement.
Through simple shapes, he can capture the whole figure in a flash!
This is what you’re trying to master when studying gesture drawing.
In Summary
Gesture Drawing is fun and very easy to do.
In fact, it’s one of the best ways to improve your artwork quickly.
Set a timer, sit down for 10 to 20 minutes or more if you wish to and relax. Keep your lines loose and focus on the line of action.
This is where Gesture begins.
If you’re interested in really applying this knowledge and draw better and more Dynamic Characters, check out my course on Figure Drawing!
Now you just need to have fun! Practice as much as you can and you’ll see yourself progressing in your artwork in no time.
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Hello! I’m Patricia.
An Artist, Online Teacher, and big Nerd!
I want to help YOU create amazing and fun artwork as easily as possible. With no stress and no hard to follow rules.
So let’s do this, together!
Follow me on Instagram for more Artwork and Tips. @artbydoncorgi
Learn how to draw dynamic poses with these 25+ anatomy tutorials
Learn how to draw dynamic poses with these 25+ anatomy tutorials | Art-Res Table of Contents
Importance of learning figure drawing
Learning to how to draw emotional, dynamic poses is important for creating an image that holds the viewer’s attention. A solid anatomical foundation can help you with this task. If you have been wondering: what are some good resources to learn human figure drawing? I got you homie! Here are a few of the best anatomy tutorials focused on movement and poses that I could find, along with a guide for starting out.
A small guide on effective practice for figure drawing
I recommend sketching out a lot of quick poses every day to practice. This way, when you can’t think of something to draw, you can use one of your ideas instead of a stiff and boring pose. Gesture drawings require you to strip details and go for energy. Start w/ a line or s curve for the spine and find something dynamic to draw. Try to go pretty quickly, letting the meticulous details go and just you and your pencil/pen on the paper.
Stuck? Learn anatomy
First of all, I first recommend learning anatomy and range of motion so you can generate your own organic poses on the fly, but having inspiration certainly helps!
My best resource for learning artistic human anatomy would be the ebook I wrote on the topic. I also have created an anatomy framework & set of tutorialsto help you learn proportions.
Essential pose drawing tutorials
Anyways, onto tutorials for poses! Here is a great tutorial I recommend reading right now:
And if you have more time:
Other Awesome resources & websites for pose inspiration and reference
These tools are great because they offer you excellent references, which is great for doing studies or are in need of inspiration.
Videos
Hopefully this helps you!
Got a pose sketch/drawing you’re especially proud of? Share it with me! (See social links at the bottom! Took off Disqus because it’s a little creepy privacy wise.)