2 minute gestures...and sort of..a "how to"

So below is a 2 minute gesture drawn in Photoshop based on photo ref from pixelovely.

It's easily my favorite drawing this evening and only really happened towards the end of the session. One of the main reasons I keep a blog for my figure drawing is to reflect back on my drawings. I think it's very important to look at your work and pick out what you like and dislike, and find ways to keep drawing exciting for yourself.

So anyway let's turn back the clock a little bit, I started off with 1 minute poses. As you can see I started using tone, defining muscles...a little too much to squeeze into 1 minute. I could just force myself to simplify my drawings, but when you're eager to draw a certain way I think you should just go for it. So I decided to switch it up to 2 minutes after these.

2 fundamental mistakes I ...pretty much always make...came up in the 1 minute ones:

1)- I draw too large...and force the figure into frame or start scrolling up and down in Photoshop to move up and down the figure. This obviously is not a very good idea, because you either don't draw feet for example because they are off frame. Or..in some cases you're drawing blind just looking at the legs without seeing the relation to the rest of the body.

solution: Very easy, just draw a very quick gesture (30 sec) that encases the entire figure. If it's too big you can change it on the fly...that initial gesture should be drawn light or with a light color pencil if you are working traditionally.

2) Getting stuck into detail WAY too early. See the notes on the image below.

Anyway, moving on I went for 2 minute poses working on 2 layers. On the first layer I draw a very quick gesture with a big brush on low opacity. I then switch to the next layer and refine the gesture with a thinner brush...it's important to note though that I don't zoom in. Keep the entire figure on screen, or if you are drawing on paper..draw small!

I put the 2 together below so you can see the quick 30-45 second gesture with the refined drawing next to it. Keep in mind this is all done in 2 minutes..which..if you're not used to it, is not much time! If you are new to this, I suggest first practicing to draw those loose gestures first before you can go in with the second phase.

These were all fairly stiff though, it wasn;t until drawing 3 on the page below that I started to get into some flow... I guess we're officially warmed up and ready to dig into some creative work!