My Sketchbook School mentor introduced me a different way to do life drawing.
She notice that I am focusing a lot on contour, and not on the overall volume and movement of the figure. She told me that true gesture drawing captures the movement, or “story” of the pose. She showed me that I can convey what the figure is doing with just a couple lines, instead of drawing the outline/contour.
Adding volume is extremely important also important, she said.
She starts drawing the figure by laying out the basic shapes and proportions, before she even thinks about contour. In her opinion, contour should be last.
Her process is:
1. Focus on the overall story of the pose, or “line of action”.
2. Build all the basic shapes off that line. The rib cage and pelvis are ovals. Each section of the limbs is a cylinder. The head is a sphere with a triangle for the jaw.
I will work on this at life drawing this week.
Relentless Robin 