For the past few weeks, I’ve been taking an online course on Gesture Drawing. Gesture drawing is quick drawing of people in action. It is supposed to “help artists focus on the essence of the pose rather than small details, prioritizing flow and movement to quickly capture the subject”. I had read in a forum that it would help me learn to draw people better.
The course has an instructor explain some concept and demonstrate it. Then comes he practice session where images of a nude model are shown and I have 30-60 seconds to quickly “draw” the model.
I’ve spent about 2 weeks on this course and have found it quite frustrating. I thought I would see improvement by now. I’m not.
My figure drawings of these beautiful models all look like monsters.
Occasionally they might resemble human beings, but in now way to they resemble the actual models. Nor am I finding the practice enjoyable.
In follow up reading I found a different course to try. It was less complex and slightly easier to follow, but in the end I think perhaps I’m going to pass on gesture drawing altogether.
There are many beautiful people in the world, just not in my sketchbook.