What are the benefits of making gesture drawings?

Question

As far as I know, most art schools have exercises or even whole classes focusing on making gesture drawings. But actually, I'm wondering, why bother with it? While it probably has some merits, but most of the reasoning for it provided by blogs and various teachers is quite silly. All the talk about "capturing the essence of the pose" or "catching the most important part of the drawing" seems just like some kung-fu mysticism or drawing-religion.The closest thing to answering my question was a video I found on http://ctrlpaint.com/videos/why-bother-gesture-drawing by Matt Kohr, and I would summarize it in three points: - you get well warmed up- you focus on drawing- you do a lot of drawings that way (so called pencil mileage)But frankly, I don't really have the time for such explicit "warming up" and I'd much rather warm up during actual work - drawing studies, studying anatomy, texture, proper shading and so on. Drawing gets me in the mood for drawing and well, it increases your pencil mileage too. Matt suggests to always do gesture drawings, even if it's the only drawing you do that day, but that would probably make me do gesture drawings ONLY!So what exactly is so cool about gesture drawings? What do they have that other exercises don't? They're fast and sloppy, and for me they don't seem to bring much to the table if skill improvement is concerned. Am I missing something here?

Answer 1

Gesture drawings are an essential component to learning the traditional aspects of drawing. When earning my BFA/MFA we did many gesture drawings and my takeaway is that they are meant to increase your skills when watching moving objects, a moment in time that inspires you, or anything you come across that you want to get down quickly for future reference, particularly when working in your sketchbook. Typically most people want to spend a lot of time on anything they decide to draw.

Experienced artists understand the importance of forming an idea, which could come from doing some quick sketches or thumbnails. After which the subject can be drawn in more detail over original or sketched until a the artist has an understanding of what their final draft will look like.

Sketching down ideas is Important whether you prefer pencil, paint, photography, screen printing, etc. One way to understand why this is taught is for example: Whenever I remember I need to get something from the store I Immediately put a note in my phone so I will not forget later.

It’s about learning good habits.

I liken it to learning music theory so you have the tools to create an original composition. Similarly, you could compare it to writing a rough draft paper, taking your time to reread your own work and editing along the way rather than turning in the first draft without spellcheck.

I hope this helps,

Carmen P.

Answer 2

So yes, gesture drawing is *usually*taught in most academic settings as a warm up. But that is not to say that its not important. When executing a portrait or any drawing of the figure, the quick gesture, in my opinion is often the best way to start.

It maps out the high and low spots, the shadows and highlights, and yes captures the essence of the pose. That phrase does sound like a lot of mumbo-jumbo, but it in this case, when drawing people, think of it as referring to the spine. If you cant capture the curve or angle of the spine, then everything is going to be off in comparison. They are meant to be a jumping off point, not an end result in most cases. having a solid gesture under a drawing makes fleshing out a portrait 10000x easier.

Gesture drawing gets you familiar with something quickly. Short thirty second drawings are how you can acquaint yourself with your subject. Breaking up the time you spend on a drawing ultimately helps in the long run.

They are meant to be studies. Most people when they start out just want to jump in and are surprised at how hard it can be, doing exercises like gesture, contour, blind contour ultimately teaches you how to see something and translate that into a 2D image. Starting with a gesture can help you find the composition of your final drawing, instead of jumping right in and doing it one way to find out later that its not working, gestures let you experiment a bit. At the same time, is something off in your drawing? The elbow is at a weird angle? The model is moving? Doing a gesture in these cases help problem-solve in your drawing, finding angles, moving lines around, and trying to capture the model is all very hard to do if your'e doing something all at once.

Taking the time to learn gesture and have as a tool to use in your drawings is an invaluable skill! I hope that answered your question!