Tutored Life Drawing Blog Week 14: Gesture & Rhythm (Patreon)

After a short Christmas break our tutored blogs are back! You can find all of the previous 13 blogs linked to on our navigator here and a whole load of other drawing blogs here. If you are following Wednesday tutored webinars (open to life drawing or student tier supporters), you will also find all of the recordings of past sessions here - if you upgrade to those tiers at any time you will automatically have access to all of the past sessions. We begin the new year with an energetic introduction to gesture!

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When we talk about gesture in life drawing we describe a non-literal interpretation of the pose - a way of recording how the figure is posed. As stick figures demonstrated, you only need a little visual information to suggest a pose and there are many different ways to express gesture by looking for different qualities in the pose and body.

It is important to learn how to portray gesture, as they contribute to how convincing and 'lively' a figure is. Understanding gesture opens up avenues to exaggeration and other forms interpretation of the figure.

This lesson will serve as an introduction to gesture, with a focus on drawing the shortest poses by looking for action and rhythm. Next week continues this lesson with a look at slightly longer poses, and how to build on initial gestures.

Above: 'Jana'

Action Lines – The Core of a Gesture

The action line is the simplest portrayal of a pose, boiling an entire figure down to one line. They are a useful way of thinking of how to simplify a pose, and can create an anchor for the rest of the figure.

How C and S curves create dynamic poses; straight lines tend to only generate static figures, as there is no action in the torso.

Action lines are simple lines, and tend to be either C or S curves, or straight lines. Anything more complex starts to lack clarity. When drawing an action line, think about how it runs through the core of the figure and its weight distribution; there is no exact answer to this, and a lot of it is down to interpreting the overall 'thrust' of the gesture. One thing to keep in mind is that this is not the same as the spine – the spine sits close to the back of the torso, rather than the body's centre of mass.

The action line (red) follows the gesture, whilst the spine is marked in blue.

When drawing gesture, an action line is a possible starting point. Try to look at the overall thrust of the pose – what direction is it leaning in, how are the ribcage and hips tilted, how is weight spread between the legs? It is fine if the action line travels between the legs, especially if the weight of the body is spread between them.

 In these sketches, the initial action lines have been highlighted in red. Sometimes the figure doesn't stick perfectly to the action line – as long as the idea pushing the direction and thrust of the pose carries through to the final drawing, this is fine.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the back and forth flow of weight and tension through the figure to the ground. This can be a tricky concept to pin down, as it is not something that can be observed directly, such as shape or tonal value. It is a result of our interpretation of the figure, so there is no fixed result – different people may produce different rhythm drawings of a pose. However, it is a useful idea, as it helps add balance and fluidity to gesture drawings.

Rhythm lines (green) swapping sides through the body (red) as they flow down to the ground.

The key to capturing the rhythm of the pose is following the downward flow of weight through the body. This is where rhythm lines differ from contour lines. Rhythm maintains continuity by travelling through, or across, the body, so try to work on alternating sides of the figure. Look for how the lines redirect the flow back over to the other side.

Not all poses are standing; the action line (red) can help anchor rhythm (green) down the length of the figure too.

Contour lines are observable and external to the figure – they do not dip into its volume. Rhythm travels through the figure, and may not describe contour lines accurately; often it is necessary to simplify these in shorter poses. Balancing ideas about rhythm with observation becomes more challenging for longer poses, and can be down to personal taste.

The drawing on the left is a contour drawing built over rhythm lines, whilst the drawing on the right is just a contour drawing. Whilst they look similar, the drawing on the left is more fluid due to its simpler lines, and exaggerates the pose a little, whilst the drawing on the right, though more observationally accurate, looks comparatively stiff.

The figure has a lot of natural asymmetry. This is essential for making it move without damaging anything, especially the limbs. If things where symmetric, the limbs would not be able to bend, and the weight of the body wouldn't be transferred.

Asymmetric rhythm lines on the arms and legs. Look for this asymmetry and variety in rhythm lines. There should be a mixture of tight curves and more open ones, large rhythms and smaller ones.

By hopping from one side of the figure to the other, there are a couple of issues that may come up. The first is the legs; in many poses, it is necessary to pick one leg to work down first. As a general rule, go for the leg that is bearing more of the body's weight – it is more important. After this, it is fine to go back to the other leg.

Another issue is that this process will leave gaps. Take an extra pass over the whole figure to fill these in. Look at the contrast between the two sides of the body – is this part straighter or curvier than the opposing side?

We can integrate the idea of rhythm with action lines too, by starting off with the action line and anchoring the rhythm on top of that.

This sketch starts with an action line, to anchor the rhythm lines in the second step. The final stage adds more structure to the figure.

Process Tips

Clarity is an important feature of gesture drawings – do your marks clearly show what a figure is doing? A quick sketch might do a better job at this than a developed drawing, if that drawing has lost the initial idea of the pose.

When drawing gesture, whilst it is possible to isolate body parts, typically the whole figure is drawn. A typical issue that might come up is drawing like a computer printer – working from the face and going down the figure.

The whole figure is sketched in the first couple of steps, before working in more structure with the torso, head, legs, arms and finally hands and feet.

By drawing the whole figure early on in the process, it is possible to see how everything interacts. The figure is a single system, and working on the whole thing at once will help preserve that. This will also help with proportion issues, as an added bonus!

After sketching the figure out in rhythm, some structure needs to be introduced. In general it helps to work from big (and important) forms, to the smaller (and less important) ones. Typically this order might be:

Head + Torso → Legs → Arms → Hands and Feet

This is not set in stone, as different body parts might be more or less important in different poses. The head in particular can be relocated in the order, as it is important for indicating direction and intention (it often leads movement), and is reasonably heavy, but might be overshadowed by the physical weight of the torso and legs.

When drawing gestures, don't worry too much about making things look 'pretty'. The chief goal to this kind of drawing is to record the pose, and get a sense of what the figure is doing. Often shorter poses are more dynamic, but don't afford us the time to add lots of details. Even with the luxury of photographic reference, excess detail can bog down a gesture and sap its energy.

Campi Giulio - Seated Man with Whiteboard (Source: Statens Museum for Kunst) Though this is a rough sketch, it is rich with gestural information and is beginning to indicate structure and anatomy.

Key Points to Remember About Gesture and Rhythm

• Gesture drawings describe what the body is doing, or the action of a pose, and need not be realistic.
• The action line simplifies the whole gesture down into one line.
• Rhythm indicates the perceived flow of the weight and tension through the figure.
• Try to work on the figure as a whole, prioritising bigger structures like the torso over smaller ones like the feet.

Over to You – Practise with Short Poses

Recommended Materials: Any drawing materials! Convenient, quick materials such as pencils, pens or charcoal are ideal.

Exercise 1: Drawing from Artwork

Other artists can offer invaluable lessons on gesture. Find some drawings or paintings with good figures – try to pick pieces with figure whose poses you find both interesting and dynamic.

There are two options here. The first is to just sketch the gesture of the figures on paper, recording the action line and the major rhythms of the figure. The other is to draw over the figures with either digital software, or tracing paper if you have a book or print out.

This doesn't take long, so collect plenty of figures to draw from! If no particular artists come to mind, consider looking at renaissance era figure drawings, or modern comics and cartoons.

Pietro Testa - St Michael (Source: Statens Museum for Kunst) Action line and rhythm lines are drawn over this figure. For clothed figures, try to imagine what the body is doing underneath and draw through the clothing.

Exercise 2: Drawing Short Poses with an Action Line

Draw from poses that last up to 5 minutes, and try starting each gesture drawing with an action line. This can be done in a life drawing class, or from photo reference – though if you are working from photos, try to set a time limit on your drawings.

As these are short poses, try to do lots of them. At Draw, our short pose classes tend to consist of various sets of pose times such as 10 x 2 minute poses, 5 x 3 minute poses, etc. – consider building your own 'class' of different sets of pose times for this exercise.

A page of quick, 2 minute figure sketches.

Exercise 3: Out and About: Drawing People and Animals

Keeping a sketchbook to hand whilst out and about is a good way to get chances to capture people and animals. It is likely that any subjects will not stay still for you, so they will be stationary for brief periods, or entirely in motion. If moving targets seem like a challenge, start by looking for places where people stay relatively still, such as bus stops, cafés and anywhere queues form.

Animals are also excellent subjects for gesture drawing. Whilst other land animals' (and marine mammals'!) bodies are a bit different (especially in the spine) the ideas of action lines and rhythm are the same.

Quick sketches of sheep from life.

Exercise 4: Drawing from Video

Video is a fantastic challenge for gesture drawing, as well as a great resource for learning to understand how the body moves. If drawing a moving figure is too intimidating, try pausing and using a static shot instead. As long as the drawing is relatively quick and focuses on gesture, this is fine.

Try to pick forms of video that capture the full figure. Sports are great for this, but other activities, such as dance and circus, work well too.

 These gesture sketches were drawn from a video of a clown performance.

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Further links

>> Watch the Week 14: Gesture & Rhythm main lesson HERE (Student & Life Tiers)  
>> Watch the Week 14: Gesture & Rhythm demo HERE (Student & Life Tiers)

Find links to the whole Tutored Life Drawing Course HERE

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