Drawing Fast Gesture Figures for Animation with these three secrets

Drawing fast is not only an important skill for animation, but essential when trying to get an overall idea first before giving your drawings that finished look. Many artists tend to forget to be bold, let loose and let go, which holds them back into breaking out of their comfort zone.
The Complete Introduction to 2D Animation
Buy the complete introduction to 2D animation tutorial/video package:
gum.co/Introto2DComplete
Main Website: www.tonikopantoja.com/
Twitter: / tonikopantoja
Instagram: / tonikopantoja
Online Store/Tutorials: gumroad.com/stringbing
Patreon Account: / stringbing
Equipment I use:
Drawing Tablet: Wacom Cintiq 22HD: www.wacom.com/en/products/pen...
Software I use:
Animation - TVPAINT
Animation - Adobe Flash/Animate CC
Compositing - After Effects
Painting and Illustration - Photoshop
Video Editing - Premiere

[@Rudenbehr]

This man is singlehandedly on a mission to bring back 2d animators, I stan

[@xQuandaleDinglex]

KimiDesu I SALUTE! *Salutes*

[@t3ddyb34r5]

2d animators still exist...

[@user-pt5cl2ro6f]

@@t3ddyb34r5 So does 3D and Live actions, who are taking over...

[@fenrir-art4742]

sadly it has been around for years even in japan. oh well. 2d never disappeared.

[@Nintendude.]

* Cough * * Cough * AMB Animation Academy * Cough *

[@simplepostman2034]

Man, despite me being a junior game designer who can't draw at all, I've been following you for around 6 month. Your content is so freaking useful! It's a lot easier for me to take your steps & tips and project them onto my creative process by analogy. Your videos about personal projects, making short films, production and finishing - all of them are straight to the point and extremely applicable in practice. The realm of game design is sometimes too abstract with its endless grids and systems. It's so easy to get lost in my own thoughts... And seeing you facing and overcoming the same problems in a tangible world of animation and drawing brings me back to the ground. Thank you very much!

[@jawsquid]

such a nice thoughtful comment, and captures a lot of what I love about this channel, too

[@chaelamariecarter2831]

Toniko: I'm gonna start with some examples of approaching gesture drawing badly. Me: Toniko: Being too sketchy and indecisive Me: Oh no Toniko: Trying to be too precise Me: Oh no Toniko: Or trying to be too academic Me: Oh no, no, no, no, no, no

[@_Kamura_]

Oh dear- lol

[@42seven]

i'd just quit till next week-

[@CharacterDesignForge]

You're the best Toniko!

[@delusionalunicorn5324]

You and Toniko are one of the bests.

[@aswety2665]

Е

[@SkateSavvyGreg]

@Dreams * hi

[@hayopepper5593]

I hope y’all collaborate someday!

[@CharacterDesignForge]

@@hayopepper5593 👀

[@marcelinodhayaka9270]

When I used to be in art school, my prof usually limit the lines for figure drawing. So, instead of using scribbly lines, we used straight line, S line, and C line. And yeah, draw with your arm

[@jorgevalenzuela4400]

They also taught me that way. In my opinion, it's garbage. It totally kills the gesture and doesn't necessarily make you any faster.

[@DatowdaArts]

Such a timing. I was trying to draw real fast, but effectively atm and it was so hard. This is exactly what i needed! Thank you so much!

[@brianaornelas1166]

This is something that needs to be practiced at every level. There is always something to learn about gesture drawing and anatomy in general. Great viddd my friend!

[@meghdipva]

*i swear youtube's a.i is godly i was just thinking about drawing fast and boom*

[@mikewazowski5234]

It’s because there spying on us at all times 👁👄👁

[@Sycra]

Great video! I definitely have had to learn how to draw faster over the years and the topics you covered really are effective for getting the big picture info down quickly. Keep up the great work!

[@itriedfollowingatutorial828]

yay sycra! do you still do animations? i stopped for a while, might get back into it. but i remember seeing you comment on sinix about his goofy animations he did.

[@itriedfollowingatutorial828]

i fail to understand how you come up with so many tips in such a short amount of time. all of this has been really helpful, and the real time drawing on some of these is really cool, i felt like i could see the outline of the figure the way ms jisu draws, except of course she is better than all of us and doesnt have to use reference. you captured the realism really well, and thats something i aim to get better feel in my drawings. representation realism is to me the coolest stuff. anyway big thank you my dudeth!

[@zooropa414]

This is my favorite drawing, animation channel, real practical advice, straight to the point no hassle or too much philosophy, just applicable practices

[@user-dq8or7go2n]

thanks! i will try to draw this!!!! i have trouble drawing fast gesture figure for a long time. so i'm very grateful to you! thanks!

[@tgraphicdesign3045]

I did this for the first time today. Absolutely loved it.

[@tg6v6vey2]

Why does this feels like ur giving me life advice and art advice at the same time

[@jeremyfrias]

I appreciated the real time demonstrations in this video. It's very helpful to see the process you go through in real time rather than sped up; it aids learning and helps give a sense of how long processes actually take. Thank you!

[@mateabanana3506]

Thanks you so much for offering this content for free.

[@michaeliyiola9352]

This tremendously helped me. I have been trying to juggle animation and learning how to draw the human figure. This video answered a lot of questions.

[@nicolasmarsa8001]

incredible content! one of the best 2d animation channels. You definitely stand out with your videos! Hope you get more followers and views. 2d animation will be back stronger than ever!

[@AmbroseReed]

this is something I’ve been thinking about a lot and wanting to practice, really appreciate this video!

[@KNuzX]

Great video, and super informative! I forget how integral these sorts of exercises are to growth and progress. Thank you!

[@iwantparts]

Hard to break this anatomy habit but I need to learn how to produce more, and more often.

[@rafianimations9188]

This is what i needed, awesome work man!

[@joelmayerprods]

8:10 Now i finally know which brush you use...

[@fenrir-art4742]

Doing that for my art movies. Thanks for the info. I like your art.

[@kaijurisprucencia]

This is a very very good class, I'm very impressed by it. Thank you so much for putting something like this out. I'm actually using these techniques and applying them to my animations, and this method has taken away at least half the time I used to spend fleshing out poses and scenes. THANK YOU!!!

[@thedigitalnoodle4021]

Glad to have found another awesome teacher!

[@NeoAnimoken]

This is really helpful and exactly what I have been looking for. Thank you very much for posting this!

[@The-Determined-Ninja]

So good; you always manage to _completly_ defeat my expectation! You even reminded me of some things that I learned but it's like these techniques/principles just slipped my mind, so thanks for that (in addition to everything I learned)...!

[@thomasfurlano9106]

Toniko thank you for your sharing these ideas of yours which enable the student or the learner to see and observe in doing to hear it and watch and observe helps me so much.

[@arianahass2506]

You sir, have my respect 💯. Although I'm an artist with 13 years of experience and specializ in hyper-realism, I'v been trying to get in to the world of storyboarding and was struggling till I found you. This video helps sooooo much! I'm so used to spending hours on a small part of my art peice, your vids are life saving 💯💥💯👌🙌

[@carmelpaints313]

Another great vid Toniko! A lot of this is useful for drawing comics as well!

[@bonitayeung1906]

super insightful, I've been stuggling on the hairy sketches for quite a while and didn't know how to improve it.

[@eaglewarrior21]

Interesting, so that's how it works! I could not finish any pose in 30 seconds and I didn't know why. Now I understand that I was being to careful with each stroke and I needed to free myself a lot more, thank you!

[@sydneyhazel277]

i just found your channel and i am so happy omg! shouldve found you sooner, all your content is extremely helpful and your art and animation is amaaaziiiinggggg! thank you so much for these :D

[@nicc2710]

Thank you for the video man you helped me feel less anxious about my gestures

[@amycaslol95]

i started watching these videos to be able to expand the narative interactions in my arg story, and it has been very helpful since when i started i only knew the basics of animation memes such as headbops , wings opening, basic wind , and nothing more

[@littleravendesigns5587]

Dude you are amazing! I love your work, I feel like you are the animator Bob Ross! Thank you for sharing your knowledge

[@brianaornelas1166]

You should do a figure drawing for quadrupeds like idk maybe foxes would be cool?? :D

[@kyleroutledge470]

Fantastic video, really helped a beginner noob like me to understand gesture drawing, thanks bro.

[@spacewhiffle5344]

is no one gonna appreciate the fact that he is brushing and animating 8:09

[@ministerofjoy]

Thank you found it unvaluable🎉

[@danriley282]

Your channel and content is amazing! Thanks so much! :)

[@parasynesis9260]

i really wanna get into animation so this is perfect! been watching a handful of these kinds of videos and i usually just go full stickman mode to just get the basic pose down, almost like a skeleton.

[@junedcruz3287]

Thanks so much for these ❤️

[@user-hh7pb7zy2f]

I cant draw the same face again... If i animate turn the head it looks different person in first and last frame.. What to do...

[@TonikoPantoja]

Aside from flipping and the dot to dot method, There is a technique called place and trace. Its hard to explain it in words, but its when you align your drawings on top of each other so the heads of both drawings are overlayed on top of each other. From there, position the drawing with your inbetween so all drawings match the position.

[@ohboy1113]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKS9dKVmrciem5I Go to 10:32

[@roileybnp]

This is extremely informative 💗

[@christophergeorge2894]

Thank you so much for this video

[@Vanillaqyoo]

argh such a good video, thanks!

[@damianmfigueroaberrio36]

Loveeeee It, thanks!

[@yaduentertainment]

You are awesome !

[@emprisdurden]

Super helpful!

[@alwayslookingatself]

I've been using videos of athletes & dancers on youtube. Then using the < > buttons to advance the video 3-5 frames & doing progressive 1 minute gesture drawings. I do 30 to 50 of them, then Animate.

[@user-nu5br8yg4u]

Thanks for big tips!

[@santone1849]

excellent video thank you

[@minnowthewarlock5988]

This is gonna help my animation so much, as adding detail hurts me- like- o w. These tips help as 1. you don't have to draw complex things like hands, feet, or eyes 2. allows you to convey what you want to in a short amount of time 3. it's easy for beginners. I'm a beginner and realizing I can draw that one T. rex as just a few distinctive shapes helps a lot. This also allows for line refinement so they don't end up wiggling all over the place

[@jaycreate7701]

Looks like someone is learning in quarantine. I AM TOO

[@gabrielquintanilla7118]

thank you

[@Harnee_s]

Thank you~

[@alliu6562]

That white samurai dude is a figure I drew in class 🤣 I just randomly noticed that lol Anyways totally agree with the quickness in figure drawing. I was in a class with both inexperienced and experienced artists, and I noticed that people struggled with figure drawing because they kept being hairy and exact. Obviously while I’m no expert and I’m still learning figure drawing, I realized pretty fast the reason why I enjoyed those figure drawing sessions a lot more than my classmates was because I drew faster and looser than a lot of my classmates. I feel like the goal of quick figure sketches is to represent as many shapes as possible with as few lines as possible. In 30 secs (or less), you should be able to create a legible, understandable pose.

[@Tacospaceman]

OK so I’m watching this and I’m just fucking stunned this is so fucking cool this is amazing this has single-handedly brought my interest in animation to a level where I can understand it and want to explore it so much more than I ever have before now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to storyboard and create my own cool shit, see you when I make my first cartoon

[@rochelimit55555]

Thanks for the awesome advise on avoiding carpal tunnel

[@alan112223]

Gold content

[@IzFanArt69]

Thank you for tip

[@franciscoreyess.7965]

Gracias, tus vídeos son de gran ayuda, me suscribo :)

[@kohchenkit266]

Am I the only one who is frustrated after looking at my quick gesture drawing?

[@Caligo_05]

I've been watching your videos on animation techniques + tips, and they're very enlightening. Thank you for sharing this 🙂

[@kassyyar97]

Amazing video! This will really help since storyboarding and animating are the two things I want to focus on Quick question, whenever I see 2D animation reels, when they are in pencils and lineart, some of the shadows are colored and Im not sure if the shadows should also be colored in a same layer, what do they do? I dont even know how to structure my question, sorry for that hahaha But Im not sure if they use a multiply layer for that? Or do they literally paint the shadow in the same layer? Its a little confusing for me PS: I know that you can mark the shadows with another color, but that may be a different case for those kind of animations? 🤔 please help!

[@TonikoPantoja]

I like to do it on a separate later, and use a multiply blend effect since I'm more casual about how I treat shading (I normally don't like shading my animation). When I did work for studio la cachette's Worlds 2016 opening animation, I had to color my shading with blues and yellows to let the color artists/clean up artists down the line to know which parts were high lights and what parts were shadows. It depends on what the production is asking for.

[@kassyyar97]

@@TonikoPantoja I see, awesome! Will keep that in mind, thank you for answering :D

[@frejazz2]

Great vid and so helpful! what canvas size are you using when doing these quick sketches?

[@kdvr766]

Cant believe i miss the early release

[@Tylerthegrappler]

A way I’ve used to get comfortable with accepting what lines have already been made is to use ink. No erasing no going back. Made a mistake, improvise from this, you may find a new piece unintentionally.

[@bruh8245]

Do you think at first some level of academic drawing comes into play too before getting loose? I'm trying the technique of being loose out and it feels great. But without that background of some proportion and anatomy I feel like my drawings would have been a little too loose.

[@MASJYT]

26:58 Ok I guess your twitter porn stash is a good reference too.

[@Lukz243]

I need to train a lot about being decisive :

[@dudebuster1842]

Thank you for saying it doesnt have to have correct porportions or anatomy. I was concerned with those two factors often when i did a gesture. Ill work on proportions & anatomy separately from this.

[@dudebuster1842]

Timestamp - 14:28

[@dudebuster1842]

29:32

[@miirami5761]

I know you are totally right and I am working on it, but at the same time my pefectionist ass feels like crying once I “just scribble”.

[@basicfrogginhuman6023]

what is the song you use starting 16:35 ??? I really need to know!!

[@yueimpurple]

Hey! I had a question. I usually do this sort of gesture study but I was wondering if blocking helps? I block down the form with a highlighter or a thick marker quickly and then sort of draw over it? I'm usually more comfortable with blocking even while drawing environments so I wonder if thats a reasonable way to study gesture drawing or if it will stump me in the future

[@BigTexasTony]

I was in the drawing class. I wasn't proud of gesture drawings. I was drawing too slowly or too fast, but I missed the time. I couldn't do 1-minute or 5-minute drawings.

[@TheWheatless]

Random question for people: What canvas size do you use for this kind of practice? And do you save all these files (e.g. like at 24:56) or do you delete them pretty regularly?

[@personalenyertainment2897]

What if you have a small tablet do you still have to draw with your elbow?

[@osymaking4072]

At the time of 7:53: Me: yes, yes, now time to break my finger so I can draw better. Also the joke was, I use my finger to draw.

[@MrBaumTV]

Is it normal that my proportions will be absolutely off at the beginning? I struggle a lot especially at the taille

[@vino92838]

Hello sir. Can you please suggest an anatomy book/lesson for beginners.

[@2MKcreations]

Hey Toniko. Does these secrets requires some meditation beforehand?

[@humandog3240]

What's the song in your intro?

[@user-jd1hy9bg1d]

Use both: Wrist + Arm = All One

[@custu2814]

Im fine with 30s drawing from life, but when i animate i have no idea where to start. Do you have advice for that? When i draw a single image I don't have the same issue Awesome video btw

[@TonikoPantoja]

A good practice would be to determine your line of action, and then adjut the head, torso and pelvis along with it. As for the order, it depends what you're comfortable with. I like starting with the torso and pelvis because it determines the angles and twists of the body, which the head and appendages (limbs) attach to (and i can also determine what angle those need to be first. The legs and feet are crucial for keeping things planted.

[@custu2814]

@@TonikoPantoja Hi, thanks for taking the time to reply! If its okay, I have another question. How can I have perspective and form in my drawings while preserving the energy/feel in a loose drawing? In the video you said not to worry too much about form but what if I'm animating in a camera angle with lots of movement towards/away from the camera. Or even something where the hips and torso are rotating alot?

[@xxx1432]

So like how many drawings does a 2d animator make in a day? Or how do they calculate the speed of drawings?

[@jorgevalenzuela4400]

Never too many drawings, never fast enough.

[@_n0ns0_]

This is great But i want to know how to draw the same character over and over

[@jvsonyt]

"if you wanted to be that douchebag" made me like the video

[@Koda905]

He says: "I'm trying to, 'figure,' out."

[@origamishadow2655]

I use a mouse. Can this still go well.

[@luck0717]

Not really, you can train your brain or your eye, but even office paper and pencil is more effective for learning, if you can't get access to sketchbooks or an art tablet.

[@origamishadow2655]

Luck thnx. Well i do have a sketchbook.

[@Userdoesnotexit]

Your content is dope and all, but can you invest in decent mic ? that would be much easier to listen to

[@TonikoPantoja]

It will be considered!

[@LuminaLucifuga]

@@TonikoPantoja I guess, some diffusor or something like that plus another station of your current mic would help a lot more than a new mic. For example, a bookshelf with books totally random organized in size etc is a cheap way to diffuse the sound waves of your voice (to get rid of the hall). And you could put your mic on another spot, where it doesn't face to your PC or touches the table where your PC is on top, to avoid recording the buzz of your PC (this little buzzing noise in the background). Just test a bit around with what you already have. A new mic is not always the solution. :) And, of course, thank you so much for your content! I really love what you do!

[@rialn5006]

A 10 years away

[@chimpobox]

8:10 LOL where you drawing while brushing your teeth?

[@hatetez]

He was brushing his teeth 8:10

[@THUNGUNS]

*this video is brought to you by quickposes*

[@Dojo2000]

Love this comment

[@NotSoProishNoob]

Yooooo

[@Dojo2000]

@@NotSoProishNoob yoooooooooo

[@filipemecenas]

Second time here

[@real_human13]

Joe

[@dudebuster1842]

who-

[@jakeward3209]

Bro you don’t need to preface things so much you can just get to your point it will be much easier for you and for us lol