Gesture Drawing versus "A Style" ?

[@Drawing-Life]

Thank you so much for watching! How is your drawing practice going? Do you struggle with gesture or are there any other areas where you feel stuck in particular? Let me know below. As always, thanks so much for being here and supporting this channel! ❤

[@paul329869]

Thanks for your latest video, @Drawing-Life. I love how well you’ve visually articulated the aspects of both gesture and style in gesture drawing. I don’t have any questions that I wish I have, but please keep on pushing yourself and your gestural styles!😊😊😊

[@paul329869]

I know that I don’t have a question, but for one: How is it possible to retain the style of gestures in less than 1 minute?

[@Drawing-Life]

Thank you so much Paul! This is great to read, I really appreciate your feedback - glad that this made sense! ❤@@paul329869

[@Drawing-Life]

Great question! Drawing short poses like 30 seconds usually means you only get a few lines down on the page - generally I go for the big line-of-action lines, that describe the overall shape or direction of the model. You really can't expect to get much more in 30 seconds, but it's a great practice nonetheless - Hope this helps? @@paul329869

[@yuchan2023]

Your drawings are very attractive. Looking at your drawings gives me a refreshing sensation, like when I put my face close to a flower or plant and smell it.

[@Drawing-Life]

Wow, what a beautiful comment. thank you so much!! I'm so glad to receive this 😊❤

[@sylvainst-pierre8725]

Great video, great words. Thanks for being here for us. You are part of me becoming a better artist/human because of that.

[@Drawing-Life]

Ah you are so kind always!! I really appreciate your support.Thanks for this comment it means so much. It's great to know that we can be in touch on here and Substack.

[@lmpeck4329]

Your videos and posts give me courage, Siobhan. Thank you. I have trouble moving beyond constant self-assessment, which is crippling and counterproductive. You have helped me very much.

[@Drawing-Life]

This is so great to hear, thank you so much!! I'm really glad to know as it can be hard to post videos and hope that it makes sense to someone! haha... I think a lot of drawing takes courage, that's not unusual to feel like that, especially figure drawing. If you are able to get to a life drawing session where you have the chance to draw the model with other artists, then definitely do that, it helps so much to be in the room with other artists and to get inspiration and feedback from them - it helps to be let go of your own judgement because other people see things in your work that you can't see yet.

[@lmpeck4329]

Thank for this reply! I actually do attend a life drawing session weekly, very fortunate to have it available to me. I am shy to show my work, but will try to be bolder. :) @@Drawing-Life

[@Drawing-Life]

That's great!! I really encourage you to start showing your work, i know it's not easy, but it's definitely an important step and you will improve so much - you need other peoples feedback its very supportive. Also, try to learn from other peoples drawings as well, that's a great way to try different things in your own drawing. @@lmpeck4329

[@scottnowlin5842]

Thank you, as always you inspire me to play more and relax while drawing!

[@noah295463]

Amazingly done video. Great content. Very nice as always.

[@rosemarybunch6846]

Welcome back, Siobhan! I missed your videos and drawings. Once again, you explained very well what style is. It is true; no two people see one subject and draw it in the same way. Thank you! Roberta

[@Drawing-Life]

Thank you Roberta!! Love this comment, I'm so glad this made sense for you. I've missed uploading over the last 2 months - I went over to Ireland to see my mum and wasn't really able to get much drawing or recording done, so I'm glad to be back in the olde routine again! ❤

[@silverbirch-youtube]

Thanks for this! I've been trying to get more expressive with my gesture drawings and move away from that cartoony look, and this is a really helpful frame of mind to try to approach it with.

[@Drawing-Life]

That's great to hear! Thanks so much for leaving a comment - it does help if you can practice this approach drawing from life, it makes immediate sense, but if you don't go to life drawing you can still incorporate it into your work from photos! Hope that helps :)

[@jackc2996]

Hi Siobhan, new sub here. I study linguistics in Ireland but I've recently discovered passion for animating and drawing. I learnt a lot from your teaching sessions on Skillshare and so much more from your videos on YT. I just want to say thanks and I look forward to your future videos. 🥰

[@Drawing-Life]

Oh wow, this is so amazing to hear!! Thanks for leaving this comment! Are you studying in Dublin? There are some great opportunities to get to life drawing sessions in Dublin, I hope you can get to them. I think Block T in Stoneybatter have a regular class. And you can probably connect with animators there I'm sure - so interesting to hear about your love for drawing and animation, as well as the fact that you're studying linguistics. Best of luck, and keep me posted! ❤

[@jackc2996]

@@Drawing-Life Oh unfortutely not, I study in the rebel county of Cork. But a few friends and I are already making plans on starting a YT channel where we'll post out animated videos and stuff. Thank you so much for your words, and keep up the good work!😇

[@jadedenthusiasms]

Hi! I haven't even fully watched this whole video, I glanced at your favorite books... and I already have drawing with the right side of the brain... kinda cool because it was given to my younger sis more then 30yrs ago, she gave it to my son to help him as he was growing up and became an artist... and now I'm trying to go through it... very slow going due to my health, but I even just love seeing their names written in there and their notes🥰😊 So I looked the others up and was able to get a used copy of 'The natural way to draw' for like $5 or $6, free shipping!! I know it's an intense book with a lot in it... most all reviews were great, but definitely mentioned that it's basically like going to full art school with major drills and serious schedules and will take a long time to get through... but that's exciting as I'll never be able to take any real classes or go to art school, so I thought I'd have some large paper and sketchbooks set aside just for going through it. Just had to tell you😊❤ Thank you for being here, especially with my skillshare trial over. Its awesome to be able to keep learning from you. You explain things so well, putting it into terms that I can sort of see and feel... that probably doesn't makes sense😊🤦🏻‍♀️ but, its a good thing. You're a great teacher!!! I appreciate you and all your hard work very much!!!😊🥰

[@Drawing-Life]

Thank you so much for this comment! this is awesome to hear. Just wanted to mention that Nicolaides book can seem like a lot to get through because there are some heavy schedules listed out, but just know that you don't have to follow the schedules, just read what he says and do the exercises that he recommends! Enjoy! ❤

[@jadedenthusiasms]

@@Drawing-Life yea, I noticed that in some reviews :) thank you! It was supposed to get here today, but, it doesn't seem to have even gotten to the shipper yet🤦🏻‍♀️🙄... soooooooo we'll see😬 ❤

[@GreenlifeFin]

This was SO freeing and inspirational! I know this will have a huge impact on my drawing - and my thinking, the mindset! You are great ❤

[@stephenmetz1394]

Your videos and your drawings are truly inspiring. I'm learning so much, including on your Skillshare channel. I'm wondering if you'd consider making a mark-making video, esp. with charcoal, or if you or anyone else who sees this comments would mind sharing any good online resources for this? Thanks so much for all you do.

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi Stephen, thank you so much for this comment! It's wonderful to hear that the video resonates with you. Great question re mark making! It's something I am always thinking about. I'll do my best to put out a video around this topic as soon as I can. In terms of resources for this topic, one thing I can recommend is: see if you can get your hands on a book called "Drawing Projects" by Mick Maslin - it's a great book for really delving into how mark making is such an important aspect of drawing and gives projects to work on in order to build up your abilities. Let me know if you find it useful.

[@stephenmetz1394]

@@Drawing-Life thank you! You're really awesome 😎😎.

[@davidtidsall9266]

Great video Siobhan and welcome back.. I really like the idea of the gestural mark being more personal than the shape. This helps me in figure drawing and in abstract work as I have been looking for a way to be more personally expressive in abstract painting. So thank you, great work..

[@Drawing-Life]

Ah fantastic! So glad this resonated with you David! I tend to think of simple stylization as being universal, and the gestural mark being personal. My feeling is that a gestural mark is powerful because it says something new about a subject, since it is a pure representation of how the artists looks and creates. However, if a work is too personal it risks excluding an entry into it, ... and if it's too overly simplified then it might be generic and it simply adds nothing new to the world. Finding that nuanced boundary between the two can be such an important exploration in art making.And taking that into abstract, expressive painting could be really exciting! Keep me posted!

[@davidtidsall9266]

@@Drawing-Life Hi Siobhan that’s such a good way of describing the interplay between the personal and generic and finding the balance that invites the viewer in and yet says some thing new and personal you have helped me make explicit what I have been struggling with implicitly..

[@Mayandthecats]

Im your nsw Fan /followers. Your vdo are great and really informative.

[@Drawing-Life]

Yayy! 😊 thank you so much! i'm glad these videos are useful

[@XenaArt]

👌👌👌 Супер! Таке не всім під силу повторити! 👍👍👍❤❤❤

[@cathyschuerman3971]

Helpful video as always! Thank you! On another note, I still haven't received the drawing I won in the contest. Any ideas on why?

[@Drawing-Life]

Hi Cathy! I sent you an email about it, I will re-send it. Your drawing is on it's way to you as of today! Unfortunately I had to go to Ireland, and didn't want to risk taking it with me on the plane, so I had arranged for it to be shipped from South Africa. I've just arrived back now and it is on it's way to you as we speak. So sorry for that, let me know if you see my email in spam? I don't regularly check that other email address so could be held up on my end too.

[@je4nette]

One day, I hope to match your flowing, free-spirited style. Did you spend a lot of time at the start of your drawing career carefully measuring and learning body proportions? Your figures look so well proportioned.

[@Drawing-Life]

Ha, great question. I did not! I "tried" drawing cubes following Bridgeman, but my drawings were bad. Then I studied Animation and as part of that program we did Life drawing 3 times a week, and happened to have a brilliant teacher. From day one, I learnt to measure the figure with simple mapping lines (really, another sort of gesture line) and that instilled a good grasp of proportion. To this day I haven't properly studied anatomy, and I personally don't think you need to have a medical grade knowledge of bones and muscles in order to be able to draw the figure. Understanding the structure of the figure definitely helps, but I prefer to place emphasis on learning to draw confidently first. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions! And thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment 😊❤

[@GreenlifeFin]

⁠@@Drawing-LifeAh, so happy to hear this! I don’t wanna do cubes and ovals… 😭 Have you made a video about those mapping lines? If not, would really love to learn that.

[@GreenlifeFin]

Great question, helped me too.

[@manishakhuraswar9221]

Beautiful😊

[@Drawing-Life]

Thank you 🙏

[@krishna_saadhu]

Hi. Very nice. I am also artist. I am krishna from kuwait. I want to become charcoal portrait specialist. Not only i have subscription your channel

[@ML-2024]

🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌