6/18 Gesture

The M/W class began its investigations of Line with Gesture Drawing.  Gesture is the all encompassing, quick and spontaneous rendering of the artist's subject.  Gesture drawings are NOT about capturing realism and details.  Gesture drawings should exhibit energy through rephrasing edges and contours  multiple times and drawing the forms as though they were transparent.  We discussed the four primary gestural techniques of Line Gesture, Mass Gesture, Scribble Gesture and Mass and Line Gestures combined.

First we began with Cross-Contour drawings to create a sense of volume with a limited amount of information.  Notice the absence of outside contours as well as the accenting in the line (dark to light transitions) to suggest weight and a shadow side.

Next we made Continuous Line Drawings.  These drawings should consist of one, single, long, continuous line from start to finish.  It is a searching line that records the path of the eyes of the artist.

Then we made Scribble Gesture Drawings.  These drawings should capture a sense of volume through overlapping, scribbled lines that suggest weight and possibly a sense of light. Drawings by Autumn La Rue, Dillon Cimino and Allen Girion respectively.

We concluded the evening with Mass and Line combinations. These drawings should address structure through line while producing weight and light through mass. Drawing by Jesus Neri-Martinez.

1/13 GESTURE DRAWING

First night drawing.  The evening started with some cross-contour exercises. Subject: gourds.  Cross-contour lines map the topography of an object similar to the latitudinal and longitudinal lines on a globe. Note the lines crossing the gourd accentuate the roundness of the gourd by arching from left to right.  The lines also transition from dark to light.  This gives a greater sense of volume and suggests a light source (darker lines representing the shadow side).

Next, we made continuous line drawings.  A continuous line drawing is composed of one long continuous line.  The pencil should not leave the paper from start to finish.  Continuous lines should record the path of the artist's eye as it moves across his/her subject. Continuous lines wrap and draw through forms defining structure. Again when the line quality is varied with thick lines and thin lines, dark lines and light lines, you can suggest more depth and volume.

And finally after viewing some slides, we made gesture drawings. Gesture drawings are a quick and spontaneous, all encomposing line that searches to define its form. Like the previous exercises, it records the path of the eyes. We addressed three different types of gesture: Line, Mass, and Scribble.

Line gesture suggests structure and volume. Mass and Scribble gestures suggest mass, volume and light. The example above is a Scribble gesture.