So I started off 2015 with this gesture sketch and the thought that I’d mix up humans with animals. I was trying to get out of my comfort zone and do the one creature on Earth that has always posed a serious challenge for me…people. Humans. What I discovered though, is that it’s very difficult to do sketches like this one in such a tiny sketchbook. The gesture sketch is meant to be loose and fast. It’s almost impossible for me to do that with this small book (2″x4″). I’m gripping my pen or pencil much tighter and trying to convey gesture or motion. The gesture sketch is also meant to be larger, where you can use your whole arm in the act of drawing. The gesture is not just what the model is doing but also what the artist is doing, I think. In addition, a medium such as charcoal is usually used. It is by nature, a much looser medium and not something you can grip tightly and control like a pencil. It is very soft and moves. Even once down on paper, it can smear (which is why I didn’t use it in my sketchbook). But that lends itself to movement, to the sketch feeling more natural. A gesture sketch isn’t meant to show all of the details of the subject, but rather to capture the subject (in this case a person) in motion. The sketch isn’t quite abstract either. For some great examples, visit Craftsy’s page on gesture drawing.

At any rate, I will post the few that I’ve done in 2015. I’m still trying to catch up after my website disappeared last fall. I also didn’t make it past April with the daily sketches since I started focusing more on my commission work. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. I will continue to work on sketching humans, but I will do it on a big sketch pad with charcoal and I will do them with some time constraints. My hope for this year is also to get more into writing posts about art and current issues, life, health, etc. And I’d also love to do some how-to posts. I’m not sure how to approach those quite yet, but I’m working on it!