This question goes like this…
Yo Nagisaaanon its me Toga guy, lately as you might have seen in the drawthreads I’ve been trying to draw my wife and if it’s cool could you give me some critiques or if there’s anything I need to work on?
I usually start everyday by drawing gestures for 7 minutes then draw a piece however I’m unsure how gesture works if there’s a right way or a wrong way for it? I will just post some of my art here.
There is a way of doing gestures alright, it’s been passed through many books and many professors preach construction. Personally speaking however, I don’t think that’s a one answer fits all.
For your case what I see is that you are trying to understand what you are drawing, and there’s nothing wrong with that in face props to you! but first you have to learn how to draw. What do I mean by this? I mean that you must train your hand – eye coordination during many things, and the closest that I can say this will do is throughout repetition. Another point I want to make is this, don’t be too eager to try to rush into things you see others do, do what you think looks good on your end instead. I want you to focus not on the skeletal work but proportions for now through repetition, and when you do gestures also focus more on the outline of the subjects rather than the workings of inside, you will be focusing on the silhouette is what I mean.
Here’s what I mean, these are two 30 second gestures that I got from quickposes which is a super helpful website for this. Observe how I cared very little for the details and only wanted to get the lines going for a general idea, and I focused more on the places where shapes are bound to come in contact with one another through tangents.
You should aim to do as many as you comfortable are, and even when you’re not holding a pencil and you’re in your day to day I suggest looking at things and trying to figure out the shape of their outlines. Keep practicing and working on that hand-eye coordination too, and once you learn how to draw (your body obeying your brain), then you can learn what you are drawing (all the details in the drawing)
This question goes like this…
As a beginner artist, how do I get over the feelings that I am not good enough and that there is so much information to learn and to put to use in a drawing that I feel overwhelmed?
You simply have to get over it. Drawing and painting is more than just putting stuff in a canvas, it’s creating. Who cares what others are doing, you must do so for yourself. After all, you are your biggest critic! Is this not why you feel not good enough and overwhelmed?
The best way to get past this is unironically drawing a line. That’s it. Every day I want you to open your sketchbook, your notepad, mspaint if you draw digitally, etc. and I want you to draw a line. A simple line. Set yourself the goal to just draw a line, and if you don’t feel like it then after putting that line stop right there, but every day you must at least draw a line.
Get used to the idea of drawing and get used to the idea that it is natural, for a drawing is what you see through your eyes. I do not know how you see the world neither you know how I see it, we may both be looking at the same sunflower and you may focus on it’s petals while I focus more on the seeds. Simply put, you must draw what you see. Make it look good and genuine, put an actual effort into it. Forget lineart weight, forget perspective, forget values, color, shape, forget everything. All that matters is that you draw what you are looking. Then, when the time comes and if you are still discontent… You already may know how to draw the sunflower’s petals, but now you want another test and challenge, and thus you go in and look for other types of flowers. You go in and delve deeper into the knowledge of other flowers. And then you draw those flowers, that is how you grow your knowledge. You are right, there is so much information to learn but you don’t have to take it all at once.
Do not draw what others have drawn, but draw what you know and understand. Drawing is a completely natural thing and honestly speaking if you ask me, I believe that relying too much in standarized academic processes will make your drawing look too derivative from others. Understand what you are drawing, know your subject, not what other’s painted already. Draw an apple, not what someone else drew as an apple and told you how to draw an apple. Learn to dissect what makes an apple an apple. It is best to draw with the best reference possible and the best teacher; nature itself. Walk your own path, make your own way. Following another’s way will only leave you pursuing behind them forever. Do you understand? Stay curious
