Gesture drawings are fast, loose and scribbly. They take about a minute to do and they capture the essence of the subject.
Often in a live figure drawing class, we will start with 20 one minute gesture drawings. It is fun to layer several on top of each other. You can capture the energy of objects and animals too.
I like to use gesture style drawings when making trace monotype prints. The speedy nature of the drawing compliments the trace monotype process. Though I don’t “trace” when doing these gesture drawing trace monotypes. I think I lose some other fluid energy when tracing. I used a copyright free image from Pixabay for this dog series.
When you want to loosen up your drawing:
- Get a stack of copy paper
- Find a tool or 2 from your studio
- Look at it – Do an air tracing with your finger
- Feel the energy
- Set a timer and
- Do 10 or 20 one minute gesture drawings
I bet you will have one or 2 drawings that you like.
If you would like to explore trace monotype printmaking with some of your drawings, then join us in the upcoming class, Draw into Print. Read all the details on the workshop page.