Gesture Drawings

Gesture drawings are today's topic! How to teach gesture drawing to adolescents is the question. First I would make a power point about that has the definition of gesture drawing which is the basic drawing of an essential form of a pose, often taken from life, these poses will often show motion. When you are teaching gesture drawings always remember the 7 L's of gesture drawing:

Draw Loosely

Draw Lightly

Draw Lines of Action

Draw Lines of Rhythm

Draw Long

Draw Large 

Draw Lively

Gesture drawings are not meant to be precise and meticulous, the lines in them are drawn quickly and in long, large movements (the 7 L's!)  Then when it comes to application in a classroom you can ask your students to volunteer and take turns posing in front of the class so your students can try drawing a variety of poses. Gesture drawing can be hard for some students to understand so using larger utensils may come in handy. Give them short amounts of time. Generally a pose should be drawn in less than a minute. 

If students get the majority of the large picture drawn in they can then go back in with the details. If a student is still struggling with the idea of gesture drawing attach a marker to a yard stick and take paper and tape it to the floor. Have them draw the same pose but with the yard stick marker. This will enable them to understand better that gesture drawing is not about the small details as it is nearly impossible for them to draw the small details with the yard stick.

To make this type of activity into a piece for display have the students do an extended gesture drawing by having them draw several poses showing the range of movement. This type of exercise could turn into a wonderful study of the body.