5th grade Week 4: Bodies in Motion

Next week I'm going to introduce you to an artist who creates some pretty interesting sculptures to inspire our next project. But this week, let's get moving!

The images shown above are a type of drawing known as gesture drawing. Gesture drawing is a loose form of sketching that attempts to capture a subject's basic form and express movement. Looking at a gesture drawing you should know what they're doing.

Typically gesture drawings are done quickly. They can take anywhere from 5 minutes to only 10 seconds to draw! Sometimes the person you're trying to draw can't stay still so you have to capture the idea of them really fast!!

Because of the speed that is used for gesture drawings they're messy, sloppy, and overdrawn. Multiple lines may be used for the same thing and never erased because there's no time! So how do you go about creating a gesture drawing?

You need a model!

To practice drawing a person, you need a person. Now drawing something that is actually moving would be a really hard way to start! You can pause a show or look in a magazine or the newspaper. Try to find images of people who are really active, it makes it easier! If you have a volunteer in your house, a sibling works great, have them pose for you. Give them ideas for what they might be doing, like shooting a basketball, or hitting a baseball, or diving into a pool! Make sure you have something to look at for this though, it's much harder if you try to make it all up in your head!!

Creating your Gesture Drawings

Below are two ways to create a gesture drawing. These aren't your only options though! The goal is to capture the head, body, arms and legs of the person and show what action they're doing. Running, jumping, skiing, skating, jumping jacks, whatever! Click on either picture shown below for a quick video on how to get started. Once you get the idea try to draw a person in 5 different poses. Don't forget, you need a reference model!

Challenge Level!! Time yourself! Do your first sketch in 2 minutes, then give yourself a minute and half for your second sketch. Then see if you can still draw the whole body in 1 minute, 30 seconds, 10 seconds??!!! You can change the times if you need to but start with more time and slowly give yourself less and less. You'll end up surprising yourself!