Gesture Drawing Tips

My first advice to any aspiring artist is to get proficient at gesture drawing. Once you have a figure mannequin worked out, you need to play with it, and learn how it moves. Gestures are the fastest and best way to do that.

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My Tools:

Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Hard Black pen

Sakura Pigma Micron 01Pentel Arts Color Brush with Pigment Ink, Fine and Medium

Faber Castell Erasers Drawing kneaded Large

Uni Posca White Paint Marker Pen Extra Fine 0.7mm/Fine Point 0.9-1.3mm/Medium Point1.8-2.5mm

Staedtler 502 BK A6 Mars Rotary Action Lead Pointer and Tub for 2mm Leads

Staedtler Lead Holder

Staedtler Mars Carbon Lead, 2mm, 2H

Strathmore (25-611 STR-25-611 24 Sheet Smooth Bristol Pad, 11 by 17", Blue Lined

Staedtler White Eraser (just typed this in, so it's not necessarily what it's called, but that should find it. Anyway, it's a white eraser...)

And Thank you to Amonny for the suggestion of the Mono Tombow eraser. I've got mine on order, and I'll let you know how it works out.

[hemarealz]

Your basic structures are my complex ones

[dylanwetzel]

"Hold your pencil loosely" *Proceeds with pencil death grip.

[ZerDigitalStudio]

You were one of my largest influences when I was a teen. I would study your panels for hours, so getting these videos from the man himself is kind of a dream come true.

[cliftonwegener]

Priceless information and a glimpse into a world that most artists never get a chance to see. Bravo! Thank you so much! All of your hard work on these videos is greatly appreciated!

[russhicksart]

For all of us who drew/copied Dave's figure gesture examples from his Gnomon videos a million times and wished for more...well here you go! Thanks Dave! I personally would like to see a regular gesture drawing video. There's magic here and it's never enough, and it never gets old.

[jasminpastari]

Great video! I've recently decided to go back to the basics and learn how to gesture draw. It's so relaxing and freeing. It's such a fun way to squeeze in drawing time during a busy day.

[lucanhenrique]

I always love David Finch work, so glad he runs a channel now <3

[LucasSavelli]

Thank you so much, David!! This was AWESOME! Really looking forward for the next tutorials!!

[BenMellingerArt]

so glad I get to learn from one of the best! your videos are always an inspiration!

[modernpotato]

Thank you for uploading these videos and sharing your process with all of us! We really appreciate it especially since everyone’s in quarantine :))))

[billyjenkins]

Honestly, this is my favorite part of the drawing process. Thanks for the video 🙏

[codeutopia]

Thanks so much David, this tutorial has been really helpful, since I'm writing a Graphic Novel, but also doing the panel layout and rough sketches of the panels to check how the script is gonna look . 😀👍

[DirkHooper]

I think it's pretty incredible that I'm getting into gestural drawing again and hitting some snags, so I head over to your channel... and here's a video on gestural drawing. If I was an art teacher I'd be sending all my students to your channel. What you're presenting here is such a beautiful gift to the art and comic community. Thank you.

[frejazz]

I remember having the same anxiousness and excitement learning from what you're doing as i did with the old Wizard magazines with Bart Sears back in my younger years. Thank you for this Sir!

[mahirbhuiya]

Yes!! This is the exact video I needed, thanks, David. Would appreciate if you could make one on anatomy especially the forearms and stomach and and how the shapes change as the body moves.

[emanon]

Thanks for all these tutorials David, you are one of my favorite artists i would never have imagined that you would upload this type of videos to YouTube 😊❤️❤️

[nicklegend]

Excellent information here and thank you for sharing. I like how you stressed the importance of drawing hands and creating a visual library just based on them, the idea that referencing everything is not efficient, and that sourcing from various artists is the thing to absolutely take advantage of in the times with the overloads of online information.

[scarlet]

Thanks, David. I'm so glad I found this channel. Your figures look like Bridgeman's "wedging" construction. I'm a big fan of teaching with Bridgeman & Loomis, but especially Bridgeman bc I feel like the act of merely copying it is effective. If we get an artist who is weak on gesture or construction I make them copy Bridgeman 3x. It never fails to yield improvement. I think it's how he puts the figure in a box & makes u imagine it as lego type blocks & columns

[goodnoodle]

Wow this was some really great stuff. I can’t wait to start applying these you’s to my work 👍🏽

[Sleepng_Panda]

THANK YOU this video helped me a ton!! I will definitely be referencing off this in the future!