Sketchbook:Bethanie

Bethanie

Hey, ya'll,
I'm new here to Polycount. I'd like to know if these gesture drawings are suitable for inclusion in a portfolio. (This is only part of the portfolio requirement. There are seven additional things I need to include, but this is the second most important thing, and I had never heard of these until I saw the portfolio requirements. I don't know what an acceptable gesture drawing looks like for someone my age [I'm in my late teens], so I want to make extra-double-sure that these look right.)
Thanks for the advice.
P.S. - Yes, I took these with my phone. Sorry if the images appear low-quality (other than because of my poor drawing skills, lol!)

EricElwell

@Bethanie first off, welcome to Polycount!

What type of portfolio requirement is this? For art school? 

For gesture drawing you want to think about the line of action. This generally follows the orientation of the spine, but sometimes there's a convenient dominant line that runs smoothly from the end of a limb through the length of the torso. It's the simple curved mark that tells the viewer the action or "gesture" of what the figure is doing. examples: Squatting, Lifting, Jumping, Twisting, Running, Reposed, etc.

For a gesture drawing, keep it simple, but not necessarily "simple shapes" just simple marks. 
This video is short and on-point to what gesture drawing is all about: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLYkOSfp27Y

I would recommend that you do many more gesture drawings.
Fortunately, gesture drawing is generally done very quickly, and there are some good timed tools for this online. New Masters Academy for example: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNNSwITdPIM&list=PL7EWYwaF6E-FZ8JiBlz2tF1DQUCw-GCmn


Keep at it! Post your progress here

Bethanie

@EricElwell Thanks for the warm welcome! ^-^

This will be part of a portfolio for an animation course (I will not be taking the course at an art school, just a traditional university).

I appreciate these resources and advice.

Bethanie

Here are some more attempts. I'm trying a different approach. IMO, these turned out much better than the ones above. You can tell which ones I drew at the beginning and which ones I drew later. X'D Took me a few minutes of drawing to get used to it, but I'm not sure if my lines should be smoother like these, or rougher like the drawings in the previous post. Some sources say to keep your lines rough, while others say to make smooth, defined lines.

Bethanie