Resources for Learning Gesture
Gesture drawing is challenging and requires regular practice beyond a single life drawing session. Below are some resources which should help you continue to develop your drawing skills.
Proko (Stan Prokopenko) is probably the best online resource I've found for learning to draw the human figure. The free lessons on YouTube are what I used to learn and gain confidence with drawing. They're entertaining and easy to follow. Highly recommended.
Gesture Drawing - Stan Prokopenko - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtG4P3lq8RHEQ1kiN_Nub1vXR8fQQLjDF
Figure Drawing with Stan Prokopenko - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y&list=PLtG4P3lq8RHGuMuprDarMz_Y9Fbw_d2ws
Force Drawing by Michael Matessi is also a great resource for developing understanding of gesture and movement in the human body through drawing. He has a website and some books, and the youtube channel is also a very useful resource.
https://www.drawingforce.com/
Force Drawing with Michael Matessi - https://www.youtube.com/@drawingforce
Online figure reference and tools for practicing figure drawing.
There are loads of tools and websites online which offer paid and free figure references to draw from. I use the following websites, and I draw with a timer (typically set to 2 minutes for my warm up drawings).
- https://www.proko.com/timer
- https://line-of-action.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/
- https://quickposes.com/
- https://www.sketchdaily.net/
I recommend using the timer and sticking to it, don't pause it. Start with 5 minutes if you're not confident.
Life drawing sessions and classes
Drawing from reference is no substitute for going to life drawing, as it's much better to draw from a real model in real life than a static photo.
I highly recommend NUDDHK (Nude Drink Draw) for life drawing in Hong Kong, however there are many other sessions available around the city. Pang Pang Drawing Club runs in Wan Chai some Saturdays, and Life Drawing HK runs at Senseless Art most Tuesdays in Prince Edward.
Drawing a real person will give you a better sense of the three dimensional forms, proportions, and movement. It's the best way to train your observation skills and build your visual library. Photos are very static and two dimensional, and proportions and perspective are often distorted due to the focal length of the lens.
In a life drawing session you can't pause the timer, so you're commiting to drawing with gesture and being expressive. Life drawing is also an incredible way of meeting other artists and connecting to a community. Personally I also enjoy seeing other peoples work, and how they approach drawing. This really helped me develop and grow as an artist.
Please respect the models boundaries and the studio space, and other artists you draw with.