Figure Gesture Drawings

Oksana started drawing figure at the end of 2017. Majority of these drawings were created during life drawing sessions at TSoFA studio from model. Oksana prefers to use willow charcoal for figure gesture drawings as it’s the softest and most easily movable media. Her favorite paper for practice is 18 x 24 rough newsprint. However, she used any other available paper such as construction paper or anything with rough texture. These drawings are called gestures, because they’re meant to capture movement of a fleeting pose. During these life drawing sessions, the model would first pose for 2 minutes, then for 5 minutes and so on with the longest pose of 20 minutes. Therefore, all of these drawings are pretty quick and rough. Some of these Oksana uses as reference for more detailed drawings.

Single figure gesture, charcoal drawing
Short pose female figure, charcoal drawing
Female figure, charcoal drawing

Female figure, charcoal drawing

I think it might be time to start drawing complete figures, and maybe even in color. Maybe I need to switch back to digital drawing and make some characters come to life ^_^

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Standing figure, charcoal drawing

Standing figure, charcoal drawing

I’m back to newsprint! So far it’s my favorite practice paper. This drawing took me about 20 minutes. I think the shading and hatching shows that it’s a longer pose. However, whenever I’m drawing, I always think that I’ll finish it later.. and usually never do ^^;

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Waiting, charcoal drawing
Two figures, charcoal drawing

Two figures, charcoal drawing

This model did very dynamic poses, and I really enjoyed capturing them. I think, my drawings really lack that dynamic feel in a lot of cases. Something to work on!

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Two standing figures, charcoal drawing
Leaning figure, charcoal drawing

Leaning figure, charcoal drawing

I always feel like the stool looks out of place in my drawings. Perhaps I need to work in the horizon line or define the flat area on the floor to ground both the figure and the stool? 🤔

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Sitting male figure, charcoal drawing
Standing male figure, charcoal drawing

Standing male figure, charcoal drawing

I think I really need to work on shoulder girdle, it seems to always turn out way too small. This is a 10-minute drawing, but all of the basic structure mistakes are already set in place 😂

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Sitting half-figure, charcoal drawing

Sitting half-figure, charcoal drawing

Sometimes, the whole pose isn’t working from that particular angle. Therefore, it’s okay to draw only a part of the figure. For example, sometimes I can’t see the model’s feet because the heater or something else is in the way, and it really throws off the whole figure. It’s still hard for me to put…

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Male figure, charcoal drawing

Male figure, charcoal drawing

I think I finally got into the habit of dating my drawings 😀 It might seem silly, but after a while I can’t tell when I drew each artwork. As the result, it’s tough to understand whether I’m making any progress.

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