I really liked this session, the looser I stayed, the more I was able to keep moving, switching up, starting, stopping, noticing. Because I went through so many pages I'll just send the image of the pintail. All were fun, all were challenging, especially the red fox and kit! never stayed still to get much, but I kept at it.

Gesture drawing is great and I think I should really make it a regular practice. Yes, it’s helping immensely with observations, but also with getting my hand to work its way around the page without waiting for the right trait at all costs. I notice how sometimes my eye sees something (e.g. an eye, an ear, a leg) one way, but then when I draw it, if I only heed my visual idea of it, I won’t render it with accuracy. This I noticed a lot with the fox cub sitting next to its mother (also the only true full-body sketch I managed while practising with the video). It’s only a few lines, but I think it is quite okay. The muzzle is pointed, but I had to draw it even more pointed than my brain wanted to, and while in my head that gesture felt exaggerated, it turned out much more accurate on the page. Will practise more on birds, but also other animals, as I realise I need more practice with mammals. Drawing these foxes was very tough! Photo #1: sketches (few :D) from the foxes video Photo #2: sketches from the duck video

Considering the time of the year, I looked at live webcams from Ontario and from Sapsucker Woods. At first, there were many birds moving around frantically. I decided to spot a few species and draw them in a position they would come back to. Like what I learned in other courses, when there are many birds, I just looked at one of them at a time. The song sparrows did not come back. I will look at them another day. The titmouse is most fascinating as it does not come where I live. I found many interesting details I never paid attention to before, especially for the Pine Grossbeaks (shape of the feathers around the eye). I added my question when the feeders were quiet.

I have always enjoyed the immediacy of gesture drawing, and the way it emphasizes essence over perfection. 

I don't think this was fun! However, I would really like to learn this skill! It's hard to let go of refining details and shapes, and leave sketches unfinished. Gesture drawing helps me to see the movements and poses. Foxes were difficult to draw when two animals were constantly moving. I stopped to draw some really cute poses. At the same time, I missed a lot.

I decided to try behaviors again.

Gesture drawing with a moving subject is challenging! I found drawing the fox and her kit difficult than drawing the birds in the first video. Perhaps this was because I never drew a fox before.  

I found this very difficult. I was so focused on drawing that I missed behavioral details.

I'm not sure I'm finding it really hard to do much in the time. I have to force myself to be messy and I find the scale hard. I suspect what it does do is force me to look at the broad shape and try and capture that

I do think that the gesture drawing helps to notice details that might have been overlooked before.  But I also think that being somewhat familiar with the bird or animial before hand helps to make good use of the brief period of time that you are seeing them.  For example, the example of gesture drawing that I am including is of some Canada Geese that were at a lake we recently visited.  I have been seeing geese almost every day as a pair is mated and is raising the goslings about a quarter of a mile up the road from my house.  So the gesture drawing I am doing near my home is more comfortable for me, than doing it off of a video.  I am now headed out to the back porch to sketch some humming birds. :)

I enjoyed the gesture drawing a lot. I definitely think it helped with observations, both with the still pictures and with the videos. With the doves I noticed all the different positions and angles of the head, wings and tail. Definitely need to practise this skill some more. 

I really enjoyed this exercise. I am very quick to focus on details so this was challenging and yet so fun and liberating. I used some of my pages for several exercises so you can see the fox pic plus the duck video and the lizard pic and the fox video on the same page. It became easier the more I tried tho the video of the two foxes was very challenging! I am excited to go out tomorrow and give it a try in the garden! I’m on holiday right now and we have a big garden with a ton of birds. Quite different from my city apartment. So I will take advantage of that and will practice gesture drawing as much as I can!

This has been helpful. Very liberating

Watching goldfinches at my various feeders forced me to quickly draw one and move on to the next before I finished it.  That was challenging because I have a need to complete something before moving to the next sketch.  Gesture drawing forced me out of my comfort zone and made me watch the antics on the feeder and just sketch a head or a body and not finish anything. Trying to catch the arguments and feeding gestures from the male to the female and other goldfinches arriving to join in their behavior was mesmerizing and difficult.

Very challenging to draw with live action. Repeated the exercices a few times, focused on being free, loose, stop draw and start another one as soon change posture.. very intense focus and enjoyed immensely. Thanks I would not have tried this on my own!! I see the slight improvement after each new attempt!

I do think it is helping with observation. With the red fox, I could see how the kit vied for mom’s attention. It was licking her. She seemed a bit tired and needed a rest. She would move away, and the kit would come back… It was challenging to draw and observe. They moved a lot! I did notice how alert the mother was. She constantly moved and looked outward as the kit was licking her and trying to cuddle. She was very aware of her surroundings. This activity has given me even more appreciation for the work of artists in the nature drawings I have seen.

I find that after gesture drawing, I see and record more postures and behaviors of birds that I don't notice when I usually draw.

The where moving so swiftly my page is full of scribbles! The foxes where great practice though. It looked like the mom was trying to be intimidating, but the pup got in the way! When the mom layed down with her tail covering her body I was dying to pause the video for a quick sketch. So cute!

These two were moving sooo fast into so many positions that I lost track and sense of even where to draw ! however I did notice how intimate the mom na pup were and like a dance and got me laughing.

I found that I am not a quick drawer at all, so this was a challenging exercise.  I managed to locate a Red Admiral butterfly moving about some purple clover, that thankfully was much slower that the duck or the foxes in the videos.  I also took a nice dorsal view photo with wings open that allowed me to sketch and color in at my leisure.  Hopefully more practice will make this exercise easier and easier.