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.

Wow, I am so fired up after this. I don't need coffee anymore. It became messier and easier as I went. This was a very nice exercise! Foxes were much harder than bird feeders but gave nice results.

Gesture drawing is so important and yet so difficult. Yes, one notices how the animals move, where the legs bend and how, the tail’s length in relation to the entire animal, just everything one wouldn’t notice without trying to capture it. And going from memory surely will bring errors. I got a long way to go for this exercise to be helpful to me.

This exercise has been incredibly helpful. Gesture drawing is the cure to the wrong position--there isn't one. With this technique, drawing wildlife has become far easier. If I was not gesture drawing, it might suggest I as sketching an inanimate object, so attention to detail would be easier.

I like seeing the differing views of the subject and noticing how the shapes change. I found it difficult for me as I am not an artist. I will keep trying.

Gesture drawing allowed me to draw a single animal in many scenarios, which I might not usually do especially if I was focusing on a still image or trying to draw only from memory. For the duck, for example, I got many different head and tail motions, and then a great capture of the spread wings and elevated body. Had I been told to simply draw a duck I would likely have drawn it very still and placid, which isn't true to nature at all; most animals, birds especially, are constantly moving some part or the whole of their bodies. This was good practice for further bird investigations in the field.

I really enjoyed this! It is very tough though to keep tabs on a moving subject, and I look forward to practicing as much as possible, it is really essential for sketching in the field, and definitely helped me with my observations.

April 13, 2023. Connecticut. This exercise made me work to catch basic shapes more quickly, such as how the cormorant's body was rather angular. I was using my binoculars constantly, since my subjects were rather distant... maybe next time I'll bring along a spotting scope - but I really want to keep my field sketching portable - minimize the equipment!