I find that gesture drawing helps me pay attention to smaller details.  I enjoyed this exercise very much.  I think I have tried to draw with too much detail in the past and it has made me think that I am bad at drawing.  While I think I may still not be very good at drawing, I have a new view of drawing - sure I may never be Rembrandt, but drawing can be part of what I do and can be fun for me.  The weather outside is bad today, but I plan to employ this technique at the first chance I get outside.

I found that I try to draw too much detail and need to learn to gesture draw the outlines of the subject.  Gesture drawing is bringing my attention to the dimensions of the subject rather than the small details markings.  I definitely need to practice gesture drawing more to get past the learning curve.  But I like it and hope to get better at it.  Practice, practice, practice I guess.

The thumbnails are so tiny it's challenging to put the detail in after the fact. I will try this making a larger gesture page and then add the details. Pintails have such lovely feather detail. Detail was added 10/22/19

I really enjoyed trying to capture the constant shifting and moving. It felt as though I was getting to know the animals better than I would have with a photo.

i really love gesture drawing because it helps me stay loose. i find it fun to try and keep up with the subject, but also note that it can be frustrating. In the fox video, the kit is so active, and i really wanted to capture that playfulness, but when they won't sit still, it can be really tough!  

Here's how I refined my 1 minute gesture drawing of the wren!

I used my dog this afternoon, this is hard to do but fun in effort and challenging my observation skills.

It helped me identifying quickly the basic shapes of the animals (foxes) and details like the head shape, ears, but just the shapes. that way I draw just the basics like the triangle of the face and ears. Also i could see the straightness of the front legs and the size of the tail. It was hard to draw them because they moved so fast. The duck was more easy for me.

Challenging! 30 seconds to draw an - Elk? - but wow, loads of fun! Then trying to capture the pintail making all those elegant preening motions! Had to force myself away from drawing what I know and drawing what I see.. I think this is almost like stop-action photography and captures the life, the movement of a bird or animal, with such simple lines... thought I'd share my scribbles to encourage others - if I can do it, anybody can do it!