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!

Gesture drawing is very difficult; however, I believe it is very necessary to learning to draw "in the field".  I can see this is a skill to keep developing as nature usually does not sit still.  I keep repeating Liz's words of encouragement to, "be gentle with yourself...and have fun".

Those gesture drawing exercise were really a blast to do but hard to do. I can see how practicing a lot will be important to get the gist of it. My young daughters joined me when they saw what I was trying to do with this lesson. We like looking at what others submitted after completing the lesson. Thanks for the sharing!

Gesture drawing is a very interesting one to do. For me gesture practicing with birds, seems to be a little more comfortable compared to animal species. the instant 1 minute and 30 seconds are impossible to do. I need a lot and a lot of practice to get the basic gesture drawing. But it's very passionate and interesting to work on. Hopefully, in a month's time, I get to work on more clear sketches.

I notice when they are at a feeder (Panama fruit feeder cam) they were not moving around as much as the preening duck.  But that could be the species that you are watching.  Some, such as smaller birds, move around quicker than the larger as in the doves in Liz's demo.  The feeder cams are a great source to practice in the warmth of your home! This ended up being an easier exercise than I thought it would be!  It looked so intimidating at first.

I used the line of action website that one of the other students recommended.  This was a great way to practice.  I was surprised how quickly you can catch the action of the image.  60 seconds doesn't give you enough time to develop the drawing but it does give you the basic action.  Really enjoyed this type of drawing.  I struggled alot with the picture of the Canada goose.  Profiles are so much easier to capture.  The straight on face of the goose was really hard.  Definitely need to practice alot more.  I'm pretty happy with this as I haven't drawn in years.      

Thi This is probably the most difficult skill to master, but the most important one for field study of animal behavior.  It's hard to focus on any one area when there is so much movement.  The birds I saw out in the wild moved slowly or where ready to roost.  The foxes in the video were too distracting--two at once!!

This is probably the most difficult lesson yet.  I am trying to capture details rather than shapes and forms. The only bird who stayed for any length of time was the Northern flicker that stretched itself sideways to reach suet in the feeder. A hairy woodpecker made a nice display of his back.  The chickadees and titmouse moved so quickly I barely had a beak or head shape drawn.  I will need lots more practice with gesture drawing, specifically relaxing and keeping the pencil moving.

This will definitely help me observe behavior. It's hard for me at first to get past trying to complete a drawing with detail. But this is really about capturing movement and behavior. It's fun! I want to move out to my feeders to draw.....but it's pouring rain...no birds. I won't complain, I live in Arizona!

Red fox and kit on Alaskan beach. The kit is moving around much more than the parent!  Parent fox's eyes seem "squinty"--partly closed, perhaps because of the wind.  There's much room for growth on this skill!

This was really challenging. First of all the foxes were way to cute!  I didn't have any wildlife happening in my yard or birdfeeder so did some sketching from the Cornell Sapsucker Woods feeders. I definitely was paying closer attention to the birds, shapes, and what was happening. I really like this process and will continue to play around with it even though I'm not especially satisfied with my initial results. As Liz encourages, I will be patient with myself!

I found this exercise quite difficult, especially keeping up with the movements never really completing anything I started! I will continue practice with videos and live in the outdoors

I have noticed (or rather realised the importance of) the fact that, rather than a complex outline, subjects have to have a basic structure. Once I have an idea of the basic structure in shapes I find the gestures come more easily and the images seem to flow better.  That's something new for me and I need LOTS of practice!!!  I confess that the Pintail was a disaster for the first few goes and by the time I got to the Red Fox I stopped the video to work out what I needed to do, and had several goes at that too.  I do like what's happening to my drawings but there's a loooong way to go.  

I think gesture drawing really helps to capture emotion or intent and may convey more than static perfection….

blind contour drawing was very hard for me, but after doing it I noticed I was able to pay better attention to to the shapes and contours of the foxes.  I really learned a lot trying these techniques.

I had a hard time letting go of my tendency toward detail, but I enjoyed doing these. I draw birds occasionally, so I found those much easier to do than the foxes (which don't even look like foxes on my page!) Now I'm waiting for our morning feeder crowd to arrive so I can practice with our local birds. Thank you to Nataija for sharing the link to Line of Action. Your drawings are great!