Gesture drawing helps in noticing various behaviors of different animals. It's fun to watch them while drawing.

I noticed the movements of the birds because often it made them easier or harder to draw. For example, the house sparrows would hop from the feeder to the ground (out of view) but the pigeon would slowly strut around. The wing bars on the Goldfinch really popped out to me in  away it hadn't before I drew it. I was surprised to see a squirrel show up!

I think I am noticing more of the mannerisms and interaction with gesture drawing.  I used to always draw from photographs, I would never have tried to draw something moving.  I like having the ability to draw something on the spot, even if the drawings aren't perfect.

Easier to draw birds that are more relaxed than the twitchy birds, as I have more than a fraction of a second to make some sketches. The chickadees are too quick for me at this point, but the woodpeckers are more cooperative.

Gesture drawing is quite difficult — I like the challenge, though! I drew a stink bug climbing on top of my feeder and the foxes from the video. I zoomed in on my favorite sketch from the stink bug drawing here.

Gesture drawing really helps one feel the movement and the spirit of the subject! For that reason, I think gesture drawings are important to do before a prolonged drawing. 

Gesture drawing lets me feel the object without too much mental intervention.

this is very helpful. i can really better pay attention to the behaviors and see details in a  new way.

Yes it is helping. When watching birds I find myself paying more attention to the beak shape and size. Also how the birds feathers move and take shape when the bird lands. I was watching a video on northern cardinals and blue jays. Getting the imagine down is hard but it is allowing me to see details I may not have before. 

 Struggling between drawing what I see and drawing from memory - what I think I should be seeing. Need to learn to trust my eyes and hands more, rely less on memory.

This was hard to draw. Too much movement. Might get better the more I do. I’m not used to my subject moving.  It is different to draw activities.  

The mixture of slow contour and quick gesture is great!

It's hard and I'm not sure what I get out of it. I like the idea of capturing the moment though. Usually I try and remember the moment I want to portray or capture it in a video or photo.   jI'm not s

So I learned to capture the basic shape of the dove with the very round head, oval for the body and then adding the tail feathers became easier. I applied the same strategy with the delightful foxes by seeing the inverted triangle for the head and the two little triangles for ears. To capture the body, the blind contour exercise was really helpful. This was still very challenging and I see why we are told over and over to be gentle with ourselves... so true and hard to do!

Agreed - very hard. Need to practice more! Butterflies and a couple of dragonflies came by...

This is fun but very hard work of the hand, eye and brain.  I was watching a squirrel and saw so many different interesting postures. I noticed that the proportions or lengths of tail, legs and body varied greatly depending on the action.  So, when climbing a tree the body seems to shrink; the tail flick shortens the tail; holding onto a tree with legs spread makes legs seem much longer etc.

This has been a good practice for me. I am outdoors a lot and have really struggled with capturing an animal/plant on paper without the help of a photo. This exercise is giving me a new way to put things on paper. I notice a particular way the animal stands or move on different terrain and positions they take.

I think gesture drawing will help me improve my eye hand coordination while drawing.  I think I focus on the shape for sure more than the details on the interior, which helps me draw a bit faster.  I feel slow though, so this is going to need lots of practice.  Also, it is hard to get proportions with moving subjects.

While observing outside  to find something moving to capture the movement on paper, I spotted a humming bird and a pigeon. My cat joined in this morning observation session!  

Alaskan Red Foxes