Learn Gesture Drawing

Name: Learn Gesture Drawing
Rating: 4.6 (64 reviews)

Master the Art of Gesture Drawing for Figure Drawing

Created bySiobhan Twomey

Last updated 11/2025

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

What is Gesture Drawing
Learn your unique drawing style
Learn expressive drawing
Learn how to draw in a dynamic way
Become confident in learning to draw in your unique style
The key to drawing
The power and potential of Gesture Drawing
Gesture drawing for figure drawing
Gesture drawing for drawing still life
Gesture drawing for drawing people
How to draw people
How to draw figures quickly

Course content

4 sections • 15 lectures • 1h 24m total length

Introduction2:22
What is Gesture Drawing4:10
Learn to quickly capture the energy and essence of a subject through gesture drawing, focusing on movement, direction, and expressive marks rather than details.

Mark Making and Observation3:39
Develop gesture drawing by integrating observation and mark making; practice dynamic marks with different tools and papers to express movement, energy, and your personal drawing vocabulary.
Why Use This Technique3:17
Gesture drawing is a powerful, overlooked technique using observation and mark making to help you discover your own voice, build confidence, and explore drawing without fixating on exact likeness.
What Materials to Use for this Class5:50
Explore gesture drawing with compressed or willow charcoal, a charcoal pencil, and the needed eraser, using newsprint or sketchbooks to focus on process over outcome.
Setting Up for Drawing2:16
Explore techniques to unlock dynamic, expressive gesture drawing through starting points, with posture, standing or seated practice, drawing from the elbow, and even music to find flow.
Warm Ups2:37
Explore gesture drawing techniques as a warm up, experimenting with long sweeping marks, circular scribbles, cross-hatching, and other mark types using different tools to discover your approach.

Project 1 The Entire Drawing5:13
Set up a simple still life with one to three objects. Practice gesture drawing by keeping the pencil in contact with the paper to develop hand-eye coordination.
Project 2 Drawing Directional Lines10:10
Practice gestural drawing of a plant using directional lines to capture energy from the base upward, focusing on sweeping marks and composing from life or a photo.
Project 3 Drawing with Scribbles8:43
Practice gesture drawing of a living pet using small circular scribbles with a pen, emphasizing eyes, nose, and ears while capturing movement or initial pose.
Project 4 Selective Scribbles10:37
Selective scribbles guide you to draw people from life in a cafe, focusing on key facial and clothing landmarks with a scribbled line to capture gesture quickly.
Project 5 Using Gesture to Draw the Human Figure10:36
Master gesture drawing by using directional lines, sweeping marks, and circular marks to capture life and movement of the figure, drawing from photo references and practicing life drawing techniques.
How to See the Gesture in the Human Figure6:56
See the gesture through movement and the line of action, then explore rhythm across the figure from torso to limbs, using free flowing marks that convey volume.
Three Important Tips for Drawing a Timed Pose5:09
Three tips for gesture drawing: capture the whole pose quickly, draw through the forms, and convey movement with line work. Start with line of action and practice short timed poses.

Requirements

There are no requirements for this course. Drawing is an expression everyone can learn

Description

Gesture Drawing is the KEY to unlock your unique creative voice, and the key to unlock YOUR drawing. With this way of drawing, you can DRAW ANYTHING.

Gesture drawing is the most important skill for a beginner to learn because it ensures that you can draw confidently, and that you can draw what YOU see, that no one else sees. Most people misunderstand Gesture drawing: they think it's all about "drawing quickly" or "making a fast sketch". But gesture drawing is about drawing the movement and energy that you see in anything, and in this course, I'm going to show you EXACTLY how to do that.

This class is not just for artists; this class is not solely for people who are figure drawing students; this class is for anyone who wants to unlock their own creative voice and discover their unique drawing language.

I am passionate about sharing this approach and teaching people Gesture Drawing: I've taught so many people how to access this powerful way of drawing, and I've seen how it totally transforms their work. I hope you join me in this class and learn how to tap into your own voice through drawing.

There are 5 drawing projects to work through and each one uses a specific gesture drawing technique that will help you to expand your creative and drawing vocabulary. The projects build from one to the other over the course of the lessons, and by the final project you will get to use all the exercises in one final piece.

In this course you will learn

• What Gesture Drawing is

• What it is NOT

• Why Gesture Drawing is so important to learn for beginner drawing students

• How ANYONE can learn to draw and learn to make powerful drawings

• How to Draw in Gesture style

• Gesture drawing for Figure Drawing

• Drawing a still life

• Drawing pets and animals with Gesture Drawing

• Ways to make a Gesture Drawing with charcoal

• Techniques for making strong and powerful marks for drawing

• How Gesture Drawing unlocks all of your drawing

Who this course is for:

This course is for artists who want to become unstuck in their practice
For Figure Drawing students
For ANYONE who want to learn how to express themselves through drawing

Learn Gesture Drawing

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction2 lectures • 7min

Techniques and Process5 lectures • 18min

Drawing Projects7 lectures • 57min

Conclusion1 lecture • 2min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: