Sixth grade students recently immersed themselves in the world of gesture drawing in art teacher Ann Margaret Lyons’ class. Gesture drawing provides an important foundation in figure drawing, focusing on representing the essence of movement and the mass of an object through loose, rapid sketches.
For the students, this exercise was an opportunity to work with props, which helped them better understand how to illustrate dynamic poses. The class split up into pairs with half of the students posing with a prop while the other half sketched their classmates using gesture drawing techniques, and then the artists switched roles. Sixth grader Gabriella Norris shared her thoughts on the value of this process.
“Gesture drawing helps us practice quick, simple motions and shapes, making it easier for us to eventually draw human figures without feeling overwhelmed,” Norris said. “I think it’s fun and a great way to learn.”
Through this hands-on approach, the students build confidence and skills that will support more detailed figure drawing in the future. The next unit up in figure drawing will be contouring, an art technique that involves drawing an outline of a subject using lines.
