Loosen up Buttercup

 

Ran across another great video today I have to post about. In some sense the way this guy draws reminds me of my 90's Alternative Period, but much looser and more flowing. What he's doing is very different from typical 'gesture drawing' approaches, which emphasize dynamic poses and explosive energy.  His tend much more toward the tranquil and relaxed. Elegant even. 

I really like what he says about drawing these long flowing lines rather than short tightly drawn line segments, a bunch of them connected together to make a curve (which is probably a lot closer to how I currently draw). He says each time you stop and start a new line segment your brain has to fire new neurons, which makes it all feel disconnected and disjointed or something. Wow, I never thought of it that way. But I do know I got a very different result using my Trusting Line back in the 90's than I do now, when I'm obsessively concerned with anatomical forms and the blocks making up the figure. I need to go back to trusting. Maybe not always, but I at least need to draw this way sometimes to develop fluidity. It reminds ms very strongly of some of Frazetta's loose sketches, which I love. Let me see if I can find a few of those to drop in here:

He did this especially when he was drawing jungle cats or animals, but also often with human figures as well. 

I think in order to do this you have to really understand the forms and figure and gesture of what you're drawing. And, as the artist in the video repeatedly said, draw from life a lot. Not necessarily human models—animals and statues and objects will work too. Just practice drawing with loose flowing lines a lot. It's clear using long curves creates a very different kind of drawing than a bunch of tightly-rendered blocks and tubes.