A gesture is a movement of part of the body to express an idea or meaning. Creating emotion in drawing involves much more than facial expression. Body positioning and posture plays a big role in creating cartoons. For this second exercise, you will be creating some characters from gestures.
First -- How do you create a gesture? Start with finding an image online of a full body. (Try searching Google images for "person full"). Notice how slight changes in stance can illustrate a different mood -- confident, upset, unsure.
Part 8: - Find 3 full body people online and create gestures from them.
Step 1: Find a full body image. Ask yourself, "What emotion or mood does this picture illustrate?" Write down the adjective(s) to describe this person.
Step 2: Identify the axis. The axis is the line of action. It's the framework for the person's stance. When drawing the axis, avoid straight lines and "S" shapes. You should be drawing curved lines, like loose letter "C's"
Step 3: Draw the Mass. The mass is anything with bulk -- the head, torso, arms, legs, etc. Try drawing the limbs joint by joint (shoulder to elbow, elbow to wrist. etc.)
Step 4: Add clothing and guidelines for the face. Don't get too detailed with this part. I'm not looking for you to start drawing the stitching on the sleeve. But, pay attention to how the clothing drapes over the body. Where does it hang? How does it fall over the figure? What parts are loose and what parts are tight?
