Dear Johannes, or should I say Mr. Vloothuis? How about Maestro? :-)

Thank you very much for your critique (Sketch of Clyde #1). I like the lost line on the forehead, I wasn't quite happy with the shape of his head, but wasn't sure how to correct it. The ear never bothered me before, but it does seem dark compared to the shadowed side of his face. Just for fun, I'm attaching a nude of ol' Clyde. Brace yerself!

I'm not sure what gesture drawing means, but I'll look it up. Other than 1 semester of Jr. College Drawing 101, 23 years ago, I've had no formal instruction. For many years I didn't remember drawing, until '94 when my marriage self destructed. Once I started, it became part of everyday, or night.... Sorry, was I babbling?

I am honored to be in the Learning Gallery. Wetcanvas is a wonderful site, to which I often refer for tips.

Thank you,

Becky

• Gesture drawings are exercises where the artist captures a figure in movement and is allowed only a very brief amount of time to get it down, usually under a minute. The objective is to train the artist to draw what they see and not give them time to make judgements.
• Your spontaneous and swift lines indicate you are drawing with no fear or hesitation. Very good!
• Very well done! You're an excellent drawer.

• Keep one thing in mind, though. Indicate volume and limb changes through value contrasts (darks and lights) rather than with lines unless you want to do cartoon drawing. Look at nude Clyde's right arm. Instead of using shades of value to show where the arm ends and where his waist begins you are using a line.

• If the face and hands area is the most important area (referred to as focal point). This is where you should have the strongest contrast of light and dark so this area pops out. You don't need sharp lines nor strong value contrast away from the focal point. I have made some modifications and the leg seems to recede into the distance now giving a more three dimensional feeling.

Keep it up!