Gestures

"An imaginary line extending through the main action of the figure is the 'line of action.' Plan your figure and its details to accentuate this line. By doing so, you will strengthen the dramatic effect. The first thing to draw when constructing a figure is the line of action."--Preston Blair Cartoon Animation

What Blair means by this is that a figure in action should be reduced to one or two lines, and those lines determine everything about that figure. The reason behind this is that an artist can do very broad, sweeping lines in this first step, and the energy in those quick lines can stay in a drawing as it develops.

Right now, I'm working on a comic that has a lot of people swing dancing in it. This sketchbook page was from watching a few videos online. When drawing these, I also kept in mind the things I talked about in the very first post. I highlighted where the lines of action were in these sketches. At this point in the drawings, I'm not concerned with anatomy, costume, expression, or anything else other than the energy in the poses. Swing dancing is full of energy, and if I want to capture that onto a static image, it needs to begin with that as the central focus.