Q: Hi Stan! I still have trouble trying to find and draw the C and S curves under 30 seconds… I have a hard time trying to grasp the whole concept of not relying on the contours, but I head can’t grasp the logic of it.

Well, the logic is that contour explains all the outer details of all the smaller forms as well as the larger forms. Gesture just explains the flow between all these forms. So, that’s the logic of it. But it can be hard to visualize and put into practice unless you see it, so if you didn’t get that, don’t worry, I’m going to show an example. And btw, if you can’t do it in 30 seconds yet, that’s fine. Do it in a minute or even 2 minutes, as long as you’re not adding time just to add more detail.

So, you’ll hear me saying to use C curves, S curves, or straights to find the gesture of the pose. I’m NOT talking about constructing the contour with C S and straight lines. C curves for the hips, C curve for the quads, S curve for the back of the leg, and so on… See how I’m using c and s curves, but the end result still looks stiff! That’s because those individual lines are not the gesture of the leg. That’s still contour even though you’re using C curves, S curves and straight lines… When I say, find the gesture, I mean a flow through the forms, not the contour of each individual form..

So, a flow through the whole leg indicated by one s curve. Now I can go back and add contour lines on top of this. even use some straight lines in the knee and tendon areas.. And after I’ve added all these details, the leg still looks dynamic. That’s because all those details follow the main flow. Whereas these contour lines, even though they’re simplified, are stiff.

THAT is the gesture.

It’s not the outlines, no matter how curvy you make them. The outlines themselves don’t create a dynamic drawing. It’s how all those outlines work together to create a flow. You have to look at the whole pose to make it look dynamic. Not the individual parts.