Gesture in Black and White

Sitting Holding One Leg - Gesture Drawing
2 September 2012
Conté Crayon on Paper
28cm x 26cm (11" x 10.25")

Section 17 of the Natural Way to Draw introduces the Gesture in Black and White as well as the Sustained Study in Crayon.

The Gesture in Black and White is drawn with black and white Conté crayons on cheap grey construction paper. Each drawing takes a minute or less. The instructions are almost the same as for the original gesture study (see Gesture Drawing), except you start drawing with one crayon and part way through the exercise you switch to the other.

Walking While  Looking At The Clouds - Gesture Drawing
2 September 2012
Conté Crayon on Paper
18cm x 38cm (7" x 15")

I like the idea of the exercise, but I am struggling to get to grips with it. The drawings on this post are more stilted than my gesture drawings in pencil. I need to loosen up.

The main problem is I am thinking too much. Swapping between the crayons is a distraction. Part of my attention is considering when to swap crayons when it should be focused on drawing the gesture.

Bowled Hand - Gesture Drawing
28 August 2012
Conté Crayon on Paper
25.5cm x 27cm (10" x 10.5")

The other problem is the instructions include a mind game. Nicolaides explains the Gesture in Black and White is not an exercise in light and dark. He suggests you will find you draw light areas in white and dark areas in black, but don’t think about it. So as well as thinking about when to swap crayons I am also thinking about whether an area is light or dark and whether to draw it in black or white.

The only solution is to go back to the original instructions. I am going to scribble like crazy for a minute. If I swap crayons and the dark bits are black and the light bits are white, great, but I am not going to waste time thinking about it.

Struggling to Stand - Gesture Drawing
8 August 2012
Conté Crayon on Paper
25.5cm x 27cm (10" x 10.5")