September Challenge.

[liveart]

First my apologies for the delay in putting up a new challenge.

For this month's challenge I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of trying to reach a result similar to a challenge image, the challenge is to come as close as you can to a process or style of drawing called gestural drawing.

One of my very first art books was Kimon Nicolaides Natural Way to Draw. One small part of that book was on gestural drawing. The concept is as artist to record one's feelings/sense impression of the subject. Drawing what the subject feels like or what it is doing.

The Technique is something like a loose continuous scribble, no stopping no lifting the pencil from the paper. With great apologies to the author, and with the possibility that attempting this within SA defeats the whole purpose of gestural drawing, it occurs to me that it might be possible to create a sketch preset that acts in the same manner.

I will break down the steps of the process a bit more for those not familiar with the book. Also I will state that I am paraphrasing and as I said very probably subverting the intent, but here goes:

1. Make a scribble that's the initial gesture impulse and makes up your entire subject. You should know after five seconds
whether it will fit on the paper.

2. As you continue rendering your subject, keep the graphite stick or marker moving and don't pick it up. Work in a rapid, flowing style. Let it happen. Gesture is an image of action, or implied
action.

3. Draw what your subject feels like as well as what it looks like. Draw what it is as well as what it's doing.

4. Finally, as you add smaller forms and details, keep them in the context of the large, all-encompassing gesture.

See the attached file for a visual example of the process.

Well, that is the challenge.   Good luck, have fun, post your presets/paseqs here when you are done.

gesturedraw-1.gif

[Bernard Bunner]

Hi Michael,
Don't you think it's better if everyone works on the same picture, to see the difference of each preset ?
Can you post one of yours ?
I also think that's a good exercice....! I'll try...
Thanks.

[liveart]

ok yes a source image so we can see the result on a standard control. Here are two that should be interesting.

kaka_leite_5_footballpictures-net.jpg

horses_2290.jpg

[Synthetik]

I don't think using Studio Artist and a wacom pen and tablet defeats the purpose of gestural drawing. The approach used with pencil and paper is just as valid when used with hand drawing on the computer. I think it would be hard to get the fluidity with a mouse, so you should really work with a pen and tablet.

Now building a paint synthesizer preset that simulates gestural drawing via auto-painting might be defeating the 'purpose' of gestural drawing. Although i think it can still be a useful exercise, it's just exercising different parts of your brain.

[liveart]

yes, well the challenge as I saw it was to build a preset or PASeq. But one of the wonderful things about being in a creative community is that others might interpret the challenge differently and come up with something that I never imagined.

If someone simply modified a preset to make a nice pencil or crayon and then did a history record of a gestural drawing, that would meet the basics of the challenge.

The exercise of building a sketching preset is a bit more advanced. There are tons of examples in the factory presets, which could provide great starting points. Using the new Sketch Edge imop, is another possibility. But, I am saying too much. Those who undertake the challenge should explore. Not only will building a sketch preset be an instructive exercise from the stand point of learning about SA, the resulting presets might be useful in future works.

So to every one.. have at, and remember to post your results.

cheers