Gesture drawing

A gesture drawing is the beginning of a drawing, trying to capture the action and movement of the figure during quick poses

A gesture drawing is work of art defined by rapid execution. Typical situations involve an artist drawing a series of poses taken by a model in a short amount of time, often as little as 30 seconds, or as long as 2 minutes. Gesture drawing is often performed as a warm-up for a life drawing session.

In less typical cases the artist may be observing people or animals going about normal activities with no special effort to pause for the artist. For example, drawing from people on the street, performers, athletes, or drawing animals at the zoo.

More generally, a gesture drawing may be any drawing which attempts to capture action or movement.