Gesture Drawing Exercises: How to Draw Expressive Poses

Learn how to draw body language to convey specific emotions by following these simple exercises in Procreate, with Marcos Chin

We often think that emotions are conveyed through the face, but a lot of the time, we actually read more from someone’s body language. Are they dragging their feet? Are they taking up space? Do they put their shoulders back? Learning how to draw body language is a great way to give your characters the depth and dynamism they deserve.

Marcos Chin (@marcoschinart) is a New York-based illustrator and educator. He is a truly multidisciplinary artist, working on everything from advertising campaigns to sculptures, and he has collaborated with the world’s biggest brands, such as Apple and Google. Also a talented teacher, Marcos helps other artists grow at the prestigious School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Watch this tutorial to learn how to draw expressive poses using shape language and gesture drawing in Procreate.

Draw Expressive Poses

1. Shape language

Shape language is essentially how artists distill body language into simple geometric shapes. Squares give a sense of rest, stability and groundedness. Triangles offer similar connotations, but additionally they represent power. However, as soon as you invert the triangle, its connotations become subverted. So a structure that was originally stable and solid, becomes unstable and precarious. Circles on the other hand represent approachableness, kindness, and cuddliness.

2. Begin with geometric shapes

Start by thinking about the emotion you want to convey. In this tutorial, we have “Happiness”, “Shyness” and “Despair”. Think about what shapes - according to shape language - might best represent these emotions. Marco draws a solid, triangular shape for happiness, an oval for shyness since this reflects the curvature of the body and the non-threatening aspect of someone shy, and an inverted triangle for despair.

3. Create gestures

You can use your finger for this part. If you are using Procreate, create another level so you can use your shapes as a guide, then begin drawing the gestures of your characters in simple, big, thick lines. Marcos uses a charcoal Procreate brush for this task.

4. Draw your figures

Now you can begin creating your characters! On a new layer, start drawing the bodies, using the gestures for reference. At this stage, your characters are more or less stick figures - later you can use these as references for more detailed drawings. Start by blocking out the torso and pelvis. Then roughly fill in the shoulders and hips - these areas are full of dynamism, so getting these right will determine that your character is showing the emotion you want them to show.

Did you find this tutorial useful? You can check out more of Marcos Chin’s work and process by heading to his course, Character Driven Illustration: Drawing from Imagination.

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