Gesture Sketches And A Revelation

The last several days when I've been sketching, I've experienced brief moments where it just seems to flow. I feel loose and my pen or pencil just seems to be doing what it needs to be doing. Even when I'm not in that state, it's as though I'm not fighting the drawing so much. I've had this feeling in my painting and I know it's something that comes and it's something that goes and it's a good reason to just keep practicing.

Last night while I was feeding the cats their last meal of the day, I worked on a few gesture sketches and I felt looser as I was doing them.

This one was post-meal and it just sort of rolled off my pencil. 

When I was taking the drawing class, rarely did I get enjoyment from trying to do gesture sketches and that's changed. Lately, I've been enjoying them (or at least what I think they are!). It's also been a helpful way to warm up. Hopefully that means the same thing will happen with thumbnail sketches.  

Today's revelation occurred when I was watching one of the videos from drawing class. For some reason, I got this silly rule in my head to not lift my pencil when I was doing gesture drawings. That's not the case. I think banishing this silly, self-imposed rule that appeared in my head from nowhere will help with focusing on the whole when I'm working on gesture sketches.