When pencil drawing, the subject and then the composition must be the first stages of preparation for the picture. For those of you who are keen on sports and in particular, gymnastics, then taking some time to have a go at drawing a gymnast in action is a challenging project for you.

 

Assuming that you are having an enthusiasm for gymnastics in your minds eye, then it should be fairly easy to think about the activity that your gymnast is likely to do in the picture and how you wish to mentally plan all of the components, ensuring that you have your focal point before starting your drawing.

 

When starting out with pencil drawing, if you have never drawn an action figure before, it is advisable to get a photograph and have a go at copying other than just drawing from memory. There is a good reason for this and this is because gymnasts are exceptionally toned sports people and the clothing that they wear allows much muscle form to be revealed, especially in the case of the female gymnasts. Therefore, unless you are an expert in anatomy, choose an image to copy first so that you can see just how the muscle groups work during a performance.

 

The basic steps required to producing a good pencil drawing are:

 

* Find your subject
* Arrange the composition i.e. beam, floor-work etc
* Watch some film footage of gymnastics so you can be sure you understand your subject.
* Observe muscle groups within specific activities
* Capture the energy of the movements
* Pay attention to the clothes and how they move with the body.
* Also, pay attention to hair and facial expressions.
* Watch proportions.
* Use freehand so that the drawing does not feel stilted.

 

This is a difficult project initially but well-worth the effort when you are successful, en-route to this success however, will be much practice and learning about muscle groups and how to portray movement.