The day after Christmas, my family and I went to NYC to watch the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. The Rockettes are great and all, but I was completely mesmerized by the dancing Santas. I loved how hefty yet agile they were with their little boots and round bellies.

While we were watching, I whipped out my Galaxy Note 5 and did some quick gestures during their dance number with the Action Memo app + my stylus. (We were allowed to use our phones in the theater as long as there wasn’t flash.)

They’re pretty crude, but it was enough to flesh out later when I returned to WA. I pulled out my phone again to look at those gestures and with some quick photo reference of the clothing, I was able to make the final sketch with watercolor. The poses with the red arrows are the ones I used for that sketch.

I continue to be amazed by the Note 5. I love that I can take visual notes/gestures and use those to further explore an idea or use later for a character without feeling obligated to make it look true-to-life. I’m learning that it’s more important to capture what you want of the pose, whatever you find appealing to you, as opposed to being 100% accurate. It took me so long to understand this concept of extrapolation from the Schoolism gesture drawing class I took awhile back, but it’s finally starting to click.