seeking critiques for figure drawing (nudity)

[zeker]

We all have biases when it comes to drawing. We make assumptions and these assumptions lead to errors that we find very difficult to notice because they fit into our preconceived bias. By making these loose gestural drawings, you're in a sense obscuring the comparison between your drawing and the subject, making them look very different from one another. When the relationship between your drawing and the subject is obscured, it makes it even harder than before to notice our errors. This is one reason I strongly dislike approaches to drawing that don't emphasise visual information over other types of information. The visual comparison between our drawing and subject is the only effective way to see if our drawings are accurate and even then, the challenge of noticing our errors is still difficult. Any other approach is very prone to errors and very inappropriate for students trying to get the hang of drawing.

So all this is to say that when you draw like this, where the drawing looks very different from the subject, you make it harder for yourself to notice your errors and correct them. Traditionally, drawings were made to be as close to the visual impression of the subject as possible so the student or artist could easily compare the two and tease out the errors they've made and correct them.

Another note I'd like to bring up is that you haven't tried to correct your drawing. You've essentially left your first draft and not taken on the challenge of improving your work to the best to your ability. If I for example say that the negative shape between the legs of the waterfall guy is wrong, there's no real value in that because anyone can notice it and it was just not corrected.

So all this is just to caution you when it comes to very modern technique of drawing. I don't want to tell people that they can only do very traditional types of drawing. I do however think it's important to present a traditional counterweight to modern gimmicky techniques that seem to permeate modern art schools and the internet.

Oh wow, I've actually never quite thought of it that way. It does make sense that, in order to actually get a drawing done and to improve on it you'd have to have an accurate reproduction or representation of said subject of what is being drawn. Since the only way you could actually troubleshoot something is when you can compare the two to see what is right and wrong. Though, in the subject of accurately representing something I feel like I've been through pitfalls where I'd get into the copy mode rather than analyzing and reconstructing something. I'm wondering if there are any methods in which I could use to catch myself when I get into these bad habits? 

Anyhow, I think I will try to redo the figures and fix the problems that were pointed out.