A huge breakthrough I had some weeks ago for studying is to do callouts of what you are drawing, maintaining the design and the pose, but zooming in and fleshing out some element of it a bit more, with more detail and stronger form, maybe even changing the angle a bit, like product designers do
having to draw the same thing twice, but with a different emphasis really pushes your understanding of the design/form of what you are drawing; and yeah, it works exactly the same for drawing human figures from reference and from imagination.
Maybe even add small notes about how angles curve, what overlaps with what etc.
Gliger: thanks for that bro, gave me a reminder when i used to look at ryan langs old stuff on concept art.org. he would draw bridgemans book upside down and sideways, and he got really fuckin good; So ive been turning things on the page here and there trying to twist the shape here and there, also drawing upside down which is tough but not as tough as i thought!
really going hard on these, im really pushing my observation, each page takes a full hour now, for a front and back. im doing the roughs upside down, then correcting with the ref right side up, its like looking at drawings i did maybe 2 years ago. its good drawing things twice, hammers into that intuition on how to make a pose feel right. Also finished up this random chick, i know the outfit is random and stupid, its more an anatomy exercise, ill get to fashion at some point once im satisfied with anatomy, but (why not both)
i feel im definitely circling the bullseye with the proportions i want, getting real close, just gotta be able to do that effortlessly with ballpoint from imagination, theeeeen ill be a beast! and maybe even do inktober for once!
Good stuff as always Fed. Just careful with the last girl - we're seeing a bit too much booty (on our left hand side) for how her torso/hips are twisted.
Also yeeees, join inktober this year! It's a lot of fun to do, especially if you follow prompts to get the imagination going
Congrats with the 100th page of your sketchbook!!! XD
What is the first drawing? Have nothing to add for your poses, cause you know how to study and draw them. And nice personal drawing of action woman.
PS I've tried inktober the last year, managed to do 5 drawings and stopped. Cause the main problem for me is generating non-obvious idea in a quick manner. It took me 2-3 days for one prompt. I'm not sure I even be able to complete inktober ever.
Roanna: 100! yay! hehe.. uuh... well, 100 wow, im gettin old! thx <3 and the first drawing is a bird i drew on a thank you card, im gonna do that from now on if someone sends me money so itll make me look forward to doing thank you cards and not just writing thanks over and over in slightly different way
chubby: you know i see why you think its wrong, and you certainly wouldnt be irrational for saying that; ive just been copying this book and thats just how he does a booty in a pose like that... I think its wrong too, but like, ive had instances where ill draw a thing in painter from the book and go to add form and im like oh thats right actually, so its 50/50. I hope ill be ready for inktober, at this rate its possible!
internets been on and off the past couple days im gonna sneak a post in before it goes off again lol another thumpin block in Fedo's road from good to great <3
270/300 pages through masters of anatomy book 1, might even finish by the end of the month! the digi ones are from imagination, im only spending like 30 mins on them, so i bet i could really make something cool given a ton of time
had a super gorgeous model at life drawing today, did some of the best quick sketches ive done to date, im happy these copies have been pulling through, i still gotta bolt it down more and more and more. Also was super inspired by this chick, stefania
She is just a full package of lovely, so i want to model a character after her. i did a concept sketch before i bring out the 3d to mock it up with proper lighting. ill try to get that done this week and maybe another mural piece as well as banging out tons of studies of like matt smith, masters of anatomy and this dude james martin, really inspiring shit. I just look at that stuff i just get mad im like fuck i gotta do that, endless excitement to draw
alright finally done with the masters of anatomy dynamic anatomy book, 300 pages, copied all the finished line drawings which is about 2 per page, so about 550+ easily. Didnt copy many of the roughs but thats for another time, theres about 1400 of those lol minus the roughs used for the finals so its about 900 unique ones.
I really wanna gut nathan fowkes portrait book next, and ill do alot of application of these figures tomorrow. I learned a lot of things from this book, many of which are micro observations about like how to round a shoulder or show an arm of a woman as being slender instead of bulky, stuff like that. How a nice collarbone occupies the shoulders, how stack the links of fingers, overlapping limbs in dynamic poses, just a motherlode of stuff thats hard to put into words
And i still got the female poses book which is like another 400 final line drawings and another 1000+ roughs. I hope one day theres an interview with raul moreno the man behind it, but i cant really find anything...
Anyways, tomorrow applications, and some nathan fowkes
Struggling to come up with ideas today, did a couple thumbnail studies ill post tomorrow, was looking at some claire wendling and frazetta, trying to get an idea of narrative, will try some new stuff tomorrow
Asking honestly since I'm thinking about doing the same to improve my figures; is it worth copying drawings out of a book like this nonstop? What's the goal? I'm not trying to be condescending; you're much better than I am and I'm genuinely curious about the positives / negatives of an approach like this, especially since I'm starting at a beginner level with regard to figures, but with a trained(ish) eye. Also, how long do you spend on each piece? Ie, are you super careful with the angles / line weight / line quality / proportion on each one (with regard to matching the reference), taking time to make it match as best as your eye can muster, or is it more of a quantity thing? Or does it depend on what you want to absorb / take away from it?
Hey mr/mrs evening, so if youre a beginner i would lean towards not reccomending the grinding, though mileage will always give you some boost, at a low level you should prioritize good observation and knowledge, more of a macro sense of knowledge.
So... in my opinion, itd do you the most good to
0. Watch Dorien itens observation guide, or read drawing on the right side of the brain, or learn like bargue measuring techniques where the goal is to simplify lines and masses in space.
1.internalize proportion charts like from loomis till you can replicate them from memory
2. learn the major anatomical masses and their muscles by name for arms, legs, neck, torso, back, pelvis, hands, head, feet. So thats bones, joints, and muscles. Proko is great for this, just watch his videos get premium if you can, take written notes, do the examples, correct your mistakes and watch the critiques. Or get an anatomy book like hampton and draw from reference, takes notes, draw from memory, take notes on mistakes.
3. bust your butt on perspective exercises, like drawabox.com, do cubes, cyllinders, and elipses, this is extremely important and id do this before anything if you havent done it already.
I only did this to expand my visual library and shape knowledge and it worked for where im at, since i can apply these concepts like anatomy which i know, and perspective, which i know to a lesser degree, and of course train observation.
Its tough to say really, if its right for you, i can see how if you already know these concepts you could benefit greatly by a great quantity of applications like i did. Each of these im drawing like reilly rythms, wrapping cylinders, checking angles, things that a beginner probably doesnt know much about.
If youre like super objective, you can make grinding sessions very productive, but these tools i mentioned above, are what make you objective if that makes sense. Learning to see why youre wrong is more important right now for a beginner than any quantity. Then once you get those tools, yes a lot of repetition is necessary to develop a style and visual library if your goal is to do imaginative work.
Then when you make these couple hundred drawings you can say, oh i drew that head too small, i always screw up that leg line, i indicated this muscle wrong, etc. and even see mistakes in the reference and correct them yourself. Else youll just do what i did the first 50 or so pages of this sketchbook and be drawing a lot with no tool for self correction and not gaining really anything.
My approach with these was not to make them as close as possible to the reference, it was more to get the idea of the pose, try to get in the ballpark like 90% close in proportions, apply reilly rythms and anatomical landmarks, and sort of build this skeleton and mannequin in my head from that book. and it worked! i have a much better grasp on how to draw a dynamic, appealing figure with more intricate anatomy than the lumpy humanoids i used to draw. I spent about 10 minutes on each sketch, sometimes like 8 near the end as i got faster at them.
So get those tools and then get the mileage, thats my suggestion, and thanks for the interest :)
Alright, thank you! I feel like I have a decent understanding of perspective from previous exercsies and I think I have an okay eye, so I'll definitely internalize Proko next before considering something like this.
Taking the mighty darkistes advice and drawing smaller for my studies. These are from nathan fowkes portrait book, as well as jie gaoart's stuff. i initially thought i wouldnt get the proportions too close but i ended up doing okay. drawing smalls a fantastic way to practice, saves recources, and you can cover more ground in less time with less motion. that and it scales up well, space relations are more crucial and when you work small, you work big in terms of shapes
Thank for the praise fedo i try my best to share my theoric knowledge even if i might leak the application i think the concept can still benefit those who have a strong understand of those fundamental but just need a bit of direction and a second point of view on there own work.
Your character remind me of bayonetta.On an other note i think you should try to stay away from idealized body for a moment and play with different body type.Such as ectomorph,endomorph.
One advise when working small is to play with the angle of the lead this help reduce the number of stroke but the real trick is to learn to sharpen the lead to make it bit more expose than it would be with standard sharpener.For that they use a razor head.You can often see those pro with strange looking crayon and you wonder why?Well now you might know why.
Final suggestion would be to draw more portrait focus on hair.It would also be interesting to see a bit more of classic still life to really solidify those fundamental there boring but damn they can be really successful to imprint the knowledge you want to solidify.Try to push them to you best ability.I suggest a glass bottle overlapping other object with a drapery over an object all this lite by a lightsource in a room without window if you can if not just try to cover up the light the best you can with drapery.
this the first time i did a traditional piece and it came out cooler than the digital sketch, so thats cool! figured out i can smear things with just a black gouache color and make some cool textures; also did some splashy things with the water and ink, it gets that cool effect where theres lots of little value changes that look intricate from far away, so ill def try this more in the future.
Also more nathan fowkes small drawings on page 51/177 its making me think a lot more about simplification in values/composition which will help when im busking downtown for scraps
I think you should try to do some hatching scale to make the hatching more uniform.Playing with the hatching and making it curve to imply more form would also be interesting thing to try if you never did.I suggest doing a study of this drawing since i think the idea is well executed in the drapery in particular.You can also use the hatching in specific area to create rythem across the composition and lead the eye toward point of interest.
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