Step into the DOJO

[Ninjerk]

Gesture stuff I did today from Quickposes.  I've been doing a ton of gestures lately and very few value studies (digital seems a little bit esoteric for me right now).  Occasionally I'll throw some bones or muscles in a sketch to see if I can remember roughly how they're shaped and where they're placed.

I think going forward I'll probably try to figure out a better workflow for storing these gestures.  Thus far I've tried grabbing the image and moving it off of the canvas (if I'm using those terms correctly) so I have a new, clean workspace and then marquee selecting and resizing the figures.  For the following image I would draw a gesture, resize it, and then tuck it off to the right side of the canvas, but I've noticed now when I shrink them as much as I do that I lose a lot of information.  Still, my drawings are getting looser and I'm pretty excited about how quickly I'm capture little pieces of the poses.

I might run down to Sarasota this Friday for the open figure session at Southern Atelier to try my hand at the real thing.

Crits welcome and encouraged!

(EDIT: Also, here's a link to my SB on TAP: http://theartposse.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1768 if you want to see how bad my value stuff has been xD)

[Artloader]

Nice start to your sketchbook Ninjerk. Have you tried studying Loomis at all? His books are really good for figure work. Keep going mate!

[Mechanizoid]

Welcome to the forums, Ninjerk! :) Hadn't heard of TAP before, I might join that site too actually. It looks like you are beginning your journey with art after having wanted to for years, like me, congrats for getting going!

Keep going with those gestures, and do go to a real life drawing session if you can! It's good to mix that in with the photo studies if you can. I've heard that a ratio of 20% life drawing and 80% from ref is good if you are the kind to draw from internet ref a lot. I have not been able to find life drawing in my area, even at the so-called "art center". :'( Try to get confident with those gestures, and remember that the point of gesture drawing is to capture the movement of the pose, not the contours. Check out Proko's youtube channel for great tutorials on figure and gesture drawing. :)

Keep it up man, and put in those hours!

[smrr]

Hey Ninjerk o/ I dig your username

Woo! Welcome to Daggers, feel free to dive into the community! It'd be great to follow your journey here <3

I checked out your TAP sketchbook, and good on ya for keeping consistent!

What I would recommend is that you sketch more in your sketchbook from life and make sweet love to perspective, as it is an absolute must for getting better at drawing.

I'll see you 'round!

[Ninjerk]

Nice start to your sketchbook Ninjerk.  Have you tried studying Loomis at all?  His books are really good for figure work.  Keep going mate!

I did years ago, but didn't really follow up with it.  I suspect I didn't give myself the time to "get it."  Since I started doing little imaginative sketches involving figure construction, however, I think I've been using his pelvic abstraction (I think it's like two "dishes" back-to-back with orbs floating inside of that structure, something about the way I've abstracted leg construction too, I think) because when I got to the pelvis I started drawing something and I know I didn't come up with it!

Welcome to the forums, Ninjerk! :) Hadn't heard of TAP before, I might join that site too actually. It looks like you are beginning your journey with art after having wanted to for years, like me, congrats for getting going!

Keep going with those gestures, and do go to a real life drawing session if you can! It's good to mix that in with the photo studies if you can. I've heard that a ratio of 20% life drawing and 80% from ref is good if you are the kind to draw from internet ref a lot. I have not been able to find life drawing in my area, even at the so-called "art center". :'( Try to get confident with those gestures, and remember that the point of gesture drawing is to capture the movement of the pose, not the contours. Check out Proko's youtube channel for great tutorials on figure and gesture drawing. :)

Keep it up man, and put in those hours!

In the past I haven't used picture ref much.  I've been doing it lately because it's convenient.  I used to have this idea that using picture reference was cheating or something, but I think I see the value in it now.

This Proko channel looks pretty good, thanks!  Sometimes Bridgman can be a little esoteric, IMO.

Hey Ninjerk o/ I dig your username

Woo! Welcome to Daggers, feel free to dive into the community! It'd be great to follow your journey here <3

I checked out your TAP sketchbook, and good on ya for keeping consistent!

What I would recommend is that you sketch more in your sketchbook from life and make sweet love to perspective, as it is an absolute must for getting better at drawing.

I'll see you 'round!

o/ o/ o/

Thanks for coming over so quickly!  I need to dig out a sketchbook (I'm sure I have one) and start putting stuff in it.

Also, I like sweet love so I'll definitely go hard in perspective.

What I'm thinking right now for a study plan outline is to hit the figure construction/anatomy and posing pretty hard, coupled with some value studies so I can start putting characters in scenes with some confidence.

Today's gesture warmups:

[Ninjerk]

Can't wait for figure this evening.  It's been so long I just know I'm going to suck and it's exhilarating.

Breakfast below

[smrr]

Your plan sounds great man!

Loving, loving, loving the energy in your gestures

[Ninjerk]

I did end up going to that life session last Friday (although I haven't taken a picture of what I did yet).  So funny story, the place I went to is in (or just outside the borders of) Sarasota, Florida on 21st street.  Not funny yet?  Well, what is funny is that there are not one, but two 21st streets in Sarasota, Florida.  The place I wanted to go to was on one, while the other is not far from Ringling in Newtown, which is Sarasota's version of maybe Compton or Hell's Kitchen (ostensibly much tamer since I didn't get carjacked driving through there).  I haven't seen gang colors since I was a little kid in the 90s. :O

Anyway, I had to take a few days off for tests, but here are today's warmups.

[S4MURAI_CAT]

Nice studies! I am study a human body too! Piece of advise,in order to get the right human proportions even in "sketchy line phase", learn the average body proportions and try to use "body measurement" constantly.It will be a hard task for a while, but after a few weeks you won't even notice how your brain calculates this hard work instantly! 

Hope it will help you!

[Ninjerk]

Nice studies! I am study a human body too! Piece of advise,in order to get the right human proportions even in "sketchy line phase", learn the average body proportions and try to use "body measurement" constantly.It will be a hard task for a while, but after a few weeks you won't even notice how your brain calculates this hard work instantly! 

Hope it will help you!

I'm not sure what you mean by the average body proportions. Is there a textual reference that you prefer (e.g. Loomis)?

[S4MURAI_CAT]

By average i mean classical body proportions. Like 8 heads high figure.

[Ninjerk]

I see. I was somewhat familiar with Loomis' outline for height by heads (9 heads is "heroic"--the impossibly tall, "larger than life" figure that IIRC he encouraged for illustration, and that there were some smaller statures--I think 6 was considered average in his time? It has been awhile since I've looked at it).

I will keep an eye out for information about this system, thank you!

[Ninjerk]

I went to my second full figure open session on 5/6, but I won't have much to share until I figure out how to get my crappy phone to talk to my computer again.

A couple of anatomy paintovers and a Proko-Loomis sketch that got sidetracked by me plumbing the depth of my memory.

Two realities I'm going to have to submit to very soon:

1. The need to formally define my goals--in the short term (this summer) and in the long term (how I plan to fit studying art into what I'm already doing, long story)
   
2. The need to undertake some longer projects that will maintain my interest
   

In terms of goals, I'm thinking a broad view of the structure: study and internalize anatomy, learn to scale those shapes in a figure measuring system (like Samurai suggested), learn to place figures and other objects into perspective on the picture plane, and then coat them value to reflect the structure.  I suspect I'll have to figure out how to keep all these balls in the air one way or another.

Anyway, stuffs below: