Stuff from the last few days. I tried a different approach in both my classes, rather than doing careful measuring and doing the whole construction routine, e..g drawing the head as a sphere first and dividing off the sections, I thought I'd block in the overall shape of the figure/head like they do in the videos that I've been watching.
I think this approach has worked quite well for me tbh, I was actually able to do a figure lay-in in 25 minutes rather than taking 45 minutes like it use to. Struggles on the lying down pose (damn them!), definitely need to practice them more.
Still working through the Proko courses, spent time working on the "bucket" for the pelvis but didn't get time to actually draw it, that will have to wait till tomorrow.
I am so glad you took the time to note the gesture time.I encourage you do do 30 sec and 1 min gesture
that really what i believe will unlock the essence of gesture once you able to capture the energy in a compressed amount of time.Use simple line to describe the action of the spine and the balance of the pose.Only use C S I line basicly use only arc or a serpent like line and straight line.
It important that you keep moving the pencil to infuse energy to the mark making use the ghosting technique.
Don't under estimate the power of short gesture study it where you learn to avoid stiffness by pushing the line of action.
(02-08-2018, 07:43 AM)darktiste Wrote: I am so glad you took the time to note the gesture time.I encourage you do do 30 sec and 1 min gesture
that really what i believe will unlock the essence of gesture once you able to capture the energy in a compressed amount of time.Use simple line to describe the action of the spine and the balance of the pose.Only use C S I line basicly use only arc or a serpent like line and straight line.
It important that you keep moving the pencil to infuse energy to the mark making use the ghosting technique.
Don't under estimate the power of short gesture study it where you learn to avoid stiffness by pushing the line of action.
I've actually been meaning to do quicker gesture practice, just thought I'd start with 2 min gestures and work my way down once I got comfortable doing it but I gave it a shot tonight :)
Your definitely right that quicker gesture practice will help loosen up my drawings, think I need to re watch Proko's videos a few more times to ingrain what he's talking about.
Tonight's work. Started with gesture practice starting with 2 minute poses and then working my way down (never realized how quick 30 seconds is haha). Then I moved onto to drawing the pelvis which took me much longer to do than I thought it would. Top 5 are from the 3d model provided in Proko's course, the bottom 3 where my attempt to draw the pelvis from imagination.
I feel like I'm drawing the pelvis too short height wise, not entirely sure though....
careful work here, i love it, you seem to have the same troubles as me when doing ellipses specially in weird perspectives its so hard! if you havent already i recommend hamptons book on anatomy specially the begining when he talks about line rythim that would help your gestures a ton! keep at it!
(02-09-2018, 11:18 AM)dawckward Wrote: careful work here, i love it, you seem to have the same troubles as me when doing ellipses specially in weird perspectives its so hard! if you havent already i recommend hamptons book on anatomy specially the begining when he talks about line rythim that would help your gestures a ton! keep at it!
Hey Dawckward (nice name btw :) ) Glad to know I'm not the only one who is struggling with ellipses. I want to spend some time this coming week to work on them since it takes me awhile to get them to look somewhat right.
I've actually been reading Hampton;s book haha, I was using it along with Proko's figure drawing series as they talk about the same things. I'll definitely go back and read the first few chapters again and try and ingrain what he says, thanks for pointing it out. :)
Been busy the past few days so I don't have loads to show, hung out with a friends on Saturday who I haven't seen in awhile and had a family lunch to go to today. Spent Friday evening making some more masonite boards of different sizes, still have a few more that need priming. I was hoping to finally make the sketch easel from James Gurney's video (finally got everything I need aswell) but looks like that will be next weekends agenda.
Still tackling the human figure, I want to buckle down and get really good ant drawing the figure since the work I want to do is really figurative. Had a go at some trace overs working on the torso and pelvis which I really struggled with, mostly the pelvis though. I know something is wrong with the 3/4 view pose's pelvis, something about the sides of the pelvis towards the back looks off but not sure how it should look. Hopefully someone here can advise me on my errors.
Also had a go at some figure invention, inventing the robo skeleton, I was hoping to get more done but didn't expect it to take as long as it did so I'll have a go at some more during the week.
Here what i propose if you not allready doing this
Trace over a photo and find the landmark of the body
Once you learn what are the landmark of the human body everything is way more easier to construct because you now have something that help create believeable proportion base on the head measurement
Draw the construction of the figure base on the landmark observation
Learning to construct is essential to gain solid figure drawing skill in perspective
Draw the figure from memory
Once construction become second nature it time to check how far you can go without reference it important to learn to draw for memory to reduce the time you spend searching for the perfect reference relying less on them to create sucessful drawing.It really train self confidence to be able to draw from memory.
One more suggestion for you try to learn the major superficial muscle mass before learning the more hidden muscle.And also learn what are the role of certain type of muscle
(02-12-2018, 12:42 PM)darktiste Wrote: Here what i propose if you not allready doing this
Trace over a photo and find the landmark of the body
Once you learn what are the landmark of the human body everything is way more easier to construct because you now have something that help create believeable proportion base on the head measurement
Draw the construction of the figure base on the landmark observation
Learning to construct is essential to gain solid figure drawing skill in perspective
Draw the figure from memory
Once construction become second nature it time to check how far you can go without reference it important to learn to draw for memory to reduce the time you spend searching for the perfect reference relying less on them to create sucessful drawing.It really train self confidence to be able to draw from memory.
One more suggestion for you try to learn the major superficial muscle mass before learning the more hidden muscle.And also learn what are the role of certain type of muscle
I'm already doing a couple of those things such as finding the landmarks, still struggle abit with finding some of them when they are buried under the skin though haha.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction though, what you've suggested is a good plan for tackling the figure. I'll have to print this out and pin it to my wall so I don;t forget haha.
(02-12-2018, 11:21 PM)HIRVIOS Wrote: Very good stuff!
Your gestures have a nice flow to them;
Proko's exercises help a lot, how about you try creating a character straight from imagination? It will test your knowledge?
I've found that after I try creating figures straight from imagination, It helps me find out witch parts of the anatomy I'm still fuzzy about.
Thanks Hirvios, though I'm still struggling with the gesture of the legs and stiff poses, just can't seem to get the hang of them atm.
I've actually been doing a few figures from imagination in my physical A5 sketchbook, just forgot to post them haha, although I really need to do more of them. I think all of my anatomy is still rather fuzzy tbh, kinda know the general shapes but I really need to buckle down and tackle the it.
Here's what I've been working on this week. Stuff from my life drawing and portrait classes. Mainly lying down poses this week which, as you can see I suck at, I really need to practice them more. Didn't do a longer drawing this week like usual, it was a very stiff lying down pose and I just couldn't seem to get it right at all.
Portrait class - My lay-in looked decent but I just struggle with the value side of things, just can't seem to figure out how to combine all the shadow shapes of the face into 5 values or less. I was planning on starting the "Essentials of Realism" course over on Schoolism and see if that can help clarify things for me.
Some figure invention, first page was from work last week, had to rush them though because I was trying to draw without my manager or co-workers noticing haha, the rest are from yesterday.
Lastly started working through Proko's anatomy course again, gonna finish the rest of the pecs tomorrow, see where I went wrong and carry on.
Oh nice! I'm working through proko anatomy too! I was just doing these proko pec exercises an hour ago! It was a huge relief that it got easier after the bones.
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The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
-Chinese proverb
I don't recommend approching the pelvis as a box but rather as a kind of underwear type thing i think it get rid of stiffness of the 90 degre angle avoid perfect straight line in the gesture stage try to alway give it a slight bend want doing body.Do the same for cylinder don't draw perfect cylinder but make them tapper.
Just like you said, your figures look very stiff;
I recommend drawing (literally) a ton of gesture drawings- 30-60sec max!
Don't focus on anatomical accuracy, exaggerate as hard as you can
But your construction looks really solid,
good work on that!
I see you can do nice gesture drawings, and nice construction.
One thing it says in Mattesi's Force book to try with longer poses is to spend the first couple of minutes drawing a few quick gestures, then the rest of the time drawing a longer pose based on the best gesture.
It doesn't really add to the practice time, and it might be easier than trying to correct and recorrect something that was stiff to begin with.
_________________________________________________________________________
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
-Chinese proverb
(02-16-2018, 08:56 AM)Tygerson Wrote: Oh nice! I'm working through proko anatomy too! I was just doing these proko pec exercises an hour ago! It was a huge relief that it got easier after the bones.
Oh cool are you? it's nice to have someone else working through the same material when you are :) Hahaha I know what you mean, I struggled alot with the pelvis section in the bones category, couldn't quite get the hang of it.!
(02-16-2018, 09:29 AM)darktiste Wrote: I don't recommend approching the pelvis as a box but rather as a kind of underwear type thing i think it get rid of stiffness of the 90 degre angle avoid perfect straight line in the gesture stage try to alway give it a slight bend want doing body.Do the same for cylinder don't draw perfect cylinder but make them tapper.
Thanks Darktiste, I'll give it a shot next time, probably will help with the stiffness problem that I'm having. I keep forgetting about making the cylinders spheres etc tapper, I should keep repeating that sentence until it sticks with me haha.
