Zizka's Sketchbook (Nudity and Vulgarity, NSFW)

[ZaultaX]

Hey really good dedication here :D. Have you ever thought of doing some guide drawings under your final sketches? For example simplifying the head, ribs, and pelvis into oval like shapes. Helps me a lot with accuracy and base forms down quickly.

https://www.proko.com/the-bean/

[Zizka]

I haven't no, I'll try tomorrow though, thanks for the input!

[Zizka]

Practice for today:

[darktiste]

So i look at how you go about constructing a figure from nothing and i have to say i was doing pretty much the same thing which i find to be bad since you don't have construction method you simply draw the contour of the subject taking much more time to get the figure down correcting the outline.Luckly for you that you shown us your process because i think warning you again will save you alot of time.I would say work on the bean bag method thing about the torso ignore the rest of the body for the moment.Forget pretty drawing a minute.Good thing you did is put the arrow to indicate the direction of the twist which can help you be reminder as you work.

The problem with how you work now is you don't isolate you big shape first since you started by the outline this make it that your progression is alot more abstract and disorderly. There is a concept that say that when approching drawing a copy of a subject we should start prioritize with the big form first. The logic behind this is that by focusing on the big form first it will save you time.If you would start with smaller form your margin of correction would be much higher because those smaller shape have less of an importance in the construction as the bigger one. Also a thing to understand is that to see proportion correctly you see error much easly when you have two object to compare it the constrast between those two form volume that help you see if one need be corrected or not.Now what i am talking about when i mean big form that where observation come into play.The body can be separated into is various component such as the (head,neck)(Torso)(Limb) those are all your most likely to be big form to start with you can divide the body in much more section as you learn the transition.The problem with starting a drawing with big form is the ability to identify an order of importance. Each drawing is it own problem.This mean that the order of importance can vary but the big rule is big form first.

As you see i have barely start to scratch the surface.But the main idea i am trying to share is not to think that there is a sacred order to how thing are done but rather that there is a logical order of importance you can utlize to construct your figure faster.That become important as you draw more as you want to be more effective and deliberate.Don't focus about i am fast enough but rather how can i do x y z faster.

[Zizka]

Yeah, you make good points. I'll think about this.

[Zizka]

Practice for today:

[Zizka]

Practice for today:

[Zizka]

Practice for today:

[Skeffin]

so whats your goal with these figure studies ? the fact that they're outlines only suggests that these are supposed to be gestures, or perhaps proportion studies/ pose studies ? If they were focused more on learning anatomy then I imagine the muscles would be defined, which they aren't here. I caught the first part of darktistes comment, and yeah I'd agree that these seem to essentially be only considering the outline, instead of the underlying form. If you were to try breaking down the torso and limbs into their forms like you do with the hands I think these drawings would benefit. But I recognise the bean from Proko and his videos are great for figure drawing. For considering forms, drawabox lessons are great for that. And it might be worth learning a bit of anatomy just to get a shallow understanding of the underlying forms/structure of the body.

Bits and piece of this stuff will eventually start to click tho, so just carry on practising. Would be nice to see some stuff from imagination as well

[Zizka]

Hi Skeffin,
Well, I'm trying to analyze how things work, the bone structure and muscles as you can see below:

[Skeffin]

hmm yeah, the hand studies are good. But for the figure drawings I think you're getting diminishing returns by continuing to work on them without also patching up your weaker areas (form, gesture, understanding the underlying structure), as I see the same kinds of problems repeated. 

You're also getting severely diminishing returns on copying the same pose over and over again, trying to get it right. Without an understanding of the above and anatomy, they're going to consistently have the same mistakes. e.g. May 6th drawing 1 had the best gesture for the calf, the following ones were all worse in that area.  I get that you're still learning anatomy/ gesture etc, but I'd recommend not trying to repeat the same study unless your previous one was *severely* wrong, and if you don't notice an improvement in your second/third attempt, then leave it and move on, for the sake of efficiency.

see crit I made for some pointers. When you understand more about form and figures, you can make informed choices on what bumpy contours to keep in the outline and which to streamline (ofc some is up for interpretation). And  you will know which forms overlap which,  and reflect that in your line drawings. And yes, there is a bump halfway down her calf. But it looks like you just tried to copy the outline of said bump without considering why its there and what form is underneath it. I picked the calves just as an example, the arms are a better than the rest though.  

But I'd recommend that for now you focus less of the minutae , maybe even streamline each limb segment  (thighs, calves, upper arm, ribs, stomach, hips) into one flowing line for each side instead of trying to draw the bumps of each muscle, at least until you have a basic idea of the muscles in each area.

[Zizka]

Thanks a bunch for the feedback! Exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for. I've got trouble reading some of the notes however, the handwritten comments.

Practice for today:

[JosephCow]

THe hand drawings look good! I like that you're deconstructing it more. I don't really know much about hand anatomy, not too familiar. you probably know more of the workings of the muscles now than i do. But I just had some thoughts on how you express forms that can easily be improved with some adjustments.

Your proportions are generally looking good, but there's a feeling of the drawings being flat shapes, rather than lines representing full forms. Of course drawing is flat shapes, but you can improve the effect of the lines by paying attention to subtle things like overlaps, and edge quality.

I've drawn black lines on three of these to show there's a big simple shape or movement within them that is flowing, uninterrupted. It helps to think of this so that you avoid individual pieces that are right on their own, but don't create that flowing shape together. On #1 you have the wrist line coming in pretty straight, overlapping the hand, but in the picture the back of the hand appears to overlap the wrist, and the contour flows in that curvy L shape. And then the thumb outlined in pink, see how that's a full form like an egg sitting in front of the index finger.

on #2 you have good instincts making the inner edge of the thumb muscle a hatched line, instead of an outline, showing that it's a soft transition. But it could be a little more subtle stilll. Also I would draw the cylinder cross sections going the other direction, since we're looking down at the wrist.

on #3, look how the whole top of the hand is a flowing line, without bumps, where yours makes the variations too prominent. The tendon flows from that line at the wrist wrist into the index finger.

So these are really subtle changes, that don't really have anything to do with anatomy, but it makes a difference how you look at things since we emphasize what we notice. And anatomy doesn't end up mattering that much if you don't express it in a way that explains it gracefully.

[Skeffin]

Ah sorry , yeah my handwriting is a bit gnarly.

Top row says from the left : "gesture line", "gesture line too segmented ", "no knee", "no gesture and knee is broken"

Bottom right is essentially a shortened version of what I typed out in the post regarding contours . "Bumpy lines ruin the flow unless the form underneath is understood . Make informed decision on which lines to simplify and use overlap to hint at form even with just line art"

Bottom left is just saying that if you're trying to render the form or do form wrapping lines then by all means show that bump in the contour if applicable to the study. I know it sounds contradictory but you as the artist have to decide where it's appropriate to include finer details like that. So in this example I'd say that bump in the calf ruins the flow of the leg if you were doing a gesture drawing, or that if you're focusing on understanding proportions there's no point in focusing on something as subtle as that bump. But , if you were focusing on calf muscles then it's good to include it as that bump is due to a very bulgy muscle head transitioning into a thin tendon ( I think , never properly got round to leg anatomy )

[Zizka]

Thanks for the transcription, much appreciated.

Practice for today:

[Zizka]

Thanks good sir, will look into it.

Today's practice. I'm unsure as to how to shade things to have a blue pen rendering. I'm not sure if the angle is right or not.

[Zizka]

Today's Practice:

[Zizka]

Today's practice:

[darktiste]

For your question about eye being more expressive i would say it a matter of direction,the amount of eyelid covering the eye.But i think expressive character are much more than that but of course if we talk about portrait it not just the eye that give an expression.It the wrinkle ,the mouth,the hairbrow,the direction of the head.Those are some of the thing you can start to think of when trying to develop and expression but the best solution is to find a mirror and a cellphone to take picture so you can study your own face and learning to act up emotion on demand.

[Zizka]

I meant more when it comes to the eye on its own. I think it's likely due to a greater variety of values.

Practice for today, hands again: