Tyger sketches

[Tygerson]

Studies from "Human Anatomy for Artists" by Szunyoghy and Feher.

[Ignatz]

Nice work. A good exercise is to draw the figures and muscles groups a second time from memory; it really gets you thinking about the anatomy of things.

[Tygerson]

Thank you!

I tried out drawing them from memory like you suggested. It's tricky! Oh, man, I made so many weird errors, and the forearm muscles are a bit of a lost cause.

Nice work. A good exercise is to draw the figures and muscles groups a second time from memory; it really gets you thinking about the anatomy of things.

[florentK]

it s the kind of study i hate to do..
i have just seen some Hampton's studies in other sketchbooks, it seems easier to study , you should check this out. (google i think..) Villpu too. They (hampton and villpuu) use groups of muscles approch and simply the overall shapes too. seems easier for me to remember :p
you are very courageous to tackle this kind of studies.
want to see more stuff too.
:)

[Tygerson]

Thanks! I will check them out. A quick google search showed lots of beautifully flowing figures, which I would love to learn how to do.

In the meantime, a review of forearm muscles, since I totally blanked on them when drawing from memory (study from "Human Anatomy for artists" by Szunyoghy and Feher).

The scribbles are from my two year old, who says they are a ladybug.

Also, this is an awesome resource for seeing how the muscles fit together and where they attach. You pick an area of the body and you can "peel back" the muscles to get to the one you are interested in. It also shows the origin and insertions, and sometimes an animation of what they do:

http://www.getbodysmart.com/ap/musculars.../menu.html

it s the kind of study i hate to do..
i have just seen some Hampton's studies in other sketchbooks, it seems easier to study , you should check this out. (google i think..) Villpu too. They (hampton and villpuu) use groups of muscles approch and simply the overall shapes too. seems easier for me to remember :p
you are very courageous to tackle this kind of studies.
want to see more stuff too.
:)

[Tygerson]

More pencil studies from Szunyoghy and Feher, this time the head. First the skull, then adding muscles. As a break between those, also tried studies from Vilppu's site, but they weren't really worth posting.

I drew the muscles mirror image from the book's example, because it seems to work the brain in a different way. Plus, you really have to think about where you are attaching them, rather than just zoning out and copying.










By the way, does anyone know an easy way to find your own sketchbook? Thanks.

[devinn]

Click and open your profile via your profile name at the top of the page, check the recent threads you have started, and look for your sketchbook thread (:

[kencentric]

very nice studies, your lines aren't strong enough try doing gestures especially from vilppu pdf, and thanks for the comment in my sketchbook :D

[Tygerson]

So this last week I've been flailing about a bit.

I finally did my last study from "Human Anatomy for Artists" (yay--it took so long, it required begging the local library to let me keep it beyond all my renewals). I then started trying to draw figures from imagination. The ones shown here are the best, it kinda went downhill from there.




And so it was back to pixelovely for references like so (I'll spare you most of them)...




But that still wasn't working, and so it was back to where I left off in Loomis's Figure Drawing book, with his blocky shapes...




And then back to pixelovely with a marker, wondering how many times I've drawn those same ballerinas over the last year, or that guy with two swords...




It still just feels like something is missing.

[EduardoGaray]

You did a good job with those muscle studies earlier, but i think i know what is missing in this practice. Purpose.
The purpose of studying the human figure is to learn how to construct that figure.
And in order to achieve that, you dont need to "copy" but "analyze"

First, you need to stablish a structure (like you did in the last pic of your post) then, with that structure in mind you must figure out how to construct the model.

Im not really good with words, so i did a little picture as example:
(Not like my figures are perfect, haha but i think that they can be useful to explain this)




If you take a look at the figures i did based on the models on the right, you will notice that the 3 figures are constructed the same way, all three share the same structure.
That way, it becomes infinitely easier to study any pose and as you can see, it doesnt matter if the model doesnt have anything to do with the type of body you are working on.

In short, study the structure of the human body, just trying to replicate what you see is almost useless.

I hope you will find something useful in all of this. :)

[Rognoll]

I've been copying bodies nonstop for weeks, and I didn't see any improvement. Now I see why. Thank got I took a look here.

[Tygerson]

Thank you, you are totally right. I was aimlessly stumbling about in the desert of mindless practice.

This exercise will keep me busy a while. I'll post again when I've done a pile of them.

[Tygerson]

Okay, this is trying out the practice Eduardo suggested.

After being neck deep in bones and muscles for so long, it was hard to remember how to construct a basic figure, so I reviewed that first. My figures still kind of have odd proportions--I'm still ironing that out.

It was the most fun when the pose ref's body was outrageously different from the model in my head (e.g. using the Hulk as pose ref, but drawing a lady in that pose). Here are a couple examples:




I need to do a lot more pages of these.

[EduardoGaray]

Now we are talking! well done :) the proportions are odd yes, but at the moment it doesnt matter, just keep doing more and more figures.
Also, from time to time, try to do some figures complelety from imagination, just to keep what you are learning in your head.

[Tygerson]

More work. I've been trying out different body types with the same pose. I also alternate between drawing from imagination, directly from reference, and pose reference with different figure.

Example:




Refs are screenshots from Avengers--Hawkeye leaping off building and Hulk sliding down building.

[Tygerson]

Some thumbnails. I'd like to develop at least on of them into a painting.

We have a dryad creature seeking vengeance on some loggers, a guy transforming into a dragon as he's hit with dragon fire (lucky for him), and someone poisoning an arrow tip.

I'd love any thoughts on which compositions might be promising, or what might be altered, or if I should start over, or whatnot.

[Vandall]

Seeing some big big leaps in improvement, good job! I can suggest starting gesture drawings, I had a huge issue with 'stiffness' in my work for a long time after studying the hell out of anatomy and I didnt understand why, if you start now (if you arnt already) you'll be sure to keep that wicked dynamic feature of your work. Cant wait to see more.

[Tygerson]

Thanks Vandall! Yeah, I was thinking my people were looking like wooden models lately. No wonder. I've been adding gesture work back in these last few weeks.

So, it's been pencil and paper for a year while healing a double wrist sprain. And here is my first quick study in photoshop (yay, finally!), just to trying to remember what color and stuff is. Actually, second study--the first didn't work out.




Ref from QT Luong http://www.terragalleria.com/asia/myanma...n4727.html

[matt_radway]

Awesome studies. I really like the figure stuff! I saw those muscle studies and thought of a link that I often use when studying muscles: http://inspirationalartworks.blogspot.ca...mages.html Hopefully this is helpful! Keep working hard Tygerson! :)

[Elderscroller]

Great improvement with your figure pose studies! I can totally agree with EduardoGaray about analyzing what you study. It is also good to switch from reference to imaginative work. To loosen up stiff imaginary poses, study the action lines, flow or rhythym of a pose. That is usually one or more curves the motion of the body follows.
Here is a great video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y