Would you like to come up and see my etchings?

[JyonnyNovice]

It's really helpful, kinda confirmed what I was feeling in that it clicked for you and you can draw pretty consistent characters in perspective, probably cause you can feel the 3 dimensions and have a lot of mileage. I love sketching doodles like that but hate trying to painstakingly construct characters in perspective - glad to know that if I just hammer out the doodles and keep drawing it should click for me too. Thanks man.

[Suira]

Hey man! Cool sculpts going on in here, and it's refreshing to see someone work in traditional 3d, nowadays it's mostly zbrush and modo, and I think clay is more...for real, if you know what I mean.

If you're into that I'd recommend checking out the "hands for drawing" http://www.posemaniacs.com/tools/handviewer/ app of posemaniacs , use those basic models as ref and see what you can refine further or add into them, it would make for a nice practice.

On the 2d department I would suggest to relax a bit when you draw, specially after reading the tendinitis issues. I had the same issue of being too stressed over how I wanted my drawings to look and trying to get everything right, and thus in the end the stuff comes out a bit stiff or with overthought lines. Sometimes they're too heavy or too uniform, and values aren't too clearly established, and that tends to hurt the drawings. I say all this because I had all that shit happen to me ( it does happen sometimes still) and the best solutions I found to mend the problem was basically:

-In a relaxed way use your light touch a lot, until you're sure you like the result and have a mirror at hand to "flip" the drawing and check out how it looks there every now and then to get a fresh perspective on it.

- Once you're happy with the base structure start with the stronger lines, trying to use a predefined criteria on where to put the strongest ones , I found that using them in places that overlap and points that touch each other ( occllusion ) give the best rresults , it's also an iteration process, trying and trying until you're happier with what comes out.

- After having most of the basic lines and structure pinned down think on how much time you're willing to devote into putting in the values. If you're not feeling like spending too much time go for a simple render that just hints at the basic shadows with the terminator ( core shadow) outlining the form and a one value shadow , with some gradients here and there.

I don't know if this will help but it did help me quite a bit into getting rid of some issues I had with all this stuff.

Anyway, cool stuff man, keep it up! :)

[Adam Lina]

Suira: Thanks for the feedback! I've been trying to loosen up my lines recently. I dont think I have a problem not using a light touch. Its mostly from drawing with my wrist and fingers too much. I try to draw from the elbow and shoulder but I revert back to the wrist when Im not thinking about it. Plus I was drawing in some small sketchbooks which makes it hard to use anything other than my wrist. Added by the fact that I use my wrist and hands a lot at my job. I'd seen that posemanicas model before but didnt think to use it for sculpting though.

I started studying a couple books the past couple weeks. Force by Michael Mattesi and Anatomy for the Artist by Sarah Simblet. Simblet's book is loaded with great info that I think I'll be slowly absorbing a page at a time for quite awhile. Force is a lot less informational and so far is covering things I already kinda know. Though it is forcing me to think more gesturally which is a weak spot for me. I did a value/drapery study in marker which kinda turned out bad. I made the boob too big which could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. I want to get back to digital studies but its almost impossible for me to draw from the elbow and shoulder on a tablet.

[AngeliquevdMee]

O snap! nice dynamic figures :D Really like the way that youre writing everything down, it must help a lot. Good work on the traditional stuff!

[Hobitt]

Loving those anatomy studies keep doing them!

[Heliux]

Killing it with cranking out the studies! :D The guy with the stache rules! B\
It looks like you're using an 8.5-9'' x 11'' sketchpad; Something that really helped me the drawing from the shoulder was drawing on canvas or a giant fucking pad with charcoal. I dunno if you've got figure sessions where you're at, but I'd recommend hitting those up with an uber-pad. Proko also holds his pencil in a atypical way that gets you used to thinking more and drawing from the shoulder (if you're interested)
Also, from a prior post you mentioned starting with the head and growing out. I REALLY feel you on this one. Not that I still don't draw that way a lot of the time, but one way to work past it is doing the composition exercise where you draw a bunch of little thumbs for scenes. (like listen to some good music and imagine a scene or fight or something like when you were a kid and thumbs-it-out. ) I can't watch a movie anymore without wanting to screen-cap every five seconds for later comp studies. ;|
Keep that pencil dancing! X)

[JyonnyNovice]

Great update man! Those anatomy studies are looking great, you're really getting into the nitty gritty of it! Good luck! keep going ^^

[Jaik]

Oh man, thats some serious anatomy! I always wanted to (but never achieved) doing all of my anatomy studies in one sketchbook so I could always have it on hand and refer to it. But then I had to go and do everything digitally and now I have nothing -_-

All in all your are steaming along :) Keep it up!

[Adam Lina]

AngeliquevdMee: Thanks! Yea it helps a lot and I also watch AnatomyZone videos after taking notes. The videos go into more detail than is necessary but it often brings nice tidbits the write down and help in memorizing things.

Hobitt: Thanks, glad you like them and I will!

Heliux: Thanks! I've been doing my anatomy studies in a 9x12 but most of the figures have been on an 18x24 news print pad. I just got an easel and started trying out Prokos technique. I even sharpened my charcoal down the way he does with an inch or more of the charcoal exposed so to use the side of the charcoal for shading. It took a little getting use to standing while drawing but its enabled me to draw much more from the shoulder. As an added bonus standing has kept my energy up and made me more focused I think. I do know of a life drawing group in my area but unfortunately my work schedule wont allow me to join it. I do need to start focusing more on composition though as much as I avoid it. I feel I do have a solid basic understanding of composition from doing graphic design and dabbling in photography but theres always more to learn.

JyonnyNovice: Thanks man! Will do :)

Jaik: Thanks! I wanted to have it all in one sketch book but I started it too near the end of my pages XD

Heres another big sketch dump. I have some more anatomy studies but forgot to take pictures of them. Some of these are out of focus but Im too lazy to retake them and they're nothing special anyways. And a picture of my new french easel I got from Jerry's Artorama for 73 USD including shipping. Its pretty awesome and I plan on getting outside for some plein airing eventually. The whole thing collapses down into a easy to carry box and is surprisingly light weight. I highly recommend getting one if you can find it for relatively cheap. Some places charge like over 200 USD for one which is crazy.

[Vicianus]

On your gesture figure drawings --
You're getting a nice dynamic for the torso with the rib cage/pelvis relationship you had written down, but I'm noticing the dynamic kind of starts and stops with those areas. You have some weight and relativity going into the torso, but there's a lost sense of weight and balance as you go into the feet. Gestures where the figures are laying rather than standing appear to have a better weight balance than those on their feet. The rib cage and pelvis is definitely an important dynamic to consider, but don't forget that our balance starts at support points, which for standing figures is the feet. Make sure to consider the weight and the flow down the limbs, particularly if they are hitting the floor and bearing any weight.

[Birchgrove]

Dude, them anatomy sketchbook study pages are sick! Just had a nerdgasm all over them :D
so cool

[Adam Lina]

Birchgrove: Haha! Thanks, I've got some more for ya.

Vicianus: Thanks for the feedback. Im not sure exactly what you mean though. The legs look off balance like they would fall over if they stood that way? Im sure I'll see it when my eye catches up with my hand.

[LaleAnn]

Impressive load of work in here!! That's great! I see you're working a lot on anatomy and gesture.

My only advice here would be to not focus too much on correct anatomy when you're doing the gestures.

Keep in mind that when you're doing gesture drawings, you're studying how to tell a story with the main body line, its energy, using the fewer lines you can.

So maybe try to think more about the "flow", the "feeling" the pose gives you rather than making the body look right. Try to tell a story more than just describing a body. :)

Keep it up, great studies!!

[Rosolino]

You are doing great Jyonny, great studies of anatomy and bone structure, I like how you write your notesss, super cool!!
keep drawing o/

[Jaik]

You need some more natural light in that room of yours man. Gonna turn into Smeagle sitting in the dark all the time.

I agree with LaleAnn, dont worry about anatomy when doing gestures. Gestures are all about telling a story. Theres a pretty neat vid from some instructors at disney that talk about life drawing. Which I think can apply to gestures just as much.

http://youtu.be/nZ-3AmM_qIs

Give it a look and keep up the good work :)

[Farvus]

Wow. Lots of hard work here. You're going to progress really fast.

I would suggest paying more attention to the lineweight. For example closer object have heavier lines while further objects have tinner lines. Lines on the shadow side are thicker lines while lines in the light are thinner. That kind of stuff.

Keep going, man :).

[Adam Lina]

LaleAnn: Thanks for the comment. Im reading a book on rhythm called Force which is helping. Im also trying to learn the Reilly method for figures at the moment to better capture the flowiness.

Rosolino: Thanks but Im not Jyonny.

Jaik:



Thanks for the video link.

Farvus: Thanks. Yea my line weight is mostly crap. I'm familiar with the concepts of line weight but fail to put them to use most of the time. A lot of times I draw just to get out an idea rather than create a finished presentable drawing.

[StardustLarva]

Very nice studies, particularly the one of the tree and the armour, those ones are gorgeous.

[Samszym]

Noice studies dude! Just make sure you're applying them to your own pieces and ideas and not making studies for the sake of making pretty studies. Cool to see you're doing stuff form imagination, do more!

[Jaik]

Nice job man, those gestures are lookin better everytime I am in here. Good to see you are still working hard :)