Tristan, I really appreciate the feed back. You're right my weak spots are the heads position to the body and hands and feet. I usually spend the first 30 minutes figuring out the outline on longer drawings like the one above(that one took 3 hours). The life drawing group I go to has one 3 hour pose on the first tuesday of the month. The rest of the time they do quick warm up poses and two 20 minute and one 40 minute pose. Sometimes I get stuck in a weird spot because the room fills up and everyone takes the good spots. I get a bit frustrated though and it comes out in the drawing. The one above I really didnt like the lightning and wasnt into doing a profile though the model had an interesting profile. Im thinking of sitting on the ground next time so I can get a better angel.
I havnt done bargue drawings before so I'll give em a try, thanks. I have done a fair bit of anatomy but that was a year ago and I need to revisit it. Right now however I'm trying to break out of only ever drawing naked people. Im kinda stuck in a rut where I dont draw much except my weekly life drawings. These other drawings are done in the parking lot of my work during my lunch break. I want to get into doing full scenes but its a struggle for me because Im only really comfortable doing nudes. Im hoping the weekly life drawings will at least keep my figure drawing from getting too rusty while I try to expand myself to other things.
Hobbit, thanks. Yea the parking lot drawings are from life. I need to do some proper perspective drawings of environments eventually in which case I will use a ruler. These are just 5 minute sketches on my lunch break. I try to focus mainly on composition and getting a solid read.
Tristan nailed it with the crits , hope youll try to follow him as much as you can,
have you tried drawing from the masters? esp with figure drawings?
i suggest a book called drawing lessons from the masters by Robert beverly hale it has a pretty good chapter on how they simplify the forms of the figure.
Thanks for the recommendation, Kurt. I'll try to but like I said Im focusing more on composition and landscapes. Once I feel more confident in those i'll recharge my anatomy. Its not hard for me to do anatomy studies because I find it really fun. Im hoping I can stretch myself to other areas as well. And anatomy will just be a nice reward after I work hard in other areas. I'll have some landscape stuff I've been doing in gouache up here soon hopefully. Im working through more of Watts composition classes and landscape phase I. Also Im trying to draw more from imagination so maybe some more crappy sketch pages will be up here.
I did a bunch of 2x3 inch compositions in gouache as part of the Watts landscape one course. I skipped a few but I think I got a little better at using gouache. The first couple ones took like 45 minutes and turned out looking like a hot mess but by the 4th or 5th comp I was getting the hang of it and taking 20-30 minutes. I think next I'll do the gouache portrait exercises. I managed to get 3 done a day without skipping a day which is a new record of consecutive days painting for me yay!
Nice guaches! One thing i learned that if you work on smaller scales try getting a very small synthetic brushes they can be pricey, but its so worth it they pick up a lot of paint and control superbly. Looking forward to seeing more!
(11-17-2013, 03:10 AM)Adam Lina Wrote: I've tried that technique in the past but never found it to work for me. Usually I just see a face and end up drawing a crappy looking face. I need to work on increasing the things that I can draw from memory before I can do that I think.
Just some gesture pages from yesterday and one from imagination.
Awesome SB. Will keep following you if you don't mind the stalking xD
Thanks Hobbit! I need to get some new brushes eventually. I just bought the cheapest ones I could find.
Ursula, Im doing it online. And thanks. Gouache is a lot of fun. And maybe after I get my sea legs in it I'll come back to digital and be able to to make stuff look traditional with out over using dry brush effects haha!
I came back to the Gouache 1 course and did some comps for some additional portraits I plan on doing after this one. Got a couple progress shots of the female profile portrait. Still a WIP. That. Hair. AAAAARGH!
Thanks echo and Hobbit! Gouache is fun. Give it a try!
Got a 3 hour portrait from life. Next week I'll be going into a sensory deprivation tank a couple hours before life drawing. Its nice and convenient since the float tank place is a block away from the life drawing place. I hope to get into a super fucking zen state and draw my balls off.
Its been hard to find time for art and updating sketchbooks this last few weeks. I managed to do some sketches of heads from imagination. Still not very happy with them. I've been slacking on imagination drawing and I think I finally found the drive to power through those first hundred or so awkward drawings. I'll post some next week.
Also I did an hour in a sensory deprivation tank before life drawing. I think it helped me loosen up and get in a good head space. Definitely recommend it if you're already into mediating regularly. Otherwise floating there for an hour might be a tad bit boring for most. Boredom is a symptom of identification with thoughts. If you learn to identify with the awareness of your thoughts, you will never be bored.
your figure drawing is improving! i really like your persistence in doing them as much as you can.
I would avoid using too curvy lines though, i see it on the arms particularly the biceps area, my guess is youre overanalyzing the figure. try to nail down the gesture and work out from there, using simple forms such as a ball for the biceps once you get down the "essence" of the figure now you can go looking for accurate outlines of the figure building on top of your solid gesture and mannequinization of your figure.
hoped this made sense. btw hows the sensory deprivation tank? how much is it to be there? man i wish we have that here.
Thanks guys! Kurt, yea I messed up on the arm on a couple drawings. I was rushing passed the gesture phase and not taking my time. The float tank costs 50 USD the first time and they have package deals that are cheaper per float. I didnt think my area would have that sort of thing either until I looked up online.
I got some sketch pages of mostly heads from imagination and more life drawing.
