30 Minute Class 1

by Antrv, June 28th 2019 © 2019 Antrv

Done as part of a 30-minute class.

My current goal is: Reduce stiffness and make my drawings feel more dynamic, energetic, fluid

Hello, I've been drawing every day for almost 2 weeks and I am currently trying to learn the fundamentals, (mainly gesture drawing and perspective right now). I bought Proko's figure drawing course and I believe it has helped me so far, but it is very hard for me to draw the figure in such a simplified manner. I also recently started reading Andrew Loomis' Figure Drawing for All it's Worth so I hope that I can learn a lot from that as well. One of the main problems I notice is my line work. I feel like my lines aren't as fluid as they should be. The reason might be that I think too much on making the curve perfect and end up drawing many small lines. Anyways, any critique on what I should focus on would be very much appreciated, and if you have been through Proko's course or Loomis' book any advice on how to approach those would be excellent.

Here's the rest of the drawings https://imgur.com/a/DCGbSy3

Sanne - Site moderator

One of the main problems I notice is my line work. I feel like my lines aren't as fluid as they should be. The reason might be that I think too much on making the curve perfect and end up drawing many small lines.

Before I even read your comment, that was the thing that jumped out to me the most. It might help you to try and draw from your elbow instead of your wrist, and being okay with reducing your figures to less lines. By that I mean focusing less on outlining the body, and focusing on capturing just the flow of the body with as few lines as possible. This might sound a bit weird or abstract, but consider this:

If you only had 5 lines to draw a human figure and 10 minutes of time, where would you put those lines? How would you use them to define the human figure and capture their pose and motion?

The 30 second gestures work really well with that kind of approach. Challenging yourself to use fewer lines to convey the same thing is a good way to train your brain, so if sketching several lines to get one line down is a problem, I do highly recommend this approach!

1
Antrv

Thank you for your reply! I have been trying to draw from my elbow and shoulder, but I think its more of me trying to correct myself over and over and focusing too hard on the outline as you said. I will definitely put your advice to practice by trying to capture the flow of the body in as few, smooth lines as possible.

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