50 min sketch with shading

by Rashuneagle, January 28th 2022 © 2022 Rashuneagle

2 hour session. Wanted to add some shading. Felt my proportions are improving.

Upper body needs more work

Idragosani

Upper body proportions are a little off, maybe line work is a little too angular, might help to do more 'gestural' underdrawing

2
Mordekai99

I like the confidence in a lot of your linework, and the value range on the legs is also pretty good. However, there's a couple major foundational issues I notice. First of all, the proportions are off - namely, the shoulders look narrow, the arms are too thin, and overall the upper body is unrealistically long and spindly Try and take the opportunity next time to double- or triple-check that you got the distance between major landmarks correct on the gesture drawing before fleshing a piece like this out.

I find that holding my pencil out at arm's length and using it to measure some relative lengths of body parts in the reference photo, while not entirely foolproof, can at least help me correct the really glaring errors.

Also - I noticed that you didn't add any facial details, nor did you add hands. Hesitating to draw things that you're not confident in your ability to draw is a great way to not improve at those, but otherwise, it's useless.

That said, there are some "hacks" that I use if I really find myself struggling to draw a part of a figure. Both of them involve in some way "decontextualizing" the object: that is to say, bypassing the part of my brain that figures out what kind of predetermined object something is (a hand, a foot, a nose) and going to the one that figures out abstract shapes and curves. One is squinting while you look at the part: that way, you can get a sense of just the primary forms and predominant shades that make up that part of the image, instead of getting caught up in what features a hand or a foot or whatever is "supposed" to have. From there, you can add smaller details you notice while not squinting, and voila! Another is to just turn the reference photo (and your paper) upside down while you draw. These two also work in tandem, and can help you spot many other errors and inconsistencies.

Train on just hands, feet, and/or faces for a bit if forcing yourself to add those still isn't working out for you, even after trying those "hacks" I suggested. And even if THAT still absolutely sucks to do, just keep pushing forward, and you'll find you can at least notice patterns in what you're getting wrong, and that's the first step to improving enough that you don't hate to look at everything your sinful hands bring forth.

Overall, the way you work looks very piecemeal: you seem to selectively add detail to areas you feel confident in your ability to represent, and as a result, you neglect the whole, which is what really counts if you want to make it as an artist. Try not to work on one part of the piece for too long; always stay moving from feature to feature, keeping the whole drawing at about the same level of completeness for as much of the process as possible.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

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Kasiagora

A good tip for the shadows: You can very lightly draw the outlines that catch the light and accentuate the shadows with thicker outlines or with a bolder pencil. Having several pencils really helps (HB, 2B and 5B for example) to bring out the shadows :)

2
Kasiagora

A good tip for the shadows: You can very lightly draw the outlines that catch the light and accentuate the shadows with thicker outlines or with a bolder pencil. Having several pencils really helps (HB, 2B and 5B for example) to bring out the shadows :)

1
Topsy 13

Hi! I really liked the curvy and flowy shape that you have given to the legs wich were the main aspect that caught my attention. Also, i believe that you are drawing the contour of the figure on an idealistic way which is not necessarily something bad if that is your intention.

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Sydney Grace

The legs and hips look really good. I suggest working on the cheast and arm area proportions.

2
Polyvios Animations

Good evening, Rashuneagle, my name is Polyvios Animations, how are you doing tonight? Greater performance on your edges, and your perceptions of negative spaces and relationships. Love what you're doing so much, and please keep this stuff up.

But, I've got one smaller suggestion: I think they pose of rib cage and other anatomy is not design and gesture-wise, stronger enough to me. Please free up your arm and dominant shoulder with 18 minutes of 2 minute poses and anatomy studies of the hips and ribs, using the horizontal flips? As a result, you'll get more in sync with your observations, and have lots of fun drawing these things mentioned and more. Click this link, if you really need to learn more of what I've said.

And so, my hat's off to you, hope these have helped, and good night.