Figure study

Hi!

I just started my figure study journey and thought i could use some criticisme, to make what I need to work on clearer. So, feel free to give me any advice!

https://imgur.com/a/RsWAHX3

Have a wonderful day. :)

Hello, I think you should try learning how to draw from your shoulder and arm to help with your scratchy lines. I used to do my figures like how you do yours about two years ago. This video gives some good practicing methods to help you get used to moving your shoulder and arm while drawing

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Outside of that, I think when you draw these figures you should focus on the flow and gesture of the figures instead of trying to be super accurate right now. There are lots of videos on how to practice gesture drawing, I'd link you one but none of them personally worked for me specifically.

Great start on your journey! I think you push the pencil too hard. 1 tip I had is holding your pencil like a chalk and lightly brush it on paper. Brush the whole 3D shape of the body part, not just stitch man. This way you can practice curve, shading, etc. during your gesture drawing also.

for more info

My advice would be to try to improve your line quality, so you can find one long line instead of scratching a ton of attempts. Now, that is easier said than done, and will take some practice. To understand the concept of line quality I recommend drawabox.com, at least the first few lessons before it goes into actual perspectivic drawing.

And then, do a lot of short drawings, a minute or so, but still try to take your time for every line. That will lead to a lot of badly measured figures with really wonky proportions. Don't try to correct them, just do the next one, but try to focus on controlling every line. You won't get your figures "finished", that is OK, that is not what your goal is. You will feel a lot of frustration while doing that, and that is a good thing. Frustration is the emotion that occurs, when your cortex tells their neurons, that they don't do their job the way they are supposed to, in other words, that is how learning a new skill feels on a physical level.

You can look into some short measuring techniques, like finding three dots on the reference in a straight line, just to compare distances, or looking for vertical or horizontal relations, but a lot of measuring will eventually have to run in the background of your mind, while you focus on a thousand other things while drawing. Repeatedly drawing the human body is also kind of a measuring technique, as you get used to the proportions. But for now, your measuring just isn't there yet, and it is more useful to accept that and improve the line quality instead. Your figures will look wonky for quite a time to come, but if they are at least drawn with clean, long, and decisive lines they will already look a lot better.