My first class session

Hi, everyone. I just uploaded my work for today. time set: 30 minutes of class mode that turned into a hour and a half.

https://imgur.com/a/w4khKR2

Hmm, I think I see, why it took you so long. There is pretty much no difference in the amount of detail from the first sketches to the last, which probably means you paused a lot on the warm-up sketches. I mean, fair enough, you used the site to provide templates for drawing for you, and put in 90 minutes of work, which is good. But I advise you to test out the timed practice experience as intended. For the 30 second and 1 minute sketches at the start, try to not pause them, but rather really try to find a few essential lines that define the figure for you. Don't fret if you aren't done, you aren't working at museum pieces, but at improving your skills.

Line of action isn't the only way to find initial lines, but it's a good and tested starting point, and I would recommend to sticking to it for now, as good as you can understand it. A long curve vaguely along the spine, indicate masses, then joints, but when the image flips, you are done and start with the next image. Try not to hurry and start drawing hastier, so you get in more lines, instead draw fewer, but more meaningful lines.

This helps you to really get an eye for the pose quickly, learn a bit about analyzing your drawing process, and to prioritize what you are drawing. The first lines you draw often decide the quality of the end result, so separate them out, practise them more often than you practise finishing a piece, learn to keep stuff simple and to organise your sketch from the first lines. That is the idea behind the timing of these classes, and although it will feel strange at first, it does have its definite benefits, which you are currently missing out on.

From the figures you drew, it is a mixed bag. Some of them clearly show, that you already know quite a bit about the proportions of the human figure, on some of them the proportions are off, but in a way that emphasizes their expression. Which is good if you can do it with intent, but can become a road bump, if you can't control when it happens. Some of them, well...

You have quite a high ratio of searching lines, where you attempted one thing, then corrected it, and again. If you ever want to get to a clean looking finish, the goal should be to reduce those, so you don't have to constantly break your flow by erasing stuff. Part of it to learning to integrate the moments for planning and pre-shadowing your lines into your workflow. (pre-shadowing means, you move your pen over the paper without drawing first, to get a visual clue, if your hand movement succeeds in doing the line you want it to do, only then you draw the line. takes discipline to get used to it, better start early. The method is explained well on drawabox, I can provide links if you want)

Hmmmmm, well I see that you have paused your photos in your drawing session, as Herbert put it. I know why you've taken too long in your poses with 90 minutes over your 30 minute class.Generally, Idon'tknow, I think your shapes and spaces have potential, but much understandably, your forces and lines and gestalts say that you're too afraid of gesture drawing, meaning these are very stiff poses. How would you like to please self-control from pausing your 30 second to 1 minute poses, so that you can focus your superpowers on your loose quality of the lines.

Not to mention, as you could know, lines equal forces, but you could pay more attention to your balance of straights against curves, and therefore, you're not here to finish up museum pieces, but you're still here to build up your skills.

The two reasons why are as a result:

1) To make your lines of action less stiff, but much dynamic, energetic, and fluid.

2) Be more attentive to your gestures in the flows of the figures, fanarts, and more.

For most details, here is an exclusive but inclusive link to the Proko timer.

It's a brand new drawing tool that just came out, but I'm here to spread the word tonight.

Good luck and thank you.

Regarding the time I spent. I really had to stop the time because I couldn't even draw the other half of the body properly even just the contour, I try doing it in the way you asked me to and I want to see what happens.

Also I know "drawabox". But I did not stick long enough because the lessons became too much complex and in order to get a critique for improvement is required a reddit account wich I don't have and it is way harder for me to use compared to this site. Also, wouldn't solid shapes make the body, more stiff? Does it count of I try to show my box drawing skills here too?

Thanks for your feedback! I really want to ask you what you mean for "making them dynamic", do you think my drawings would become less stiff if they were drown with fewer lines?

If you can express your idea with fewer lines, you can put more attention towards placing and designing each individual line, thus increasing your line quality.

For example, imagine the outline of a limb, say, an upper arm. If you use four or five short lines to indicate its outline, it will look ragged. If you instead find one smooth curve, that incorporates three of the shorter lines, and another line, that summarizes the two remaining lines, the lines themselves will look smoother and less often interrupted, because they are, and the viewer's eye will have to process less individual informations to pick up the form, so they will perceive your drawing as looking more elegantly.

As everything in art, line economy is a rule, not a law. If you draw an old man's face, or the muscles of a trained bodybuilder with very little bodyfat, well, the reference themselves are a bit ragged and show a lot of details and texture, so you can get away with more lines and still look decent.

Worst case is a young and pretty girl. Female anatomy has a higher body fat percentage then males, which smoothes out all the lines. If you draw a young girl with too many individual lines, she will always look like she is either severly dehydrated or suffers from connective tissue weakness. Ever heard someone wax lyrically about "female curves"? I am quite certain, this is were the trope originated.

I just tried that in my newest post. I also avoided to stop the timer. So, it sounds even more obvious i was not capable to make even one construction line in a proper way. https://imgur.com/a/ZDyx103

Actually, you are drawing way way way too much in that minute. I'll do another class tomorrow and upload my shorties, too, so you see what I mean.

what about the 30 seconds ones?

• Idon'tknow edited this post on December 21, 2023 12:10am.

Basically, if you get the head, shoulder line, ribcage and hip positioned and indicated properly within 30 seconds, that's a lot.

If you mean on the class I did, it's the upper row. Maybe I should have increased the contrast when scanning, they are a bit bad to see as I accidently used a quite hard pencil, that doesn't leave strong marks.