Messages du forum par Mark Poelzer

GOD, I struggled with this for so long, so I absolutely feel you here! The really tough thing is that it's a bit of an entirely different way of seeing and drawing- it's a similar feeling to drawing from life for the first time, after years of making nothing but cartoons. Also, you're too harsh on yourself for the gesture drawings- I've NEVER started a new approach and felt good about it the first time, and there's already legitimate improvement within what I'm assuming is the same session.

One of the biggest things is recognizing the difference between a line of action and a centerline- the latter being something that I don't really see mentioned a whole lot, but it's definitely something that's been crucial for my stuff. The line of action (that running between the head and feet) doesn't always naturally correlate with the spine or the sternum. I often find the best LOA found running down the side of the body, or starting between the eyebrows, etc. My process is (generally) to begin with a Line of Action, and then continue the gesture by finding the 'middle' of the torso. If I'm drawing someone from behind, that's their spine- if they're facing forwards, it runs from the sternal notch through the abs and to the crotch. It helps keep everything else balanced, both on the torso and through the arms. After that I generally make a series of crosswise gesture lines across the torso- this is usually the arch of the shoulders (along the traps), any major points of rotation or important folds, and then the glutes/pelvic girdle (for backwards and forwards poses, respectively).

Important bonus thing I read about that has saved my life a MILLION times- in any and all movements, the rib cage and pelvis will have opposing angles (and no, this is not that one thing you've already heard over and over... I mean, hopefully not). Travelling from the spine to the sternum, the ribs take an upwards angle, which I generally represent as a 3 dimensional circle through the body. Likewise with the pelvis, only the girdle angles downwards from the sacrum to the 'pubic synthesis' or whatever the hell nerds call it.

Last thing, I promise, but it's super important to know that the gesture lines throughout a motion can be abstracted to the thousandth degree. The biggest thing I noticed across your work is that you take a really literal approach to the limbs, torso, and legs- which you've already explained the reason for, but gesture is much less about the volume than it is about where weight and emphasis is put. A few off the cuff examples, here, but I like to put connective arches between the ankles, or across the toes or the tips of fingers, or roughly along where the deltoids connect to the humerus, and a lot of the time these lines will travel across the top of someone's skull, which I can connect with the arch of their rear and hamstrings. Wild stuff like that.

More than anything else, really, you're just playing with what you see, I think. This was probably a lot to sift through, so like... best advice is not to sweat any of it, and take a break whenever things start to frustrate you. I would drive myself literally livid over this when I was starting, and no amount of improvement is ever worth that kind of exhaustion.

Good night and the absolute best of luck on your art journey, my friend! :)