Messages du forum par Littlewaysoul

Hi! I am wondering if it is possible to allow us to set a total time limit for the same-length sessions? So, for example, If I was to choose a same-length session of 30-second figures, but I wanted it to stop after 15 minutes total.

I often find myself in situations where I have limited time, or want to restrict myself to a certain time limit, but then I end up needing to count the figures or keep track of my watch to see how long I've spent in total, which can be distracting. Having a total time limit would be great to keep me from worrying about that and just draw for however long.

I hope this makes sense! I didn't see this in the planned features section, (unless I missed it?) so I thought I'd throw the suggestion out there. :)

Updates! For Inktober #16 I did minute-long faces:

Then for Inktober day 17 I did 30 second faces again:

I wasn't always able to capture the face shape, but I think I'm getting better at facial expressions! I was also trying to draw larger faces for both days.

I'm not sure whether my goal should be to get the face shape down in 30 seconds, or to get better at distinguishing between various people. I try to capture unique features in this time, but the faces aren't always easily identifiable with particular models. Thoughts?

These are all super impressive to me, so I don't know how helpful I will be with critique, but I was recently given this link as a resource and it really helped me! It's this site's 15 minute tutorial to figure drawing using the line of action method. It really helped me with the 30 second figures especially. It looks like you already do something like this, at least with the line of action part, but I wanted to offer it as a suggestion in case you didn't already know about it. :)

I do really like the fluidity of a lot of your figures! The fact that you make light, smooth, and confident strokes really helps with that and is something I'm trying to be better about. The fact that you use the whole page, even if it means that figures overlap with one another, is another thing I really love about these gestures. Keep up the good work! I can't wait to see your progress!

I recently became aware of the figure drawing tutorial on this site and it was extremely helpful for me! Kim says that she’s working on having similar things for faces and hands/feet, but until then I wanted to see if anyone had any favorite techniques of their own for faces in particular.

Today I tried doing some faces in 30 seconds and had a lot of fun! My technique is super basic, though:

1. Draw a circle/oval to approximate shape as best you can

2. Draw two lines to demonstrate the direction the person is looking to

3. Fill in facial features

4. If there’s time left, refine the face shape

Here are the results from this morning’s practice:

I’d love to get your feedback, or any advice on techniques that you find useful! My goals are: (1) increased speed in capturing expressions accurately, (2) eventually be able to compose expressions on my own, or with less references.

• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 15, 2018 9:13pm.

Awesome! I’m looking forward to it! I might start a separate thread on this in the meantime. Thank you so much for all that you do for this website, seriously.

Thank you so much, Kim! Are there any tutorials (even written ones) regarding faces/expressions? I've sort of been winging those as well, and I've never tried them in 30 seconds. I might try that today! :)

For today's Inktober I did a 30 minute class using the tutorial technique. Here is the result!

• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 3:16pm. Reason: Image embedding!

Here are the pages from when I worked through the tutorial!

And then I went on to try 30 second figures using that technique. Here they are:

Thank you for that advice, Torrilin! I love my brush pen, so I will definitely have to try that out sometime. Do you have any photos of your use of the tutorial technique with a brush pen? I'd love to see how you build on the line of action quickly to form shapes and shadows!

• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 3:14pm. Reason: Image embedding!
• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 3:14pm.

Thank you, Kim! I actually found that tutorial in a different thread and went through it this morning! It was extremely helpful and I am so excited to keep practicing this technique for figure drawing. You are correct that I didn’t do much underdrawing for the ones I’ve shared here. With those I was using a larger ink brush to try to force myself to make strong line choices rather than sketching things out too much. As for my learning goals, mostly just enjoy drawing people and the challenge of capturing a form in a limited amount of time. I’m hoping to speed up in my ability to capture a certain motion and become more confident in my ability to draw people! I think the tutorial was really helpful in that regard and can’t wait to see where this all takes me! Thanks again for your advice! :)

I'd love to get some feedback on these! I'm pretty new to gesture drawing, so I'm kind of winging this. I'd love to hear what you think!

The first four pages are from October 2nd and the last two are from yesterday, October 12:

(By the way, I usually add the color in afterwards, either in highlighter or digitally, to brighten things up and have fun! But that's not included in the 2 minutes of figure drawing).

• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 1:33pm.
• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 1:33pm.
• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 1:34pm.
• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 3:08pm.
• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 3:09pm.
• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 3:10pm.
• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 3:10pm.
• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 3:12pm. Reason: Trying to figure out how to embed images! I think I finally got it. :)
• Littlewaysoul edited this post on October 14, 2018 3:15pm.

Hi! I'm also doing "gestober"! Regular Inktober was super involved for me last year and I don't have time for 2-hour+ portraits every day this year. So I decided to work on my figures! Kudos to you for doing the 30 second ones. I haven't tried that yet, and my 1- and 2- minute figures are still sketchy. I also started drawing in mid-2014, so it sounds like we're in a similar boat! :)

I really love that you are using just one line to convey a shape instead of sketching things out ahead of time. I think that will really help you gain confidence in your line choices and it's something that I want to be better at myself.

A lot of your figures have a real weight and movement to them, which I really admire! For example, on October 6th, the figure on the lower right hand just looks so solid to me!

Since I've never tried 30-second figures, I'm not sure how useful my advice will be, but I think it's okay that you can't always get to the feet. Having such a short time forces you to sum up the main parts of the figure that stand out to you, which I think you're doing a good job of right now. But if you want to focus more on legs/feet, that could be an intentional exercise: do 30 second figures, but start from the feet and go upward to capture as much as you can from there! I'd be interested to see how that goes for you. Maybe it will help you figure out how to convey those parts more quickly!

You've inspired me to try doing 30-second figures today! I'm a little nervous, but I think it will be fun! I need to kill my perfectionism with these kinds of things every now and again. :) All the best to you on your gestober journey!