Critique on Figure Drawings

Here are today's figure drawings.

Here are some more figure drawings. As usual, each section corresponds to 30-second, 1-minute, 2-minute, and 5-minute exercises respectively.

Seeing what Swen posted about lines, I have a recommendation as to a tutorial or two.

http://drawabox.com/

Under the 'Learn' tab at the top of the homepage you'll find a bunch of well sort out tutorials with specific things you can to do as 'homework'. I recommend you do the first one 'The Basics' which is introduction to how to draw basic shapes and lines with confidence, and lesson 8 which is 'The Human figure simplified'. I'm sure it will help with your confidence when drawing.

I did some more figure drawings this morning.

Thanks for the link Ay. I did the plane-drawing exercise tonight.

Any with that I finished the last page of my sketchbook. I'll be starting on a new one tomorrow.

I took a look at your box drawings and noticed a consistent error.

Generally for most angles, when the left side of a solid box is visible to us, the lines perpendicular to that plane will be converging to the right, not the left.

Similarly, if the bottom side of the box is visible, the lines perpendicular to that bottom plane will be converging towards the top, not to the bottom.


Just reverse the direction of convergence on some of the lines and it will be good.

Thanks Darkover. I drew this page last night. I tried to take your advice on the placement of the vanishing point into consideration; although since some of the limbs appear to converge from the opposite end of the vanishing point due to their musculature (particularly the the forearms and lower legs), I'm not sure how to make it look like the vanishing point is where it should be. My approach at the moment is to make the cone shapes moving towards a vanishing point much more 'pointy' than the ones moving away from the vanishing point eg. look at the figure in the bottom-left in yesterday's drawing. The figure's left leg (facing away from the viewer) is pointier than the right leg (at a slight angle towards the viewer). Even though the vanishing point for the right leg as above the leg, it still appeared to converge at the bottom in the original photo due to the shape of the leg. Is there something I can do to make this better?

I think the piece you are referring to is one of your better attempts. You drew the legs generally as they should be. If memory serves, this pose has an *enormous* foot coming towards us and the other one recedes into the distance as it should.

You're right on both counts and it's something that sometimes happens in close up shots. I note that you've omitted the gigantic foot. To be honest, in these poses and camera distance, even the photograph itself looks odd. There are further examples in perspective where something is technically accurate but looks strange.

One way to do things is to simply copy it exactly as the photo is presented. You can depend on line quality to convey distance. The nearer something is, the darker it appears. But this requires fine pencil control and in this particular photo, there's an additional problem. The foot, already dominating, will become even more of a focus as you press in on the pencil as it's nearer. (I believe this pose focus was on the gun)

The other approach, also somewhat advanced, is to modify the perspective slightly. But it doesn't really change the problem you highlighted, just reduce the oddness.

The last thing I can think of is to modify the pose altogether in some way. Apply full artistic license.

Thanks Darkover. I think you're talking about the figure in the bottom-right. I actually did draw the shoe, although looking back at it I can see how it looks like the bottom part of the leg.
I coloured the shoe in black here:

Here's the original image.


The figure I was talking about was this one:


The figure's right leg was a little closer to the viewer than the torso, while the left leg (it's a bit faded due to the curve of the edge of the page) is kicking into the air away from the viewer. Both legs converge, although I made the left leg converge a lot more sharply.
In the original image the right leg actually tapers a lot less, but I think that's mainly due to the baggy pants material (which I didn't draw).

If/when I start doing longer times I'll start to shade in the closer areas more as you suggested, although I think that's beyond the 2- and 5-minute exercises I've been doing. But I have an extra minute next time, I'll definitely give it a go.

I drew these figures yesterday.

I also drew these this afternoon.

I drew a single, 10 minute figure today.

I think I drew the hips too far below the rib cage, because the torso looks very stretched.

I haven't uploaded anything for a few weeks. I stopped drawing during exam week, then I travelled for a bit right after Christmas, and now I'm back. I did a few drawings (mainly just portraits) at random times within that, which I just uploaded en masse.

I drew this on the 18th of December, 2016.

I drew this on the 5th of January, 2017.

Any Happy New Year!

I drew these figures today.