Just looking for a critique

Ive been doing this on and off for months but just consistently done it for the last 3 days. I want to know if there is anything im doing wrong or i can improve upon. Dont be afraid to be harsh :)

The first picture is 30 seconds, second is a minute, third is 5 minutes and last is 10 minutes

https://imgur.com/a/tXWReqN

Hi Kane!

First off, I just wanted to say that it’s a great thing you’ve decided to practice more consistently. Consistent practice is key, and in my experience even if you don’t do it every day, just make sure to have at least a weekly practice routine of some kind.

I see that you’re following the method taught by this site’s tutorial for figure drawing, that’s a great way of starting out. However I think it’s not ideal to rely only on this tutorial and a little too vague if you want to fully delve into figure drawing. So don’t hesitate to take a look at books, online courses or videos on this subject and choose an approach that speaks to you.

Also, I find that you're lacking basic understanding of perspective. While I disagree with the practice of relying only on cubes and cylinders to draw lively things such as the human figure, having perspective ingrained in your mind is crucial to make your drawings believable.
Personally, what helped me the most is going through the drawabox.com lessons on perspective, and I really recommend doing the 250 boxes challenge once you're ready.
You'll also learn how to improve your line quality in the first lessons.

Now, for the critique and advices :

I’ll make most of my critique on 30 second poses as they are fundamental for drawing longer poses. FYI, as someone who is currently learning Michael Mattesi's gesture method, my advices will be heavily inspired by this specific way of drawing the figure.

Here are some diagrams I made to make my points clearer. I think they are mandatory for understanding what I'll write below, so please check them out : https://imgur.com/a/YZBXGXF

30 second poses :

1) Good use of the line of action. However, the torso and pelvis should work as one single unit and they define most of the gesture of the body. Which means that you’re better off finding a way of drawing these 2 parts quickly as 1 gestural unit. My personal favorite is the "bean" that I've seen being taught by Proko and Michael Mattesi.

2) I think limiting yourself with 1 line = 1 link for 2 limb joints like you did is the way to go for 30 second poses. But you have to be more expressive with these lines and exaggerate them. You can still use circles to represent joints if that helps you.

3) I’ve explained what you want to achieve first when drawing 30 second poses on the imgur photo : for now, draw only the “curve” lines from the straight-to-curve shapes you find on the body

1 minute poses :

1) After drawing the "curve" lines during the first 30 seconds, complete the limbs with "straights" line. Avoid drawing blobby masses around the lines you've established in the first 30 seconds. Notice how straight lines terminate not directly at the joint itself but a little bit after it (similar to how a tendon attaches to a bone).

2) Do not worry about form/perspective yet and keep focusing on how the pose feels and its motion.

5 minute poses :

1) This is usually the part where you add form and perspective. You can do so by doing some wrapping on body parts with contour lines to show perspective and create box-like and cylinder-like forms. Drawing the underwear for clothed poses can also help for giving cues of perspective.

1a) Once you're good enough to the point that you're currently learning anatomy, I find jumping straight to drawing anatomy (while still having perspective in mind) is a viable approach. This makes perspective and gesture merge together to bring another level of liveliness into the figure.

2) Measuring can also come into play here, whether you want to correct your drawing to be more accurate, or instead just exaggerate the pose. I usually look for positive/negative space and where different parts overlap. Some other people like using head units as a measurement tool.

3) Avoid drawing details (especially the hands, feet and facial features/hair ) if you're not even convinced that you've drawn the basic stuff yet. It's always gesture first, then construction, and then the details.

10 minute pose :

I see that you've started coloring but I'd say don't go into that territory yet. I think the figure you've done was not solid enough to add that much detail. Like I said above, if you think the construction of your figure is lacking, take time to do it well before jumping into details.

Overall, I think you mostly need practice first and foremost since you began to take figure drawing seriously just a few days ago.

Also since you're pretty new to this, here some principles I've learned so far in general:

- Do not be emotionally attached to your drawings you've done as part of exercises. Make mistakes and enjoy learning from them.

- Stay curious and like I said, don't hesitate to look up books and courses on the subject from instructors that speak to you.
When being self taught, it is tempting to have that "re-inventing the wheel" mindset, but avoid that. Great masters and instructors who already have figured this out have great structured courses on art, and some of them are even free.

I really hope this helped, feel free to ask back questions or remarks :)

• Meijiisconfused edited this post on September 3, 2023 8:06pm. Reason: spelling
• Meijiisconfused edited this post on September 3, 2023 8:07pm. Reason: spelling
• Meijiisconfused edited this post on September 3, 2023 8:12pm. Reason: added bold text to make the text more readable
• Meijiisconfused edited this post on September 3, 2023 8:19pm. Reason: clarification
• Meijiisconfused edited this post on September 3, 2023 8:25pm. Reason: clarification
• Meijiisconfused edited this post on September 3, 2023 10:25pm. Reason: clarification
• Meijiisconfused edited this post on September 4, 2023 6:52am. Reason: rephrased the text for the imgur link to clarify its purpose

Sorry for making so many edits to my posts, I'm not a native english speaker but want to make points as clear as possible (^_^;)

And just too add to all of this, I was searching for a video that summarizes how to find the curve lines in the 30 second poses and luckily Michael Mattesi did this stream a just a few days ago

Start watching at 29:45, one of the instructors explains how to find these lines in general. The more you'll repeat this process of trying to find the curves, the more intuitive it will be !

• Meijiisconfused edited this post on September 5, 2023 9:17pm.

Hi Kane,

Nice practice your doing. May be if you try to draw hips more like the so called " pelvic pants by Kenzo from "Lovelifedrawing" it adds some more volume to your hips. And it seems to me the distance between ripcage and hips is a bit wide, I feel the appearance of length between ripcage and hips comes more by creating a relation between both then by lengthening. Otherwise I believe Mejiiconfused has the more advanced skills, so keep following his/hers advice. Otherwise keep going, I am convinced you will improve fast!

Hello, Kane and welcome to our site, but these poses you've drawn out for us are completely but totally hands on in terms of the line quality, but the lines of action have too insufficient exaggeration and satire yet. Why don't you please sketch them out the most livelier with our interactive drawing tutorial here somewhere?

The reason is as a result, you learn how to draw not just for the sake of art, but also for the thinking, not to mention the fact you could and should be more involved in the broadest gestures then the smallest details and forms.

Good luck to you and your progress.