Forum posts by Parmilla

Oh, that sounds really fun!

Do you have in mind some themes or prompts? Because I'm in hahaha, let´s do it! 😁

Thank you Sydney!

I haven't been working that much time on my gesture but I'm being constant at least hahah

😁

I use a fairly simple amount of materials, compared to others that I have seen, my must-have materials are only

.005 Mechanical pencil

HB Pencil (With a long part of the graphite exposed)

and 2 erasers, 1 block, and a click eraser

Sometimes when I feel fancy I use the 2B Pencil to get dark shadows and even a Black Faber castell to get darker shadows

Although I do have blending stumps, I hate them, maybe I don't understand them, but I make a mess when I use them. Same thing with charcoals. I will find time to learn to use them correctly. They definitely seem like powerful tools that could impact the quality or time of your work.

Which ones are the indispensable materials you need to draw, and what is your normal "setup"?

• Parmilla edited this post on October 12, 2022 2:06am.

Hello Polyvios!

I have noticed that as you said, my most recurrent critiques are about the stiffness of my figures hahah. The exercise you are recommending sounds super effective against that rigid and unnatural standing of my figure, I do think it will help me loosen a little bit my strokes and the overall anatomy of the figure, I can´t wait to give it a try. I will be sharing my results with you.

Thank you!

Have a nice day :D

Thank you so much An Otherworld!

You are right, since Johnny's critique I listened and have been focusing less on construction and more on the flow of the figure, I have been using more circles and ovals to have more organic shapes and overall I do think my figures look more alive and less stiff, I'm attaching one of my previous studies having that in mind https://drive.google.com/file/d/1887tOvcq2oklEXAfxaEJQE3Z3uiSA9Rz/view?usp=sharing

I also get what you say about these "nuggets of gold" It is really strange hahah, but everytime I found one of those, even in the most ordinary of the studies, I treat it as some sort of magnum opus and then I have some kind of fear that I will never achieve something like that ever again. And of course with time you see it as it is, just something slightly better than the usual, but also and indicator of improvement, but definitely not your best work, and the situation is really funny to me, maybe something related with the Dunning-Krueger effect.

Thanks again, and have a nice day!

Hello Sydney!

I would like to share something that is more like a half-year resolution/study, I wanted to improve my figure drawing, and anatomic understanding of the body, that includes of course the body, but I also struggled a lot with hands and faces. So to finally change that I tried to spend every day at least 30 minutes doing a gesture drawing class, the goal is to continue working and improving, I have something like a month doing it constantly and I do perceive the improvement, it is slow and also complemented with lectures (Bridgeman and Betty Edwards also a lot of Loomis), but progression is not perfection, so with that in mind I hope to maintain my motivation. I will add a drive link to my 30ish last studies so you can also see the progression in real time.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dFHBEKseVCTxUx9ZUo2aTyq-sxjLqMwi?usp=sharing

Thank you Johnny!

And you are right, although I would like to really pin the anatomy down I think that in my construction I lost sight of the flow and fluidity needed in a gesture drawing, I will try to be more energetic and flow-oriented rather than having the "right" proportions but all rigid and lifeless.

Greetings

Hi! I have just returned from a long, very long drawing hiatus. In my teens was probably the last time I was really drawing with a purpose, but since that almost 10 years have passed and after some many years I do feel rusty, and is kinda discouraging to try to relearn everything again, to try to feel that flow, it feels like I'm always crashing with some walls, also I was never "good", so now, as a resolution I would like to be the best artist that I can be and I'm trying to consciously learn and practice, there is so much time to make up for, believe me that every critique will mean so much to me, I want to improve as fast as I can, and I know how important the external input is.
I do have here 2 30 minutes sessions, I have been reading some Bridgeman for construction, maybe you will notice that

https://imgur.com/a/pv5W5HT

https://imgur.com/a/E986jP9

Thank you for your time!