Forum posts by Legacy55

You bet Patient Monkey. It's tough stuff, I'm still mastering it too. Learning the bones and then the muscles will get you a long way though and be absolutely essential when it comes to troubleshooting tough poses. If you have any more questions, feel free to DM me.

Got it, thanks for clarifying your second question Patient Monkey. And you're correct, that is called foreshortening. Again, I think you're displaying a pretty good feel for the forms of the arm when they're moving towards or away from the viewer, but it can certainly be tricky when the arm is coming DIRECTLY at you. First of all, to understand how to draw a foreshortened arm (or really the arm in any tricky angle) is to understand the basic forms of the bones and be able to draw them from any angle. Again, not sure what your understanding of anatomy is, but if you're not familiar with the bones of the body I highly recommend Proko.com. This website has a ton of videos that explain how to draw each of the bones, and I'd recommend taking the time to work through them. If you're stuck on a strange arm angle, do a study on the positioning of the bones. A lot of times that study can provide some great direction on how to draw the foreshortened arm in your gesture sketch.

As for your question about using perspective grids to draw believable figures, generally speaking it's not useful for that sort of thing. However, drawing figures lying down are the exception. As you know, perspective helps us understand how to draw objects that are receding into the distance. When we draw the human body, typically all the parts of the body are the same distance from the viewer, which means we get used to drawing them at the same proportion to each other. However, if someone's lying down with their head near the viewer and their feet pointing in the opposite direction, those feet are now 5-6 feet away from the head and need to be drawn smaller than we would be used to drawing them. If you understand the basic forms of the bones and their relative sizes to each other, you can draw those forms on top of your perspective grid to get an idea of the size of each one. For instance, the distance from the top of the thorax to the bottom of the pelvis is about (but not quite) the same distance as the length of the entire femur. If you draw the thorax and pelvis together on your perspective grid, look at how many squares deep they are and you know how many squares deep your femur should go.

Hopefully that helps. Being able to do this well does require knowledge on how to draw and rotate the individual forms of the body in perspective, so let me know if you're still strugging to understand that as well. If so, I may be able to put together some instructive illustrations that demonstrate what I'm suggesting.

Hey Patient Monkey! You've got some great stuff in here, you're definitely on your way. To answer your question about weight, I think you already have some great instances of weight in your drawings. A good example would be the figures where you've included the thorassic arch, which makes the torso feel more dimension. You certainly have situations where your figures feel flat, so looking for opportunities to draw quick details may help. For example, drawing a quick line to indicate the kneecap will give your legs a little more roundness and depth.

Not sure what you mean by wrapping forms, can you give an example? I don't see any major issues with the positioning of the arms on your figures, but I also don't have your models to reference.

As for drawing figures lying down, that's a unique challenge that usually requires an understanding of basic perspective drawing and foreshortening. Probably the best approach is to do some studies, starting with the basic skeleton. Take as much time as you need to examine your model or photo reference and correctly place the thorax, pelvis, and bones. Simple forms for each is fine, you're just trying to get a sense of what these objects look like from a new angle. Drawing a perspective grid oriented around your model may help too, giving you an idea of how the body appears to get smaller as it recedes into the distance.

I have no idea what your understanding of perspective is, so let me know if any of that doesn't make sense.

Stefan, you've got some great work amongst the sketches that you've posted, showing a nice sense of gesture, form, weight. You clearly have a good handle on anatomy and figure drawing. Now, amonst the strong sketches, you've also got some that are not quite as strong - appearing flat, distorted, or sometimes even difficult to read. That's perfectly okay. This site is all about practice and repetition, and we're all going to have some drawings that aren't perfect. If you're not doing it already, I'd recommend after each session reviewing your weaker drawings and asking yourself how they could be improved. Make a note of your self-critiques, and review them before your next drawing session.

I'm also curious as to how this exercise fits into your overall plan for growth. I concur that putting effort into drawing with fewer lines is a good learning exercise, but if you intend to practice counting lines on a regular basis you're probably going to hinder your growth. Trying to keep track of your "line tally" is going to disrupt your rhythm and steal your focus from the model. If minimizing lines is a goal, you may want to try drawing the same model over and over again, conscriously reducing the number of lines you use each time. This will teach you how to say a lot with a little.

However, I wouldn't recommend obsessing over keeping your lines to a minimum or avoid scribbles at all cost. While we don't want to draw line after line trying to find each limb, drawing quickly and expressively means occasionally drawing a line incorrectly and simply drawing the correct line on top of it. Sure, the end result is a ilttle scratchy and scribble-y, but you preserve the expressiveness and freedom Polyvious Animations mentioned.

Great idea Polyvious Animations, thank you! I'll try that 60 minute exercise when I get a chance. Thank you again for the additional reference!

Hi everyone, I've got a few extra deltoid studies to share and would appreciate some critique. Many thanks to Polyvios Animations for sharing some deltoid video reference in my last post! It helped a lot with these!

Deltoid Studies 05.16.21

That's a great resource, thank you! This video is terrific. I'll post some additional deltoid studies when I get a chance.

Thanks both, that's great advice!

Hi everyone. I've been struggling to understand what the deltoids look like when the arms are raised, especially at the origin points. I did a few studies today and would love any feedback - thanks all!

Link to Deltoid Studies

• Legacy55 edited this post on May 3, 2021 3:24am.

Thanks for the encouragement and help all! Polyvious Animations, my current goal is to develop a t-shirt graphic featuring a spoof version of live action TV characters, so I'm trying to elevate my figure drawing to meet that goal.

Hi there, thanks for sharing these! Your first two sketches are pretty good, you clearly understand the proportions and general anatomy of the hand. There are a couple of small details that are slightly off. In the sketch of the hands holding the reigns, the visible thumb is a bit too short. When the fingers are fully extended, the tip of the should extend to the bottom of the first knuckle of the index finger. If the fingers are flexed inward to grip something, then the thumb should definitely extend past that first knuckle. You can try mimicing this pose with your own hands to see what I mean.

The proportions in the second sketch with the model covering her face look better. My main critique here is that the hand and fingers appear to be positioned at slightly different angles. The right hand, for example, is positioned perfectly straight up and down. However, the fingers appear to be slanted at the "base", as if the model slightly repositioned her hands in between when you drew her hand and her fingers. The main giveaway is the length of the ring finger compared to the index finger. They should be about the same length, but the ring finger is visibly shorter.

The final area for improvement would be improving your overall gesture. Both drawings are pretty stiff, and the amount of line work suggests you're working and re-working these to get them right. I can tell from your "small sketches" that you're struggling to draw quick, gestural sketches of the hand and, guess what, that's a point of weakness for me too! George Bridgman has a pretty good technique in his book "Constructive Anatomy" that may help you, you can view it on Google Books for free - check page 36.

One final tip that will help your reviewers: please put a name or number on your drawing for identification purposes, then use that same name/number when you provide the link. That will make it easier for us to call out which drawing you're talking about. :)

Hey everyone, long time visitor, first time poster. I've been getting back into life drawing and trying hard to improve, especially since drawing figures has never been strong suit of mine. Below are a few of my 1 min and 10 min sketches, any critique or advice would be most appreciated!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1REv3sOPkSzoUMudZ4lnt800uwyrmsNSD?usp=sharing

Thanks everyone!