Forum posts by Sanne

No problem Stu!

I want to reiterate that gestures ARE also about motion and fluidity in poses - but proportion is very important too for most artists. Technically your gestures aren't wrong, but you didn't specify what you wanted to improve upon. Drawing recognizable figures is generally considered favorable for an artist's improvement.

I just looked through your figure drawing activities and they're lovely! Very nice grasp of angles in many of them. :) Proportions are sometimes a bit wonky (which gestures help with!) but overall I can't find a whole lot to add.

(Also, you're more than welcome to link to other sites, the site exists for the purpose to educate and share, we don't consider other sites doing something similar competitors - more like partners in crime!)

Mental conditions can be quite draining. My ability to draw depends largely on my amount of energy and my ability to focus, which can often evaporate into thin air especially when I have stress in other areas of my life.

Demonarious is correct that discipline and keeping at it is what makes the real artists. Many people quit when they struggle, because they feel they're getting nowhere no matter how hard they try. The thing with art is that every amazing artist has gone through it - the only difference is he or she stuck to it and forced their way through the hard bits until they came out a better artist on the other end. Mastering artistic skills is not just about being talented and motivated, but it's about being persistent too.

The only thing you need to keep in mind is that a mental condition shouldn't be neglected, ignored or overruled recklessly. That can damage your well being. I didn't make art my career because it will be unhealthy for me to add that stress onto my shoulders, so it remains a hobby. If you have a therapist, talk to them about what art can do for you and what pursuing improvement has as effect on your health. It may bring a positive change into your life, or it may not - that's difficult for us to decide.

But if you feel you can do it without serious repercussions, I recommend trying to stick to it. :) Keep at it, push through the bad spots and you'll come out better and better.

Hi Riro!

That is a very ambitious goal you've set for yourself! That's a good thing. :)

What sort of basics do you have obtained so far? Have you ever drawn gestures or did you throw yourself at trying to draw realistic portraits right off the bat?

The example you've shown resembles the model quite well, but there are a bunch of issues with the anatomy that tell me you've not fully understood how a face fits together yet. Drawing what you see is a very good practice so definitely keep working on that! But also consider studying anatomy more in-depth, so you understand the proportional relationships between features.

For example, eyes tend to be 1 eye width apart. In the photo you can tell that the space between the corners of her eyes is about 1 eye wide. In your drawing, the space is significantly smaller, which results in the face not looking quite right. Drawing only one line for her nose bridge makes it look a bit off too - half her nose is missing that way! I'd definitely try to draw lines on the left side too, to make it complete.

Does this make sense? Before you go into details learning how to draw features, I think it's a good idea to study proportions first. It will help you tons when you draw what you see to understand how the face it put together. Did you know the tip of the nose lines up with the earlobe? Or that the eyebrows are at about the same height as the tip of the ear? A mouth's corners usually as wide as one inside corner of the eye to the other? :)

http://www.apollo13art.com/National/lifedrawing1/lectures/images/head-proportions.jpg

Stuff like this is super useful to learn early on as it'll help you drastically in the future when you get to pinups and cartoons. Once you understand how it works, it's really easy to start stylizing.

Are furred creatures your main goal in art? What exactly are you trying to improve on?

I think in the example you've shown, it's better to work from referencing the real animal (wolves) instead of drawing from a stylized fantasy creature. If you know wolf anatomy, you can stylize what you see into your own werewolf. The artist who drew the werewolf has changed the anatomy of a wolf to fit his or her idea of a werewolf, which tends to be a poor foundation to learn from. (Think of it like trying to learn how to draw realism by learning how to draw a cartoon character - you need to know how to draw a realistic person before you can stylize them into cartoons, otherwise even cartoons don't make a whole lot of sense).

It's a bit difficult to give more advice right now, so if you can tell us your goals and what you'd like to improve on, we can give you a ton more help. :)

Hi Stu!

I've been looking through your examples and I think you did a great job capturing motion. I concur with Chris, avoid s-shapes more.

Your gestures are also a bit on the crowded side. There are so many lines happening, but I feel like half of them are there for no reason and just clutter the figure. Sometimes it's hard to see what the pose is, which defeats the purpose of gestures.

https://wordslye.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/dsc03319.jpg?w=1024&h=768

When I see this image, my first response is a frown because it's hard to make out what is happening. I don't recognize the top right gesture as being a person, and the bottom right one reminds me of a stickfigure holding a chainsaw.

Can you explain what you were trying to achieve in these? What are we supposed to see?

Remember that gestures are there to help you get a feeling for motion *and* proportions. It doesn't feel like you're trying to draw a figure at all, and if what you get doesn't look like a person, it's really hard to build on this foundation to create a realistic looking drawn person.

I strongly recommend breaking a gesture down into the following parts:

1. Draw the line of motion.
2. Add a shape for the head, torso and hips, preferably like shown in our guide https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-2-torso-and-hips/
3. Add reference points for the joints
4. Add limbs from these joints.

That's it. Try to avoid scribbling in more details and lines, but focus on the form and shape of the model you're drawing instead. Try to avoid drawing cartoonized silhouettes or shape muscles, stick to 'stickfigure' basics.

Stylization is the step that happens after you've grasped the basics. :)

Hi figureofspeech!

I hate it when people who are supposed to teach us end up doing quite the opposite!

Did you use a reference image for this? If you did it would be helpful to compare. In the meantime I'll do my best to pinpoint what's a little off, though I can't make any promises that I'm 100% right. Edit again: Herp derp, sorry! I read that this was a life drawing study so obviously there was no image, but my decaffeinated brain didn't register this.

The neck seems unusually long. It stood out to me immediately, but it may not necessarily be too long. This might be because your drawing is missing a proper connection between neck and shoulders. It's like the collarbones are missing. This gives the illusion of the neck being too long, plus it makes it look like it's not connected to the shoulders.

I tried to draw over it roughly to show you what I mean, I won't use this anywhere else other than this topic to help you. Does this look like it makes sense to you? I did this very quickly, sorry for the messiness.

http://i.imgur.com/lADFqfo.png

Edit: Oh dear. Click on it for full size, it seems the forum squished the preview together!

Hi Laboogie, this is actually a very interesting topic to discuss!

In about 99% of all design cases... Well, people borrow things from elsewhere. Very little is 'created' from scratch by the mind. Everything we think of exists because of something we have seen, heard, tasted, touched, smelled or experienced in some other way (think of drugs). Whether that is using a lizard as a reference for a dragon and combining it with a fish to make a sea dragon, or using a shape that happens to be shaped like a human being to create a wood nymph, or perhaps even using that stranger's appearance whom you met in the streets the other week.

Almost everything is borrowed from elsewhere. Even James Cameron's planet Pandora in the movie Avatar is based on things that exist in our world!

When it comes to my characters, I simply combine things that I love. I really like octopuses, so I have numerous characters who have traits or even appearances based on these creatures (ever imagined a less heavy and scary Ursula from The Little Mermaid?). I love fantasy, so I have a couple of elves and nymphs. Sometimes I combine elements to create their stories, too.

I think a place that you would really enjoy would be the RP Repository: http://www.rprepository.com/

It's a site for roleplays but it has many lovely members who adore discussing how they create their characters and what resources they use. It might be worth a shot to look over there, as character design is a little bit different from actually drawing characters.

Hi Daniela!

I'm from the Netherlands, we're practically neighbors! ;)

Good job for sitting down to practice your skills and pursue your dreams! Keep at it, don't let anyone tell you you can't do it! The only way to improve is to practice a lot.

Okay, let's take a peek at your gestures. They're honestly not bad at all, but I'm missing some of the basics that help bring motion and proper proportions to them. Some have rather inaccurate proportions that make it look a bit off.

Have you tried drawing a fluid, c-shaped line first and then building the rest of the body on top in shapes? Something like this?
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/if0an7n8224k7z7/AACHUIg3GYJ3GK3LdbqaSJnxa?dl=0#/

You don't need to flesh out the breasts, add a navel or a proper facial shape - that's not the focus on a 30 second gesture drawing. The main points are a motion line, head, torso and hips and the motion of the limbs. When these main points are in order, you will understand their perspectives better and it helps you flesh out the gestures as you increase the timers for them.

Is this helpful? :)

Hello Arina!!

What you've got so far is a great basis to work from, don't worry! The only reason other people's gestures look more fleshed out is because they tend to 'sketch' more with their mediums. Mine end up looking super messy because I hastily scribble my lines.

Yes, do keep on drawing like this regularly for practice! It will help tons! One recommendation I want to give is to try and be 'more free' when drawing lines. It's not always a matter of precision, you want to capture motion too. If you draw precise, slow lines, you tend to lose motion.

A good way to draw is to just draw a curved, c-shaped line in a quick sweep, trying to mimic the curve and motion of the figure's spine. From there on you build the rest. Don't be afraid to draw messy lines, it's part of the fun!

Here are a handful of my gestures that I've drawn to help people out:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/if0an7n8224k7z7/AACHUIg3GYJ3GK3LdbqaSJnxa?dl=0

Just a reminder: I often exaggerate the motion to dramatic proportions to make the figures come more to life. It's totally okay to do this! Once you get the hang of motion it's easier to move onto getting proportions right, although you seem to have a pretty good grasp on that already. :)

Hello pandi! :)

Thank you so much for sharing your work with us, your gesture drawings look good! Are there any particular areas you're trying to improve?

I'm noticing some small issues with your foreshortening in the top and lower drawings on the left. The arms on the upper left drawing are a little odd looking and I feel like you've tried to draw them from a side perspective and then mushed them together to make them shorter, instead of drawing the shapes as you see them.

The same applies to the leg of the man on the bottom, it looks like a normal leg was mushed together vertically rather than drawn in perspective and angle.

Those are the only real things I can pick out at the moment. I'd be happy to help you further if you can give me some more info to work with! If I know what you're hoping to get critique on I'm sure we can find some resources to help you out.

Hi Maegel, welcome to the site! :)

Your portraits are pretty stunning, wow! Love them very much. :)

Gestures can be a tricky next step, but I don't see anything really wrong with yours. How long are you spending on each gesture? (I'm not sure if those 60 and 2 minutes refer to an entire session with multiple gestures.)

The goal of these is to capture a few basic elements in as little strokes and little time as possible. Motion and proportions are usually the main focus for most people. It builds a pretty strong foundation to work and elaborate from. I've found that quick strokes for the action line capture motion best. S-shapes for the action line (spine) should be avoided because they hinder motion.

In case you haven't read them yet, we have some articles that explain how to build gestures:

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-1-line-of-action/

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-2-torso-and-hips/

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-3-joints/

Let me know if this was any help at all! Feel free to post updates about your gestures too when you draw new ones. :)

(I deleted the other topic on your request by the way!)

Please do, I' love seeing progress on these things. :)

Legs are tricky! I also find standing positions to be hard. The problem is that most neutral standing poses are by nature quite stiff looking, as their neutrality basically means there's little to no motion to work with.

As for the connection issues, do you draw skeleton gestures (basic shapes) before you focus on drawing the rest of the image? I've found that having reference points for the hipbones in the torso helps immensely with making legs look more natural. In women, I often find that adding enough fat and muscle tissue around the hips and thighs can help a lot with making it look more natural.

Do you have any examples of your drawings where this issue is prevalent? It'd help me see what can help you out to get it right.

Hi lydiad! Welcome to the site! :)

A great way to get started with gesture drawings is to check out these articles:

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-1-line-of-action/

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-2-torso-and-hips/

https://line-of-action.com/gesture-basics-3-joints/

They give you a good overview of what gestures are about. They intend to capture motion and proportions to give you a proper foundation to work from. They're also great warm ups when you sit down to draw a more detailed image, which can help motivate you to finish what you started! Doing 30 to 90 second gestures frequently can help you draw faster the more confident you get too.

Do you have any works to share so far? If not, I hope you can share your gesture drawings with us as you practice!

I concur with Medic!

What helps the flow of motion in gestures is the action line - basically, a long and fluid line depicting the spine. (It can be longer than the spine and head) Exaggerating this line and drawing on it is a majorly helpful tool to 'animate' the drawing more.

To give an example, a cartoonist can draw a very exaggerated line of motion and build a character on this line. Add extra lines for the arms and legs and build the limbs on these lines. Don't aim for perfection, aim for motion. Even if the proportions are a little off, it will give you a better sense of what will help improve your drawings and remove stiffness.