Forum posts by NCTiffanyArt

Hello, Celibart! Good morning!

I took a look through the photo gallery you supplied and considered your questions. Here are my thoughts: (please don't be intimidated by the wall of text! I tried to explain well since I don't have any photos for reference, sorry!)

-learning anatomy and proportions 'naturally' requires sitting down and doing focused studies on the body. May I suggest looking at a human skeleton and learn how to represent the major forms as shapes? For example, the head and ribcage are easily represented by circles (or, if you want to get more accurate, study how the ribcage is more of an elongated egg shape that has been carved away at the bottom). Muscle masses can also be represented by circles/half circles attached to bone: the glutes, hamstrings, calf muscle, deltoid (connecting the arm to the collarbone, creating the mass of the shoulder). The pelvis is quite tricky, as it looks very different from the side than the front and back. I use a squashed cube shape and that helps me more with the defined sides of the pelvis.

Once you do a few studies from various angles of the skeleton/muscles, you can start to represent them with loose shapes much more quickly. That way you know what information you're omitting when you draw gestures.

- I think you have too many lines in the wrong places. Build up the mass of the body by adding more and more to the underlying structure you've created (lines for limbs, circles for joints. You go a good job on that!). I see evidence of a lot of chicken scratch creating contours-- that makes it hard to really understand the different planes and forms of the body. A confident line flows much more than many short hesitant ones. If you make a bad line, just draw another! Doing continuous line drawings are great practice, and I find them quite fun!

- Finding the right time to work takes some practice. I suggest starting with 30 seconds and only focusing on the line of action (following the spine down through the legs to find the motion of the figure), and then a line for the top of the ribcage + collar bones for the tilt of the ribcage, and a line for the top of the pelvis. Doing that accurately will allow you to add lines for the limbs. If your proportions are good there, start adding muscle masses and increase the time you work.

If you choose a longer timer, really focus on making everything proportional and studying how the body parts relate to one another. Don't jump to details unless you are satisfied, otherwise, you are adding nice details to an incorrect sketch. As you confidence builds, shorten the time and see if you can capture the vital information of the pose in as few strokes as possible :). 'Loosening up' requires a lot more work than it appears. The simpler it is, the more economic and accurate your marks have to be. Give yourself the patience and time you need to learn something as complicated as human anatomy!

I hope that helped! Keep practicing, these look great! Your sketches have plenty of evidence of the thought you've put into them.