Messages du forum par journalsbridle

My body type is completely different from that of the character I'm trying to draw. I'm short and fat, he's tall and thin. I can't really *see* my body the way I would see his; there's too much fat in the way.

ETA: Sorry, I don't mean to be difficult. I have tried the method you suggested before, and I think I also had trouble because, well, I'm going for a nude drawing, and I...wear clothing. I kind of have to, because the only people I have to take my picture are my parents. But that would indeed help with at least posture and proportions, since those tend to be the same no matter what your body type is.

That was still very helpful, so thank you! I'll try to remember that next time. For now, I actually did manage to find a good drawing.

• journalsbridle edited this post on May 19, 2019 2:15am. Reason: I don't know, I just thought I sounded snippy and whiny.

I'm still a beginner when it comes to drawing, and I'm not at a point where I can draw right out of my head, or mentally turn a reference so that it matches up with what I'm trying to draw. In other words, unless I have someone to hold my hand through the entire thing, I can't draw a given pose or gesture unless I have an exact match of what I'm trying to draw. Even for simple poses, you'd be amazed at how difficult this is. Even googling "sitting on bed profile" has turned up way more possibilities than I ever could have imagined, and none of them are what I'm looking for.

What do you do when this happens? Do you just try to draw it yourself, and hope that it works out? Do you look for something close, and draw that instead? Do you give up?

I feel like there's something else I'm missing that I should be doing.

I'm starting to feel like every time I try to fix something, I end up making it worse. How do I get myself out of this mess?

Thank you!

I just don't know where to start, you know? I'm always overwhelmed with so many different directions to go, so many different suggestions on how to improve. I get so overwhelmed with deciding what to do that I become frozen with indecision and go long periods of time without practicing.

I thought I already knew "how" to draw. I've been focusing on anatomy for years now, but everything still looks flat, and I don't know how to translate it into 3D. People keep telling me to imagine it as 3D, but I still can't actually see anything. :( I get so frustrated because I feel like I'm missing something that everyone else has.

I don't know if I can do the sorts of exercises that are on this site due to my OCD (it's really difficult to explain), but I was hoping I could get some critique here anyway.

I know the rules say that nude sketches are okay as long as they're not doing sexual acts, but I'm censoring the butt because hey, I'm new here and I don't want to step on any toes. :P

I'm especially having trouble with the hands (the initial name for the file was ihatehands.jpg), namely the right one. I try using models, but I have trouble finding the exact correct model for the hand, and I also have trouble visualizing what I want in my head and then "translating" it to paper. As you can see, I made an attempt at drawing a skeleton for the hand, but it's the wrong size, the wrong angle, and, well, wrong everything else.

Any help would be appreciated. Not just for the hands--if anything stands out, please feel free to let me know.