FIgure Drawing practice

Hey all,

I'm starting to study figure drawing as a tool to improve my drawings in general.

Here a couple of practice sessions I did recently:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsBC70avIR1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Any advice on how to study and practice, and useful books that can teach me step by step?

See my practice in attachment. I don't think I quite understand how the stick figures help building a solid structure for the sketch, there must something I'm not doing right :)

Good morning to you, Ferocious, and welcome aboard 🥳🥳🥳, I'm Polyvios and how are you doing today? Ya know, I think that your stick figures are most practically a great start, but great job on communicating your solid foundations with them, yet it's OK that you don't get expressive, in addition, solid results right away, furthermore, they are there for the very first step to designing and building a drawing. They all get improved with constant yet daily practice as it can and will myelinate your hands. Greater job on your first class modes, and therefore, please keep those up, yet, I'm still not getting enough of those mostly boldest yet powerful curves against straights, so how would you like to go for a whack at our interactive drawing tutorial?

The explanation behind this tutorial is so that you can refamiliarize yourself on the fundamentals of gesture drawing, as you can start out somewhat fastest, yet ending at somewhat slowest yet carefull. For most of the details, I suggest you recommend yourself the 2 Betty Edwards books for us beginners, regardless of age: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, 4th, and Drawing on the Artist Within, now available on all our Amazon affiliate links. Hope they've helped out, encouraged, and done you greater.

Ferocious_Momo

The point of the stick figures is to show points of the body that move. Take some time and look at primitive art, like cave paintings. Or study Japanese woodblock prints and watercolours.

If you can do the same thing as a full figure done in three lines as a photorealistic drawing you are onto something special. Lines can have real sense of emotional expression.

Exeserise-

Draw 1-4 lines per figure.

Put on some music that gets you into a specific emotional head space. Use different emotions each time you practice.

Put all your emotion into each body movement you make while you draw those few lines to make the figure. (Some artists find singing and standing helpful in this exercise) Let it bleed out onto the page. If that means skipping a drawing so you do it well, that's okay.

15-second drawings- do them for as long as you can keep in that emotion. Preferably 30 minutes to an hour. (This is emotionally taxing, so if you can't do it that long, don't sweat it, the more you do it, the better you'll be able to tap into your emotional, creative state.

Then do a five-minute drawing using the same principles, but use shape instead of line. (Warning you will feel like this is an eternity of time. Be careful not to draw for the sake of it. Be selective with your shapes and their line quality (thickness-to-thinness ratio representing light. It is tempting, and you probably will ask yourself, "What else can I do, there is so much time." Try not to fall into the trap of filling the page for the sake of the time and a fuller flushed-out figure.).

Do this every day for 8 months. You will be astonished at what you can make happen. The basics may be boring, but they make or break images. Don't skip out.

What will this do?

This will help you decide the emotional story of your figure more quickly. This means you will understand how to exaggerate the figure into more dynamic poses. Plus, your art will feel more compelling. Master this, and the rest becomes spectacular.

I have restarted doing this myself, and I am kicking myself for not doing it more often. See my current work, 'Lift to Rise progress 2,' as an example of lines making the figure feel more like it's breathing-Thats my new goal- Make my art look like it is breathing. And this exercise is helping that happen.

All the best,

JCML Fine Art

yeah, Im not who asked for this exercise, but Im probably going to do it. Everyday for 8 months is a little extreme though lol.

Nice post JCML

• Drunkenelf edited this post on May 23, 2023 1:19am. Reason: Found a little detail in the comment I was replying to that I had to comment on.