8/15

That looks really good! I hope you keep it up!

Hey Mazi I'm Siv. Congrats on 2 weeks of good practice! I am a complete beginner when it comes to art, and brand new to this site, so please please take any and all comments/advice with a giant grain of salt. I am dedicated to improving myself, and that is the main reason I am giving this critique, since I believe studying the work of others is one of the best ways to improve. If this helps you as well, so much the better!

First off, I had a few questions about how you are going about your practice.

What medium are you using? Based on the uniformity of the lines, I would guess you're doing digital on a tablet. I'd be interested to know what tablet + program you are using for your practice.

Are these from imagination or from reference?

Are these timed, unlimited, or assorted? Some of these show quite a bit of detail / contour while others feel much more rough and hurried.

You mentioned the time frame 2 weeks... Are you practicing consistently (ie 10-15 mins / day) or are you putting in a longer session 1-2 times / week?

Is this from one session at the end of 2 weeks of figure drawing practice, or did you do this over two weeks?

All right, on to my specific critique. I took the liberty of numbering your figures, which you can find in the attached file. I went ahead and did my own quick sketches of the first 15 of your poses, timing myself to finish inside of 60 seconds. After doing my own study, I wrote down what came to mind when I looked at your sketches. Here are those quick notes.

Images

Fig 1: Good for 30 sec sketch. Good contour on left leg, shows decent understanding of anatomy/geometry.

Fig 2: Good geometry, clear limbs + direction. Good 30 sec sketch

Fig 3: Clear geometry, clear action, I like it a lot. Legs may be a little short, check geometry. Not bad for a 30 sec sketch.

Fig 4: Clear action, good definition. Legs may be a little short, check geometry. Even added a few contours of left leg + chest. Very good for 30 second sketch, not bad for 1 min.

Fig 5: Good movement + definition. Legs may be a little short, check geometry. Good 30 sec sketch.

Fig 6: This is a hard pose, and the right arm ended up being a little ambiguous. It looks like you may have started adding some contours before you had your limbs and body masses well defined. Not bad for a 30 sec sketch

Fig 7: This one I would question, although this is a difficult pose. I see the line of action, and the geometry on the upper body is good, but it looks like you went straight into the contours on the thighs, and almost completely skipped the calf + feet apart from the briefest of directional hints on the right leg. If you focus on the structural geometry of your figures first, and then add the contours afterwards, you'll end up with much more believable poses.

Fig 8: This one is a little questionable as well, also a difficult pose. I like the creativity by adding in the bicycle, however, if you're focusing on poses, it's important not to let other lines get in the way, and potentially hide important geometry. Because of the lines of the bicycle, the lower body geometry is a bit ambiguous.

Fig 9: Clear geometry, good for a 30 sec sketch

Fig 10: Clear geometry in a difficult pose, lots of contour. Good for a 1 min sketch. I'd like to see more definition of the different muscle masses.

Fig 11: Clear geometry in a difficult pose, Good for a 1 min sketch. Defining the muscle masses instead of just focusing on the edges can give you a better understanding of body geometry.

Fig 12: A bit questionable... I see your action line, but the entire bottom part of the body is missing. If you were just going for the upper part of the body, it's not too bad for a 30 second sketch.

Fig 13: Good clear geometry, legs look a lil short, but that may be because you were trying to avoid going over your previous sketch. A big reason to do figure sketches like this however is to learn geometry and proportions, so trying the maintain correct proportions should take priority over intersecting with your other sketches. Or you could just give yourself more room. Good for a 30 sec sketch.

Fig 14: Missing left arm, but very good, even some contour on the legs. Very good for 30 sec sketch, good for 1 min sketch.

Fig 15: Very difficult pose... good job! Clear geometry, with a bit of contour. Very good for a 1 minute sketch.

Noticeable ones.

17: Very nice curves... make sure not to loose your geometry / proportions though.

27: Very cool! I like your focus on physical structures (ribcage) when looking at anatomy. Really really good for an upper body study.

35 + 40: Cool use of perspective! Also lots of really good contour.

33 + 39 are just really really good, 38 is missing an arm. 33 is a realllly hard pose so great job!

47 and 50 show an attention to detail and geometry that isn't matched in any of the other sketchs. It looks like you put in quite a bit of time to 50, and it ends up a bit stiff, but good job nonetheless, but 47 is honestly amazing, I would say easily the best sketch of the 50, even though the arms are a bit ambiguous. 39 and 47 are the two where I feel like you just went for it, with some serious confidence, but you ended up being a bit more accurate on 47. I'm interested to know where in your timeline that particular sketch fell.

As far as overall advice, I'd say you're doing really well. Taking the time to draw the same thing 50 times over is absolutely going to improve your understanding of geometry, and that will apply wherever your art journey takes you, even if you don't end up drawing the human body.

I would recommend that you refine your drawing process a little bit, and try to be a bit more consistent. Try to think about which shapes in the body are most important, and focus on drawing those first, and then add in the less important details later. When working on composition, we can focus on the elements that are important to the image as a whole, but while we're working on figures, we need to focus on the elements that are central to our geometry. For example, one could say the location of the head is important, so put in the head first, and then put the spine on, then the hips/legs. Or, you could start with the central body section, and then think about where the head/hips/legs go in relation to that. Whatever order you choose is fine, but the important thing is to let the geometry of what your drawing choose what order you draw your shapes, as opposed to letting its orientation, or placement within an image decide (ie drawing what's closest, or what's facing you first).

Outside of that, keep up the good work. Your figures are looking really awesome, and with a bit more practice you'll have a solid foundation of geometry, which is one of the basic building blocks of any art form (apart from some abstract art...). I'd recommend doing timed practice in half hour sessions as often as you can, varying your time between 30 secs / pose to 5 mins / pose. With the longer poses, add in your contours and anatomical details, but make sure you're focusing on the three dimensional shapes instead of just “this line goes here, and this line goes here” but instead “this shape is like this, and this bulges or dips like this”.

Thanks for reading, and stay creative!

--Siv

There's not really anywhere I feel qualified to say there's any room for improvement. I think that provided your method of figure drawing works for constructing the kind of pieces you want to create, I can't say for certain that there's not really much of anywhere left to go but to keep your skills sharp as you delve deeper into more specific anatomy.

I will say that while the head shape you use is totally serviceable as a placeholder, it doesn't look like it's all that useable for full pieces where you'll be constructing the face.