1 Hour class

So, taking the advice I was given I had a re-think and set myself some more realistic targets for the various practice timings:

30 seconds: Stick-people showing LoA, head, shoulder angle, hip angle, optional arms and legs
1 minute: as 30s + rib and pelvis blobs and joint marks
5 minute: 1m + rib and pelvis 3d boxes, pinch and stretch on sides, face direction, filled in limbs. (Trying to get some indication of twist, balance and weight)
10 min: Proportions and shading
25 min: More detail, better proportions, better rendering of detail, basic face

I'm a bit happer with these as aresult of my changed expectation. The quicker ones (especially the 5-minuters) look a bit sketchy, but I don't (yet) have time to think about proportion in those shorter timescales.

Here are the pics:

https://i.imgur.com/pMGNAHS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/I6LQMd5.jpg

Ian.

Hi Ian!

Your drawings are really bold and I love that you go straight in with pen. It forces you to be more confident in your marks and I think it is such a useful exercise. It's also great that you are taking the time to sketch quick 30-second stick figures as a warm-up. You might find it useful to also add in the line of action if you have time. It will help you to make your figures even more dynamic.

On the more complete illustrations, you may find it useful to measure out and mark down some proportions and relationships in the under drawing. You can still do this in pen by pressing lightly. Try holding up your pen to the reference and measure how many heads tall/wide each body part is. Also, if you get to the edge of the page and find that you have run out of room for the whole figure, I recommend that you just leave the drawing as a partial figure. If you shrink body parts to fit the page, even a little, it can be quite obvious and distract from the rest of the drawing.

I really like the shading in the 10-minute pose. Having the cross-hatching moving in different directions is a great way to communicate the shape and curve of the body and I think you have done a great job with it there.

You are doing really well!

Thanks. The pen is a practical choice driven by the paper - It's cheap newsprint, so pencil doesn't show well and fine-liners soak through to the other side.

Re the sticks: I thought I was putting in the LoA - I might have to re-examine my understanding there then :-)

Keep up the good work! What I'd like to offer is: Maybe you can loosen up a bit, I can see some straight lines and I think you can find a more flowing line. There's not many straight lines in nature. Your 10-minute sketch looks good! Torso looks very long in the 25-minute drawing. Keep practicing :)

Here's todays 1-hour class. I've tried harder to catch the LoA and to avoid straight lines, and spent more time thinking about proportion in the 25min sketch.

https://i.imgur.com/VP5T8yb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/bkMfhDM.jpg

My initial thoughts are the sticks seem a bit more fluid, but I'm not so sure about the others. If art is an expression of the inner self, then it would seem my inner self may be a plank of wood :-)

One thought that occurred about the 1st 5min pic: in the ref she was lying down on a sofa, head further away and bottom nearer to the viewer. I get no sense of that perspective in my sketch. I'm guessing I failed to foreshorten her body enough?

Thanks in advance for any comments - they are all gratefully received. And thanks for the site too Kim. As a working man with a family the combination of this site + proko is about as close I'm ever likely to get to an art college.

Ian.