Day 1

by FreshLeaf, July 24th 2021 © 2021 FreshLeaf

Just starting to try and get better at poses and anatomy. Any pointers are greatly appreciated ♡

Polyvios Animations

Well, ArtLessonspractice, welcome to Line of Action! And you've done a greater job on your first drawing of the figure drawings. Nicest use of gesture, action and rhythm lines.

So, how long did it take you to do each of those poses? 10 minutes? The reason is because, we'd all love to know what time limit you'd used, even without realizing it.

Part two of the critique is that though the gestures are really flowing and fluid, but I'm not getting enough of the fierce ruthlessness of the line economy of the line weight and balance. Would you kindly please break away the stiffness, and going for more of the liveliness of the solid drawing and fluid edges with a 5 minute, followed by a 4 minute sketch (which I haven't done yet) , which can be entered with a custom timer?

The reason why you could and should do this suggestion is as a result, your poses and lines of action will become the strongest, boldest and broadest in the lines of rhtyhm.

My hat's off to you.

FreshLeaf

Thank you for the reply! I need to continue on my next day off! I would say it took about 10 minutes yes.. :')

I have a hard time knowing where to start without the whole form looking weird.

Aunt Herbert

Good start. You find good forms and use clean lines to indicate them. Try not to get too much into the habit of using a multitiude of lines to find the one you want to draw, it can be actually hard to unlearn it, once you spent a lot of time doing it, and it can mess up the finish. That said, the amount you do it isn't problematic at this stage.

The figure on the left is very clear and simple.

The figure on the right has a quite complicated pose and perspective, which gave you a bit of trouble finding the lines. I think understanding the ribcage with shoulderline and the hip could have helped a bit. The ribcage is egg-shaped, tip at the neck, the lower half cut off at the solar plexus. Especially in more complex poses it's often a bit hard to find its landmarks, but it's worth trying to always "see" it, as the relation between ribcage and hips defines a lot of the structure of the torso. Both ribcage and hips are usually worth a light line or two to indicate both of them, even when they are hidden behind limbs, musculatur, or fat, just to clear up the construction in your mind.

In the figure on the right both shoulder joints are pointed forward and to the left, and your indication of the outline of back muscles and spine leave enough space for the ribcage, but then the distance between the lower end of ribcage and the hip seems a bit too elongated, and the hip possibly placed a bit too far to the right. The final placement of the hip is hard to read, which probably happened while you switched your focus from upper to lower body, and having the ribcage indicated at that monent could have been helpful in orientation.

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FreshLeaf

I really appreciate this. Did you have anything to help you better learn the skeletal structure from different angles? I want to study and work on fixing my issues. :)

Aunt Herbert

Proko.com has a good beginner course, that focuses a lot on exploring the torso. The free course has all the needed exercises and material.

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FreshLeaf

I've heard his name thrown around.Im going to check out his YouTube.

Truly thank you for the helpful information

Aunt Herbert

It's the "Anatomy of the Human Body" course. I did it myself and it helped me a lot.

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Aunt Herbert

Also the "Fundamentals of Figure Drawing". That's actually the one to start with, the other one get's into specific anatomy of muscles and joints more.

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