10 minutes pose practice + shape subdivision

Hi, i tried collecting as much as feedback i could and i changed my way to draw. If i am not wrong basically all figure studies are basically logo symplifications of the pose from reference, and the more time you have, the more smaller curves you can add to it.

So, this is the result

Sounds about right, and most importantly it seems to work for you, as the result is convincing. It conveys a lot of information efficiently, which gives the viewer that pleasant feeling of quick recognition.

Only little caveat, the "all" in "all figure studies" is a bit of an overgeneralization, just because there are quite a number of different techniques, styles or priorities someone else could have when figure drawing. I have seen some people on youtube start their drawings in ways that looked at first glance extremely weird to me, and nevertheless end up with astonishing results.

I know what you are talking about. The worst part is that they lead you to believe that if you cannot understand the pose in less than 10 seconds then you are incapable to be an artist. I even think that not everybody can understand a subject instantly, and that's ok. It took me time to understand that 10 second poses don't teach me a thing, no matter how I try, it felt like I was wasting time.

The one guy I had in mind, and I could kick my back for not noting down his name, was a a guy who actually drew figures from live with charcoal, in a single non-ending big swaying motion of perpetual circles. When he started doing it, I was certain it would all end up in a giant mess, but after a few motions it started to turn into a very good looking actual drawing. I tried to follow the advice he verbalized while drawing, but just couldn't translate his descriptions into practical behavior on my part. I tried just imitating him, and produced something, that didn't look that bad at all, but nowhere near anything, that I would want to present to anyone. His method was strange, but I felt a bit of envy for his results. That is what I meant with actual legitimate artists, who might approach a topic from a really weird angle.

Another guy comes to mind, still no name, but one of the lead figure designers for Riot Studio of Arcane fame, so absolutely a demigod in my books. He showed off his work method, and... well, he definitely cured me from my prejudices against searching lines. That guy started to draw one vague line, and another, and another, until his screen had almost turned into one solid black plane from all the attempts, then he switched to another mask, drew the one line he finally settled on over that mess, deleted the rest, and it was an absolutely ace looking crispy clean fighting pose. I told myself to never ever again judge someone for using searching lines (if done right)

But yes, 10 second drafts, maybe as a very specialized tool to train something very particular, but I don't see much use for me personally either. 30 second warmups, as warmups, I find useful as a reminder to go for the big forms and don't start with details, b/c if you start with details you wont have squat on the paper after 30 seconds. For me 2 minutes is my "laziest" time, I can confidently finish the figure without bothering to go for shading.

I see, that you prefer to start with a quite detailed perspective foundation from neat boxes, and it makes sense to me that you prefer that methodic approach. I don't draw out a very neat foundation for figures very often. I kinda have internalized enough of one to wing it most of the time, and when I feel that my drawings become weirder than I prefer, I occasionally discipline myself by drawing a dozen actual foundations.

But I did experiment a bit with Reilly abstraction for portrait drawing, and, absolutely, trying to really combine an elaborate foundation with timed drawing is like trying to learn juggling with 20 kg dumbbells. It might be theoretically possible to do, and would certainly look impressive as heck, but the outcome seems uncertain, and the mere attempt may be dangerous to your (mental) health.

In the end, learning to draw for me is like learning home repair. It isn't a single skill, it is about learning what tools exist, what tools can do which jobs. and which tools fit your personal goals best.

I think the fascination with "fluid and dynamic lines" versus "stiff lines" is a strange and badly defined topic. I get it on the very basic beginner level, what drawabox teaches, translated as "don't accidentally chicken scratch" (unless you know what you are up to and consciously decided to chicken scratch for aesthetical reasons).

On advanced level, the only big name I found, that is actually trying to give a coherent definition of what the different between "fluid" and "stiff" ought to be seems to be Mike Matessi, and I have two big beefs with him: The one, more obvious and immediate one, his english descriptions of what he does sound like a foreign language to me, and the one more fundamental one, which probably also causes the first one, is a throwaway line from one of his interviews: "Yes, off course I learnt all the boring perspective stuff in art school, like everyone else did, but now..." Well, Mr Matessi, I think the reason your method works for you might be those boring times at art school, that actually not e v e r y o n e had the privilege to attend.

Just grinding 10 second drafts definitely aren't the silver bullet to get there (and isn't something even Mike Matessi would recommend). And I definitely had requests for critique here from people who just drew very neatly and cleanly, and then felt bad about their lines being "too stiff", .... and I don't get where the problem is.

Similar thought on this video:

To me it translated mostly into how hard it is for Peter Han, after a distinguished career of 20 years working 9 to 5 (plus definitely crunch times and overhours) as a professional artist, to break out of his mold. And yes, he is definitely a fantastic artist, and his dedication to still be willing to search out an area, where even he risks making mistakes is inspiring. Doesn't change the fact though, that I personally lack at least 2 decades of drawing experience to come even close to the mold, that he attempts to break out of.

• Aunt Herbert edited this post on April 19, 2024 9:30pm.
• Aunt Herbert edited this post on April 19, 2024 9:46pm.
• Aunt Herbert edited this post on April 19, 2024 10:05pm.

Nice job on your really latest attempt at figure drawing, Idon'tknow, it looks totally believable. It also seems really and totally believable, too. I must completely admire how much force you've retained through some absolutely geometric forms. But, I'm not getting enough of your positively organic forms in your gesture poses, so how would you like to just go ahead with 4 hours 5 minutes of 5 minute poses? All done in pen and ink, and all done with really bold strokes? (49 pose sketches)

The logical explanation behind all of this is as a result, your gestural contours can and will become less than rigid and more expressive, emotional, and freewheeling if you really need to make great rawness in your quick sketches, so for more info, kindly look into this YouTube or two:

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And here's another one.

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These can and will help you let yourself go of your fears of making bad drawings. My hat's off to you and thank you.