Figure Drawing 3/8/22 (First time posting!)

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I've been doing figure drawing sessions on and off for two months now. I can establish the line of action fine, but the further into the process I go (hanging the head, ribcage and hips) the more I struggle. I especially struggle with limbs. I can tell when a drawing's anatomy looks off, but it's like my hand doesn't get the memo. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks :)

Hello!
If I could give you a word of advice it would be not to focus on the anatomy itself yet. Anatomy comes in later once you have established good gesture, proportions and later shapes!
Initial line of action seems to be well placed (I assume that because I can tell which references have been used, means you've conveyed the pose well :) ), so you need to learn where to go from there. I suggest you watch these (In this exact order):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uEtdDvK6Xo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0660Fuih7qo

If you haven't yet discovered Proko yourself, I suggest you pretty much follow his entire youtube learning series, it's pure gold! Just try not to "binge watch" the material, meaning that, try to practice for at least 1 week with each video. If it's about gesture - 1 week of gesture drawings. If it's about basic shapes - 1 weeks of basic shapes and so on!

I'm not the original poster, but I just wanted to say how helpful your reply was. Thank you.

Happy to help :)

Have a look at @willwestonstudio on Instagram. I recommend him in particular because he has a very systematic approach to the figure that uses a lot of midpoints and makes the figure easy to analyze.

It also might be helpful to set the angles of the shoulders and the hips, which are always at an inverse relationship. This helps establish the torque in the pose. It's one of the very first things to look at. Using boxes rather than circles to map the figure will also help with sides of the figure and put it in dimensional space. I also agree with the person beow who said don't worry too much about anatomy yet.

Also look at the angles on the bottom of the feet.

You already have a very nice fluidity and movement in your work which is very pleasing.

Hey there!

First thing, the last line. "My hand doesnt get the memo" that is just lack of training, is does not mean youre training to little, it just means you should relax, keep the training and in time the hand will get the memo, constancy will give you confidence that will give you the memo. So dont worry about that part.

You didnt put any notes, but i'm guessing this are 30sec~2mins drawings.

In figure drawing that are two types of training. the Accuracy one, where you do longer drawing, trying to capture the exactly picture of the pose. That one is a more advanced training, dont worry about now.

The other training, and truly the most important now for you, is the Gesture one, where you do short drawings trying to capture the essence of the pose. The gesture of a drawing is some thing hard to explain, so go watch a vid about in youtube that will give much more precise info than me writing here, some artist pro at this are Proko (Stan Prokopenko), Jeff Watt, Sinix and many more if you do your homework.

Basicly, gesture is trying to capture the motion, the rythim, the flow of the form without drawing the simple contour.

Trying grasping the skill of gesture, youre drawing will grow better exponential, garantee.

Well, thats what i think. Dont stop drawing no matter what. Good luck, good journey.

Cheers

Good evening to you, GlitchyGoats, I'm Polyvios, how are you? I must really, really, really, really love how much of the simplistic construction of the head and body and the strongest lines of action and rhythm. Great range of expression and movement.

I love your flow and organicness of those poses, but the forms aren't too solid enough to me and the figure's construction and negative spaces need some more finessing. Please free up your hand and solidify the forms and details with a 5 minute pose flipped horizontally? Your perceptions will be amped up a little bit more in your edges and shapes in the pose's construciton and silhouette. Not to mention the fact that your lines of action will work with your anatomy just a little bit more. For more details, be sure to look into the Bridgman compilation book, and the Action Cartooning book on our page. To speed up your learning curve, here's this here link on the original Preston Blair book from 1947.

Good luck to you, and I hope these have helped you out so much.

You are right, some of your poses look stiff because your limbs are too short.

First thing i recommend is no matter what, do not draw from your wrist, move your entire elbow (i know its hard but try to do that as much as possible.

For limbs, make them as long as possible, let your hand flow. Dont think "I want to get the perfect length for the leg", think "I want to make the leg look flowy, as if the leg on itself has a soul"

On some of your poses it looks like you are thinking of the ribcage and pelvis as 2 seperate thing. You are thinking in 2D.
Every single movement in the human body influences a lot of muscles, if you move your arm up, your breast muscle that is connected to the deltoid will strech, the biceps will strech and so will the triceps.

Dont think of the body parts as just spheres that you have to grab in the line action, think how they are affected TOGETHER by the line of action.

Hope this helps :)