Gesture critique?

I've been on and off for 2 years but gestures seem still fluid and flowy. My main issue is then taking it to a finished piece.

Well done! Looks like you’re seeing some real progress. Try placing the rib cage and picking out the iliac crest for some landmark exercise. Great work!

Ajirh,

You seem to be very focused on the outlines of the figure. Instead of drawing the outside edge of the figure's body, why not try to draw some of the inner shapes that make up the body by depicting only the light and core shadows? 

Make it a rule, 'I will draw everything but the outlines of the body,' and see how that reverse method increases your ability to enhance a longer sustained flash card pose.  

Now, if you have never done what I call 'The Reverse Exercise' (drawing everything except the body's outlines), it will be very mentally taxing. Make sure you have a reward ready when you are done, cause a little bit of Pavlov never hurt anyone from achieving their drawing goals. Do this hard thing, get a treat. 

I hope these suggestions help you create stronger images.

All of the best,

JCML Fine Art

That's a really interesting method I've not tried before Thank you. Would i be building the figure with basic shapes? Such as drawing the bean for a torso or is it a little different? 

I wanna give it a go but not fully sure how to approach it to start.  Thank you for your advice its appreciated.

Ajirh,

Take some time to look at the light, and you'll often find you're drawing arrows, very organic, cell-like shapes, and some very common wobbly letters in the alphabet. 

• In the English alphabet, some of the most common letters you'll find are C, W, B, E, V, U, and D. I am unsure what they are in your language, but I do know that it works in all languages. It may take you a bit to find them in your language. But once you do, it can be very helpful for creating the figure, and very hard to unsee the letters that reside in it. For some artists, it is a compleat game changer.

But if you want to work with basic shapes because they feel more comfortable and feel like a good starting point, go for it! Just know that light does not always follow common shapes, and usually expresses more organic, convex, squiggly motifs.

What you are looking for are the core shadows and the lightest highlights. I suggest that you work with a light colour and draw in all of these shapes. Then, put a dot in the core shadow shapes. Once that is compleat, colour in the core shadows with your darkest shade, then continue to work towards the highlight space by shaping and colouring the shadows so that it looks believable, especially in your longer stay poses. The longer the pose, the more detail and broken up the figure. 

• This concept draws on the creation of Shading Scales. But this time, you are doing it in the shape of the body.


• Which, if you did not know, is where you usually draw a box with the lightest shade and a box with the darkest shade. Then you draw at least three boxes in between. Starting from the middle box, work your way to the darkest box, then to the lightest box. The idea is to make it look like you can barely tell from one box to the next that the shading has changed. But when you look at all of the boxes as a whole, they represent the full light spectrum you are using.


• Shading scales are very boring to do. But damn, do they help you learn how to control your tools. They are the bland but healthy vegetables of artistic practice that really make your art and abilities so much better. 

Actually, the letter shapes are also a very different drawing exercise, often referred to as 'Alphabet Soup'. 

• So what you do is draw the figure using only letters of the alphabet. You can come up with some very interesting and amazing results. 


• The reason this works is that we are using a familiar tool (Letters) in an unfamiliar setting (Drawing session), which can free our minds from preconceived ideas (like basic shapes) about how to draw the figure.

I hope you find this helpful; if you do, please include in your title which exercises you used. I'd be very curious to see your results.


All of the best,

JCML Fine Art