Alex McCaleb
Alex McCaleb
Earth
Activity Feed
Alex McCaleb
Now THIS is what I call a small world! My left brain looked right past this heading in my e-mail, I'm thinking "Oh right, Mattesi has a new video.... oh wait who now? michael.. HAMPTON??????" THAT Michael Hampton?! Figure Drawing: Design and Invention was my FIRST, and I've never been able to put a face and voice to the teacher, so studying from this video is a surreal trip! This is really cool, man. Glad to see you're doing well.
Alex McCaleb
Update: Just saw the proko link to your Youtube channel. You've been doing videos this whole TIME? ...looks like I've got some studying to do~
Lucas Lacerda
Some of the 2 min poses I did today. This is my first attempt on drawing 2min poses in a long while. After some weeks doing only 30 sec poses, it felt really different doing longer ones, in a good way. With this extra time I felt that I could focus even more on the movement and the connection between lines, making more conscious decisions compared with the 30 sec poses. I had a really good time drawing these and will keep on practicing. Any critiques are more than welcome!
Alex McCaleb
Okay, now I'm looking at this one, and I wanna give you another piece of critique. You're doing an eeeeexcellent job of simplifying the body to only the curves and lines that matter most. It's arguably the most crucial skill for us figure artists and you should continue cultivating it and having fun with it. Keep up the good work yo~
Lucas Lacerda
Here are some 30sec practice I did today, when I'm starting the course. I would really appreciate some feedback on them. This is not my first time approaching figure drawing. In the past few weeks I have been reading some books about it, watching videos, and practicing with hundreds of 30 sec poses. The only issue is that I don't know if my attempts can indeed represent movement well enough, so I started the course for knowledge and critiques
Alex McCaleb
From the looks of this submission, it looks like you're choosing your lines very carefully which is good when it comes to analytical exercise drawing like the kind of gesture we do here. If you feel like you're not representing the visual movement well enough, remember the #1 rule... Exaggeration~! I know you must feel like you've heard it a million times by now and me too, Lucas LOL. But remember that this isn't necessarily 'REAL' pose drawing yet, this is an 'exercise'. Your gesture poses don't HAVE to be physically possible or look comfortable to actually pose in. Observe carefully for what the person is 'DOING (the activity or intention that gave RISE to the pose is what we're drawing, not truly the pose itself, which is why we can exaggerate)' and exaggerate the activity. If it's a guy looking down at his phone on a sidewalk, space the other hand out really far and bring his face in even closer to the phone. Like REEEALLLY look at that phone, almost cartoonishly lol. This is only an exercise, so when it's time for me to 'actually' draw a guy looking at his phone, I can tone down the intensity a little. You kinda see what I mean? I'm trying to make you feel more comfortable with the motivation behind exaggeration in the first place, make you feel more free to do so. Then you'll feel like you're Really directing the viewer's eye with your pose's movement.
Marco Sordi
2022/2/24. Good morning everybody. Today’s 30mins warming up exercise was Learning from masters and Character design: Bruce Timm❤️ Thanks.
Alex McCaleb
Ahaaaaa good ol Bruce Timm. I am VENGEANCE! I am the NIGHT!
William Horton
I've started to do some models on my own and I hope to hear back on how I did. I Think I have a better grasp of the forms than I did a week ago but I also feel like my mannequins are missing some important step in the drawing process. Thank you for reading. :)
Alex McCaleb
There's something I've really started to notice about the drawing process that I think would help you too. I've seen professionals DO this on their sketching videos whether or not it was the focus of the video... but have you noticed the frequent practice of artists putting like... 'Something' down whatsoever and then refining it after the fact? Like if they're doing the shoulder and hips, first you'll see this rough hourglass-y rhythmed shape and THEN they briefly distinguish and polish it into the intended shape. So you and I both, if you're looking for another step... Let's draw A VOLUME... as rough as can be with at least the major shape lines in place. And then give it a better cleaner mannequinization shape of whatever kind. The first stage will always be a rough gesture drawing. By rough I don't mean harsh lines, I just mean lacking major detail.
Victor Valverde Perez
2 min gesture + ~2 min polish. Last one gesture shading practice Open to critique
Alex McCaleb
Nice work catching those major curves of the torso. It's always good to remember the energy-based purposes of the C S and I lines. You know, tension in a bend vs the looseness of a stretch.
Matthew Nicholas Sandoval
why is drawing so f'n hard jeez she look damn ET with those alien arms LOL
Alex McCaleb
Aha! For that very same issue you're describing, this is the part where we have to remind ourselves that the structure stage (like those cylinders you have for the arms and the box for the shoulders) are ONLY allowed to come AFTER the gesture stage. See, because the gesture is supposed to indicate where the arms are gonna go. The other benefit to us running back to the gesture lesson to refresh, is that for the next time you attempt that pose or anyone like it, the gesture stage's end will show you whether or not the structure stage is going to look right or not. Remember, when we're 'doing it right', we're not supposed to be 'surprised' at how the picture turns out in the end. Gesture first, broseph. You AND me.
Marco Sordi
2021/6/13. Hi everyone. To improve my ability in drawing primitive polygons and make my brains thinking 3Dmensionally I usually draw object from reality. I do this exercise twice or three times a week (1 hour session for 1 object). Thanks.
Alex McCaleb
That dedication's gonna take you somewhere good, my man!
DuDung Tak
Some observations when drawing a loomis head with average proportions: Because loomis head has a defined geometry, the only information we need from the reference photo is the angle between the centerline of the cranium and the centerline of the sideplane. Anything else is deducible using construction lines. For the front face, the area above the browline has curvature (Sphere), while the area under it is generally a flat face (Box), which bevels at the edge. As normal portraits are usually shot eye level to the browline, the curvature of the browline can be easily mistaken as a straight line It is important to have a fixed angle for the jawline and the side plane in order to create clean looking loomis heads. If we don't have a template in our mind, we are constantly doing uneccasary guesswork on angles that shoud have been predefined.
Alex McCaleb
That's excellent foundation in your thinking, DuDung Tak~ You're thinking like a draftsman, as the boss guys up top would put it. Finding the most important angles and then deriving everything else you need FROM it is that "Artists' Ease of Observation" skill we need to practice so bad. You know, the one where we take two to three looks at a pose and our mind is registering JUST the right details to reproduce the picture. So anyway, good seed sowing. ~ carry on ;)
Alex McCaleb
Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of comments that are aiming you in the right direction when I scroll down. So my advice is the same. You and I both have to learn not to fight so hard to retain the information, because that fear/stress is part of the problem altogether. Taking notes is Absolutely helpful, however applying the learned information commits it to a different part of the brain's memory. Remember that when drawing poses, try to look for a pose that interests you. Burnout doesn't stand a chance against doing things you actually feel like doing. Sometimes I have to pose in front of the mirror or set the phone camera up to take a picture of poses and camera angles I want to draw (especially the face). Since you're studying as much as you are in the first place... rest assured you're going in the right direction.
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!