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@gunter
•
2yr
added a new topic
Scared to start drawingHeyo,
For the past few months, I have spent quite some time learning about figure drawing and stuff about drawing overall. Eventually I decided to take a break from studying and practising and actually start drawing. However, whenever I pick up the pencil, I just kinda freeze.
I start worrying if I know enough to make a decent drawing and my brain just breaks into chaos while trying to remember everything i've learned.
I really dont know how to deal with this. During my time studying, i have been able to put some ideas down on paper. But drawing on my own somehow seems impossible.
What should I do about this?
Heya,
A few days ago, I started with learning how to draw facial features on a head, but it's not going as well as I hoped for.
So far, I only know how to draw a simple loomis head (example attached to this post), as well as knowing that the facial features are drawn as shapes with the anatomy in mind. The thing is, I get really confused as to how to put those 3D shapes on the loomis head.
After doing a little bit more research, I discovered that being able to draw a proper head shape for the facial features to 'lock on to' would be a good start. Even so, I don't know how to approach this.
So how should I solve this? I read somewhere that knowing how to draw the skull helps alot, but I'm not sure how to do that.
Steve Lenze
•
2yr
Hey Gunter,
I like your choice of poses, comic art is full of gesture, so it's good to study from.
When we do gesture drawing, we want to find gesture that describes the whole pose from top to bottom. We want to look for a "S" or "C" curves that will define the pose. Then we can look for gesture in the limbs and how they relate to the overall gesture of the body. I did some quick sketches to show you what I mean, I hope they help :)
Thank you for taking the time to draw those examples! I do look for C & S curves and straight lines when drawing gesture, but in each major body part (head, torso, legs and arms) instead of the whole figure. However, I try to connect these lines from the major forms to the line of action. The captain america punch is a good example of that.
My gesture drawings do need more work and keeping things simple probably is indeed the key to improve, but so far, looking for gesture in forms is easier for me than the whole pose.
Christopher Beaven
•
2yr
I agree with Steve's comment. I would also add that it looks as though your thinking of body parts, objects, things when you do your gestures. Think of movement and the center line of each forms instead. I've found that I draw better gestures when I do the same.
Lastly, how long are you spending on each of these?
I didn't really kept track of time when I drew these gestures, but I think it's around 5-10 minutes each (I'm very new to this). Also, you're right about the fact that I think about the forms when I'm drawing gesture, but that's because I still struggle with keeping things simple: Imagening the basic forms of the body helps me understand the rythms flowing between and around the structure of the figure.
Perhaps I'm overthinking gesture because I read somewhere that gesture is also good for putting down the foundations of a figure drawing, such as position and proportion.
Heya,
Recently I started with drawing gesture and I was wondering if anyone could give me feedback on what I made so far. The images attached to this post are the first gesture drawings I've drawn, but before I was going to continue, I wanted to make sure I wasn't learning the wrong way without noticing.
I'm aware that some of these drawings aren't the same as the reference, but that's because I wanted to keep applying exaggeration.
Dwight
•
2yr
Hello gunter, you're question is a little vague, but I'll answer my interpretation.
First off, I don't understand what "no practice" means. My assumption is means you've drawn nothing, and have only been taking notes. If this is the case, I'd recommend doing timed gesture practice such as line-of-action.com. Gesture is so so so important, and will make or break your figure drawings. These timed drawings should ignore anatomy, and only focus on what the body is doing.
Your mental hierarchy should be gesture, proportion, then smaller gesture. Allow me to explain. Gesture means 1D/2D shapes to describe the motion. At this point, your drawing should be only a handful of lines. Next, proportion refers to the relative size of one body part compared to another. This is not as important at first, especially if this exercise is your starting point. Still, it's something to be aware of. Lastly, as you hone the first two skills, you should be able to start putting smaller gestures into your larger gesture forms, such as the Traps or Lats. These still 2D shapes can cut into or bulge out of your larger whole body gestures, but when viewed from afar, still keep the silhouette of your gesture the same.
I'd only use anatomy if you're
1. Practicing to remember the form of the anatomy.
2. Making a finished piece.
3. Are satisfied with your gesture practice for now.
I'm curious to see you're drawings, and to figure out where you are right now. None of what I put above is really my idea, just my personal summary of Stan's figure drawing course. He, of course, adds mannequinization and shading, but I think 2D is where to start.
If I underestimated your skills or would like to know more of my opinion, feel free to ask some questions.
- Dwight
Hey Dwight,
Thank you for replying to my post and I understand that my question may be a little confusing. I would like to show you my work, but unfortunately I don't have much to show to represent where I am at with my drawing skills. However, I can explain what I have done so far to add more context to my question:
I started studying figure drawing because I wanted to be able to know what it is i'm drawing. Basically I wanted to draw with less guessing work by understanding more about the human body. So I bought two books: Figure It Out by Christopher Hart and How To Draw People by Jeff Mellem. Figure It Out teaches a lot about the proportions of the body, but very little about how to draw any of it. How To Draw People on the other hand does teach a lot about how to draw the body.
Although both books are great, there are some things they don't really mention. Such as the importance of the spine and it's connection to the pelvis and ribcage. So what I did was I searched on the internet for more detail about what I was reading about in the books. I kept doing this to make sure I wasn't missing on anything important regarding the basics. So the routine I ended up with was: A chapter from the How To Draw People book first, then Proko's videos on more information about the basics of the anatomy and then the videos of an arist called Akihito Yoshitomi about some simple drawing techniques.
But the stupid thing of me is that I didnt took the time to practice first. For example, when I learned things about the ribcage, I made a sort of summary of it and then moved on to the next subject. I'll add one of these to this post.
So the problem I'm struggeling with now, is that it becomes way to overwhelming to draw a figure while trying to make sure I'm keeping everything in mind that I have learned. It's like doing a math test without practicing what you had to study beforehand...
So my question is: how do I practice what I have learned? Because practicing everything I have learned at once is a nightmare.
(Sorry for such a long reply)
Heya,
For the past few weeks I have been studying alot on the basics of figure drawing, such as the fundamentals (proportion, gesture), the simplified skeleton and some muscle anatomy here and there.
However, I may have made the mistake of studying too much and barely practicing at all. Now I'm struggeling with the problem of what/how to practice what I've learned. I discovered this when I tried to draw a figure from a reference and it became way to overwhelming to keep track of putting down everything I had learned. Even as simple as only drawing the torso is a bit too much.
I know it's stupid of me to have almost ignored practicing, but I was wondering if anyone has advice for me as to how to approach this problem. I was thinking of focussing on individual parts of the body (ribcage, pelvis, arms, etc) first and get the hang on drawing that before putting it all together.
