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Jesse Yao
Jesse Yao
San Jose, CA
Aspirant manga artist. Started 11/29/20
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Tony Vu
Still practicing the robobean daily. My brain seems to have a hard time ascertaining which planes are actually facing me. Exaggerating is also something is struggle with. Any feedback is welcomed!
Jesse Yao
3yr
The orientations look good! I don't think you should be worrying about the planes. The thing you should be worry about though is the gesture. These are too structural. I feel like you went about the robo bean by just drawing a box, another box, and connecting them. And if you aren't, it feels that way, which is not the end goal. I struggled a bit with this problem too, and its an interesting issue. It's a very important thing to realize why you're doing all these exercises in the first place and not get lost in just doing the exercises hoping itll somehow magically apply itself and help you draw a figure. Because it won't. In fact, artists have many a times done some arbitrary drill that was set before them, gotten real good at it, and then went to do what they wanted to do and (woops) that drill doesnt help them at all. And then have a crisis. The robobean in itself is a tool - it is not meant to be a finished drawing. The purpose of the robo bean is to help to draw a figure. And what's the most important thing to drawing a figure? The *gesture.* The gesture is the MOST important. It makes figures come to life and feel lively. The robobean is a tool to ascertain orientation of the torso, and while the torso can be broken down into those three parts, its still one part of the body. And if its a part of the body, it must follow the gesture. The robo bean is supposed to be adding structure ON TOP of gesture, not the other way around. If you've seen Stan draw the robobean, you probably notice he starts off drawing the contour or "major gestures of the bean." He then goes in and finds the edges of the of the boxes that represent the torso inside those established gestures. This is what the robobean is meant to be, a tool to define structure within a gestural form, not purely structure. If the goal of a figure drawing is to draw lively and compelling figures, and if the torso is one of the most important parts of a figure, then it necessarily means that the robobean MUST be gestural. After all, if it isn't gestural and purely structural, the entire figure drawing gets killed. I'll reiterate this point because it's a direly important point that artists (including myself a lot of the time) have forgotten - remember WHY you're doing this in the first place. Not only does this apply to drills, but it even applies to mediums as well (I digress, anyways;) If your goal is to draw environments, you should probably start investing your time elsewhere. If your goal is to draw robo beans only, then you're 99% the way there. If your goal is to draw figures and invent figures, then you need to remember what this tool serves in the grand scheme of things. And that it is just that - a tool to use to help you draw figures. Lively figures. *Gestural figures.* Structure FOLLOWS gesture. In fact, the reason Stan wants us to exaggerate is because when structure is laid on top of gesture, it chips away at the gesture. We must have enough gesture "to spare" to still make the drawing look lively. That is the whole point behind why exaggerating is emphasized (besides it just being a good exercise for the mind). That aside, very solid work. Keep it up
Jesse Yao
Jesse Yao
3yr
Asked for help
I might as well just be posting every few weeks now seeing how I somehow just don't post every week. On the main post will be my latest assignments, and reply threads to it will just be studies or gesture exercises and stuff like that. I started mannequinization and it (like the landmarks before it) was really scary until I actually started doing it, where it then actually seemed really simple. Here they are (Robo beans, gestures, muscle studies will be on reply threads) Any feedback appreciated! @Liandro @Jesper Axelsson @Diego Lucia
Jesse Yao
3yr
Muscle studies: My friend (and mentor) from art center wanted me to do some muscle studies of backs, torsos, arms (and legs which I didn't get to woops), so here they are. The more complex ones weren't timed, but the two images that have two identical drawings on them were timed 1m, 5m (they're labeled as such)
Ricky Purnell
Hello. Testing the new site which has pushed me to be a bit more proactive with my drawing. This is my attempt at mannequin assignment 2. Right now I hate my art style, I hate my lines and I hate my work. But I know its rust and a forever work in progress. Really getting stuck with the mannequin. I have been 2 strict with the shapes and am trying to loosen up and think more of what feels right.. I know I have been lazy in some areas like the hands and feet but feel I’ve got bigger issues right now. I’d appreciate a little push and feedback here if anyone can help. What should I focus on?
Jesse Yao
3yr
I think you may have taken the "mannequization" word a bit too seriously LOL because this is very mannequin-esque. In that regard though, the structure is very nicely provided, and I can feel the twist very nicely! Now prepare for a ton of feedback :) Contour lines; there's way too many of them. For each section on the limbs (upper arm, lower arm, upper leg, lower leg), really only one contour line is needed unless there's some crazy twisting, foreshortening, or one of the sections' bones is broken the limbs bending in 3 places or something crazy like that. One effective contour line will provide all the information the viewer needs to infer the orientation. In addition, your contour lines seem a bit flat. Notice how (for example) the models lower right leg's contour lines flatten out at the top, making it seem like her leg is almost completely flat on top. We obviously don't want that because that's not how it is. Contour lines' effectiveness come from their EDGES (where they turn off into space), NOT their centers. In order to get effective contour lines, practice ghosting and feeling the form before putting down the mark. I would say more, but drawabox.com (a free online drawing resource) says this a lot better than I do and is also where I initially learned these concepts from. In addition, contour lines DONT EXIST in real life. This means that if you draw contour lines as hard as you draw the lines that actually define the form, sometimes it'll be read as being ON the form in real life. Therefore, remember to lighten up the contour lines as contour lines are, in essence and function, meant to be there to solely suggest the orientation of the form. ***Remember Gesture***!!! Gesture is the most important part of the drawing and it seems to me here that you've build each section of the body up piece by piece, which resulted in a very mannequin-esque pose. The general flow of doing figure drawings goes something like this: Gesture, form, contour, anatomy, rendering (with each individual step becoming more merged together the more experience you get). So remember to do the gesture first, applying knowledge of the robo bean to get that torso right, then build from there. Robobean: The torso box is out of proption; be sure to review the robobean lesson and the landmarks lesson to know where the corners of the box are. Front corners on PSIS, back corners on ASIS. If you're confused by anything I just said, go back and review! Her head position is also sligggghtly off - in the post the center line of her head is not visible since she's facing away from us. The curve you drew should be a bit straighter. Of course, if you're confused by anything I said, the best thing to do is just to watch Stan do it! Watch the demo and follow along, identifying what each line represents. It helps a ton! TLDR; Remember gesture, contour lines are important to get right but there doesn't need to be so many of them, and some things are a bit off proportionally and positionally. And watch Stan's demos! Keep up the good work! - Also don't worry about the hands and feet, it's alright to just draw rough shapes for them :) Those things are pretty complicated just by themselves, so no need to stress over them now!
Avinash
Hi fellow artists, would appreciate a feedback on my attempt at this assignment.
Jesse Yao
3yr
Looks good! The one issue I see is the contour lines. There's too many of them. In most cases for the cylinders of the arms and the legs one *effective contour line* is enough for each section. Adding any more contour lines make it distracting. Remember that contour lines DONT EXIST in real life! Meaning that they should be very faint and few to establish maximum accuracy. If you make the contour lines have the same impact as the the actual lines that describe the figure, it'll look very manniquine-y (which is fine if you want to just draw mannequins, but I assume you're not). In addition your contour lines seem (especially on the legs) kinda just thrown on there as a last thought after finishing everything else. These last thought contour lines you put on actually *break* the form and make it less believable, since the contour lines don't match with what the form is doing. Ghost the contour lines and feel the form and after sufficient ghosting put down your mark. In the beginning you may miss a bit, but after sufficient practice is should become of relative ease. Remember that the effect of contour lines come from the contour line's EDGES (where the line curves off into space), NOT the center. For more practice on contour lines and such, drawabox.com is a helpful free online resource where you can go practice those skills. In short, one, effective contour line will be leagues more useful (and aesthetically more pleasing) than a bunch of last-minute-thought contour lines, which at best will just be distracting, but at worst can break the form completely. Other than the contour lines, the oval that represents the cranial flat side seems a bit out of proportion. Gestures feel good and you got that twist really well! Keep it up!
Tobias Degnebolig
is this just alot of knowledge in perscpective and structure u are using? (thinking of what kind of fundamenals?)
Jesse Yao
3yr
Drawabox.com is a great (free!) resource for getting foundations in constructional drawing (which happens to be all about perspective and structure)
Jahsee Mullings
So far I have been practicing gesture more and is happy with my results so far. I am very happy I am getting better, finally. What do you all think about my results. I tried my best to do #5 although it did not come out that great. Do you know how I can continue to improve.
Jesse Yao
3yr
Good work! As Matheus said, it seems you're focusing too much on contour and not enough on the flow. Additionally, it seems to me you're also focusing a lot on making the lines look accurate to the pose (looking at the drawings), and this is causing you to tense up. Remember to loosen up and draw bigger! Gesture drawings should capture the feel and flow of a pose (not the contour!), and many times won't look exactly like the pose at all; drawing bigger will help you loosen up and start drawing from the shoulder. Keep it up!
Florian Haeckh
I had trouble sticking to 45 seconds with some of these. Would love to hear your opinions :)
Jesse Yao
3yr
These look really good to me LOL. But remember that the purpose of gesture drawings is not to be a finished drawing; in the process of drawing a figure from start to finish, gesture is usually done early, and everything is laid out on top of it, so don't fret about making it look exactly like the pose (because it shouldn't). Saying that though these (again) look awesome! For some of the poses though (like bottom, 2nd from left) the torso doesn't feel quite voluminous and feels more like a sheet (I have that issue too lol). If you haven't looked at the bean or robo bean, I'd recommend taking a look, since Stan covers torso voluminity in those videos. And also be sure to to check out other artists methods of drawing gesture, like mike mattesi and glen vilpuu, and try doing it their way. You might find yourself in an "ohhhhh!" moment when you're darwing along with them (I know I did) Keep up the good work!
Jesse Yao
Nice work! Looking at your beans though, I get the feeling that you drew along the contours of the bean, which misses a very important process of the drawing: draw through! Drawing through is important as it takes the multitude of things that you need to juggle when drawing the bean and simplifies it down into manageable steps. Drawing two ovals to represent the masses of the torso and the pelvis, connecting them with lines, adding orientation features (folds, twists, etc) and then adding the center line is a much easier process than trying to draw the bean straight from contour, as trying to draw it as is without any drawthrough means you're trying to handle perspective, proportion, orientation, and gesture at the same time, which is a crazy amount to handle, especially for artists who are just new to the bean. Try as Stan does in the videos and follow along, he usually does the drawthrough process as I have described. Sometimes he'll start with the longest lasting arc - that technique is usually seldom used in this stage of the figure drawing course and should probably be avoided until you have a good grip on the bean's proportions, as starting with the longest lasting arc is essentially starting with contour, and we've already covered why that's not the greatest idea in the beginning. Keep it up!
@ciel
Here’s my first few attempts with the bean. Did the first two pages yesterday, the other two today. Hope it’s not an issue that I posted these before my gestures. I just signed up here today even though I’ve done a few gestures before and just wanted to try out something new first.
Jesse Yao
3yr
Good work! I definitely see some good beans in terms of how then bend forward and back. Though one big thing: Drawthrough!! Looking at your beans I get the feeling that you drew along the contours of the bean, trying to get proportion and orientation in space while you were doing it. This is inherently a lot of things to juggle (especially if it's your first time) and can easily be overwhelming. Try like Stan did in the video and drawing two ovular masses to indicate rough size and position of the masses of the ribs and torso, then connecting them with lines and adding orientation (twists, leans, etc). Then draw the line of action last to finish it off. Drawing through is important because it takes those tons of things you need to juggle and simplifies them into steps; the establishing ovals give you position, size, proportion, and general establishment. Then drawing connecting lines between the ovals gives you more refinement of form, adding orientation details further defines that. Then the line of action is added on top to even further define orientation, though if you're doing it right, the line of action often won't even be needed. I see you've also draw contour lines on two of your beans - this generally isn't necessary. The process of drawing the bean itself, and more importantly correct orientation details, will give the contour naturally. It's also great to want to try something new! I feel the same way, doing the same gestures for months burned me out. But because Stan's courses are meant to build gradually on top of previous modules, it's important to follow the way he's set up his courses. 2 weeks on each module max, whether you feel comfortable with it or not, then move on. And keep it up!
Kaelin Harris
I feel a little lost on bean practice. This is the last one I did for the week, but (ignoring my really scratchy lines) I don't feel like I capture foreshortening or twist really well.
Jesse Yao
3yr
These look good! One big thing though; it seems to me (looking at your drawings) that you draw through a lot, instead drawing more along the contour of the bean. Trying drawing through the masses, with the ribs and torsos being ovals and then connecting them like Stan does in the videos. Sometimes he'll start with the longest lasting arc, but for now I'd say try to limit doing that. Once you get a fairly good handle on proportions (which just comes from doing overkill amount of beans) you can try doing longest lasting arcs and omitting drawthroughs. Drawthroughs are important because they help your brain understand where the forms are in 3d space, and especially help with foreshortening and twists. It also helps to establish better proportions. Try doing like Stan and drawing the two ovals for the masses of the bean, connecting them with lines, adding folds and twists where necessary, and THEN drawing the line of action to finish it off.
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