Figure Studies
4yr
@mikolaszko
Hi, it's so fun to be able to show my drawings for critique. I've been drawing for a couple of months and I want to make my figure drawings better. I want them to be more dynamic and more realistic. I have a huge problem with my poses being stiff. I have a lot of practice to do but I am excited about it. If anyone could say what I have to keep in mind and what should I focus on the most? Thanks!
Hi, Maybe something I´m gonna say to you, you heard it before, maybe not, so... I´m learning too, but somenting that really help me when I´m working with human form is trying to work from the "inside out" (not anatomy exactly, structure basically) Here are some samples i did a while back.
I know they are not perfect in any way, but, thinking in volumes help me with the general form.... (sorry my english is not good)
You need to work on asymmetry and rhythm in your drawings - make the curves overlap each other so the drawings aren't so static and aren't like snowman people.
You should really watch a tutorial on gesture (like Proko's one) to get these basics down.
Here's an image from Michael Hampton's book, which you should also read, describing this better than I can - you should read this or like any other good figure drawing book to help with your drawings - books really helped me to not make the basic mistakes early on.
Hey there! Great work! I really love your soft lines, those are perfect for these kinds of drawings.
I think you should start focusing on the action. Find what's the most important gesture is on the image and try to exaggerate it, make it stronger.
If you want to go for a more realistic approach, I think you should start laying in the core shadows. Learning it is very motivating because it's eye candy and gets you to progress better :)
Here, I attached @Maximilian Roth 's drawing it might be helpful.
I hope I could help. Good luck on your art journey :)
These have some nice subtle movement in them! Keep practicing! I definitely agree with the others about trying to focus more on improving your line with the simple, loose line exercises too. The same exercises have helped me a lot in my own practice.
Hey there! A way for you to see improvement would be to do more Gesture drawings for a few weeks without concentrating too much on anatomy. Then slowly go into figure drawing with right proportions and then combine those skills to get more dynamic figure drawings.
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4yr
Hey Mikolaszko! These are really nice, you're really making some fast progress.
The first thing I'd say make sure your pencil is sharpened correctly. Based on the lines you're getting, it feels like your pencil is a bit to broad. The line variety seems arbitrary is and is all over the place. @Bradwynn Jones has a great video on his YouTube channel for pencil sharpening. It seems silly, but it makes a hugeee difference.
The next thing I'd say is start doing drawing exercises. Just spend like 20 or 30 minutes drawing circles, random lines and edges. You're understanding the concepts, but I can tell that you don't have any confidence in your lines. Just practice drawing random lines, with no intention of drawing anything specific. Once you get the confidence to draw long lines, applying them to the figure should be no biggie.
Hi Miko!
One thing you can do is to pick poses that are more extreme, they are easier to make dynamic than one where the person is just standing straight like in your third example. And whatever pose you draw when practicing gesture, exaggerate it. If the hips are swinging to the left like in your fourth image, push them out even more! You don't have to follow your reference exactly.