Foreshortening
3yr
@mailys
Hello, I was hoping to get critique on some foreshortening practice I started this morning. I struggle with it, and have for a while. I have a difficult time wrapping my head around perspective, so any advice would be great.
The reference photo is here: https://www.deviantart.com/adorkastock/art/CHARGE-Pose-Reference-for-Drawing-612064555
I very much appreciate the advice you all have offered! I am working up a new sketch, trying to keep everything in mind!
Asked for help
mods, admins Im sorry I accidentally pressed report when I was trying to go to replies
There’s no way around it, foreshortening is tricky. You’re doing the classic thing, which is not allowing yourself to draw the foreshortened elements, in this case the legs, as short as you’re actually seeing them. Even though you’ve already corrected the length of the legs, you haven’t done it nearly enough. Now that you’ve finished your drawing, overlay it on the photo and you’ll be amazed at how extreme the foreshortening in it actually is.
I think you have the right idea, use circular forms for the contours which are foreshortened. I know it's not what you're aiming to do, but try tracing the image now.
You could try this. Connect the dots between foot-foot-hand-shoulder, to enclose the figure inside a drinking cup-shaped quadrangle. Do this to both yours and the reference photo. You'll see the shape is possibly taller on yours compared to the reference image. Try to imitate this outer envelope shape accurately, and that will help you place the feet in relation to the rest of the body. Then construct the parts of the figure as cylinders or boxes in space to help you imagine each section stacked on top of the other, and finish by drawing the figure on top of all this
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3yr
Nice study! I'd take a look at the pec muscle and breast placement. It looks like the top of the breasts are sitting to high and there is not enough space for the pec between the clavicles and top of the breast forms.
Thank you for the feedback! I will take a look at the placement and adjust it! I’m about to work on it a bit more!
It looks good. It looks like you overestimated the height of the stomach compared to the height from the bottom of the breasts to the chin. One thing that could help you is to focus on the negative shapes around the figure (like between the legs or the arm and the leg) and try to copy the shapes rather than thinking of it as a body. I think that we think of an arm as being long or a leg as being straight, and in foreshortened poses the proportions often aren't intuitive, so it can be better to view them first as shapes. I would also pay attention to angles and proportions of things in comparison to each other.
Thank you, I really appreciate the feedback! I do have a difficult time thinking in terms of shapes and forms, but I am definitely trying to make it a habit.
