Figure Drawing Fundamentals
Gesture
The Bean
Structure
Landmarks
Robo Bean
Mannequinization
Balance
Exaggeration
Proportions
Measuring
Shading
Figure Drawing Demo
Closing Thoughts
This is a critique for the Shading lesson and generally sumss up all the figure lessons.
Newest
Alan Wong
11d
Thanks for the course, Proko! Felt a bit handicapped attempting this without a kneaded eraser, but it was fun taking on a big project like this for the first time! I also didn't have charcoal powder so I tried to achieve something similar by rubbing graphite everywhere. Please feel free to offer any critiques!
Nicole Guz
27d
Figure drawing practice: Jeff Watts study
@bobjensen
29d
Please give critique, everything from the reference used to the gesture, form and shading. Litterally anything. I don't care if you think you are better or worse than me.
Here are the things I have collected: the head is too small, the body is too fat and the legs are wrongly placed and too big.
If you have a really good tip you heard a place, say it too. Really anything goes. And it won't hurt my feelings either. THANK YOU
Nicole Guz
1mo
2nd week after watching figure drawing class: More practice! What are my obvious mistakes that can make figure drawing better? Any tips or advice?
Filippo Galli
1mo
Here is the final study of the course.
What a ride it was!
Looking back at the start, the amount of knowledge I have gained and the skills I have acquired & refined through practice definitely allow me to tackle subjects that I otherwise would have only dreamed of.
Thank you for this course, Stan!
The road is long, we keep on going.
Filippo Galli
1mo
And here are some warm-ups I did before the sessions.. If you can even call them that, since some took over 1 hour.
I actually skipped doing these for 2 out of 5 sessions.
Filippo Galli
1mo
Here are some wips that I took during the process, along with the reference.
Nicole Guz
1mo
1st Week of Practice(after watching the whole figure drawing course)
# I have to remember to keep stepping away to check proportion.
Is there a way to be better at shading? I am not sure I understood it to well? Ill probably try to study other masters too
@morelock
6mo
Hi all,
Another attempt digitally, trying to get more of that charcoal/graphite look and less "digital."
As always, open to critique and suggestions. Ignore some of the unfinished areas (face feet and weapons) I thought I had gotten most of what I was going to learn out of the piece.
Included my undersketch
faye zhang
10mo
My longest figure drawing ever, it took 10 hours. Still can’t believe I actually did it.
Some mistake lines couldn’t be erased completely, so they do show up in some areas. Though I tried to spot my mistakes and correct them in the layin stages, I didn’t notice a glaring mistake in the position of the hips until the rendering stage. I would love to be able to spot more mistakes earlier on, perhaps it gets better with practice.
Any critiques would be much appreciated!
Thank you Stan for making such a wonderful course, I will definitely miss hearing that catchy intro.
Kyra (kEARuh)
10mo
congrats!
Andy King
10mo
Well done Faye, sitting with the same image for 10 hours is tough, something to be proud of by itself. I'd say your proportions look pretty good to me. The head is possibly on the small side - that's an error I often make so it's easy to spot in other peoples work! Biggest area to work on is the rendering I think, the ribs jump out as a focal point because of the contrast (which I assume is unintentional). Whereas in the reference the values look more subtle. The value transitions in the face look like they could do with more subtly too - the cheek bone in particular jumps out. Otherwise, I think you've done great. Congratz!
@morelock
10mo
Digital, trying to apply the lessons.
Arman Jucutan
11mo
Hello everyone, here is my full figure work. I'm looking for critique in drawing accuracy and shading. Keeping my drawing accurate to the reference have been an issue for me since I started this course so if you happen to find any issues in the linear layin stage please do let me know! As for shading, I don't think I completely captured the lighting from the reference. I think there are too many highlights and I think my final work doesn't clearly show where light is hitting her. Please let me know any areas of improvements or tips in my shading.
If there are any critical issues that you find in my work please do let me know too!
Thank you so much in advance, you're critiques are very much appreciated!
Thomas Nolan II
1yr
Had used graphite rather than charcoal and disregarded dark background, however i hope the rest of image is fairly similar.
@drusk
1yr
More practice. I think it is closer, but I still need work on my faces.
•
1yr
Hey, good job! Something I'd recommend as you progress into your studies is to not only think about the gesture and the shapes you observe on the page, but think about the subject as it takes up space. The shadow below the model indicates the plane she is up against, and this (the floor) visibly pushes against her feet and her bottom. This causes a visible compression that you could exaggerate to make her feel even more believable as a 3D form with weight affected by gravity. It also helps to compare features to one another, such as her hands or feet. Right now, her right hand and left foot appear larger in the drawing than the left hand and right foot respectively--so think about how perspective plays a role in what we observe. There is some foreshortening for the left hand and right foot in the original photo, so assess the direction they are facing and how much of each side we get to see. Hope this helps!
@kotka
1yr
Very happy to arrive at the end of the course. Already decided to return to it regularly. I have learned a lot, and discovered that I too have patience for a longer drawing. Before this course, it was quite hard for me. Now that I know what tasks I have and how I can do the systematically, it's very enjoyable. Not 100% happy with my finished drawing — I feel that my halftone areas are suffering a bit and that I have anatomy knowledge gaps. Got the wrong paper (way too rough) and pens (Conté charcoals instead of the Pierre Noire line), and there are a lot of grease (?) marks from my fingers. Still, it's the first long sitting with a figure drawing in my life. Happy to get some input. Can only get better from now on!
•
1yr
Hey there! Congrats on finishing the course! You have a great final result. A quick pointer on the anatomy side for future reference--it seems the upper half of the torso is larger than everything else in proportion. I think it's a common inclination to group the entirety of the torso mass into the circle meant to indicate the ribs, but remember to keep into account the space taken up by the pecs, abs, fat, etc. You can add it on top of the ribs and/or measure it from gesture to sight-size observation, but remember to check its proportion against everything else before going into final render. Hope this is useful :)
John Harper
1yr
Sorry about the chatty posts. ULINE also has cut newsprint. The 18x24, 30 lb. paper sells at 1666 sheets for $57. That's a great deal at 3.5 cents per sheet.
John Harper
1yr
Your price per sheet at Uline is 9 cents for 50 lb. and 6 cents for 30 lb. paper. This paper takes some getting used to, but the results are nice (my gallery has some examples).
julia pace
2yr
Thanks for making this critique available. I was struck by how much you saw that I didn't. Amazing.
Shubham Chaudhary
2yr
I'm so happy to be able to finish this course. I had a lot of fun and will continue to now that I've learnt so much.
Here's my piece for the shading chapter.
Peter Tinkler
2yr
This is the male figure version, also in charcoal. I used charcoal powder, as well as charcoal pencils for this. I've included some process pics as well, as I love to see an artist's working method where possible. This one is on toned paper to better emphasize the highlights.
Peter Tinkler
3yr
This one's in charcoal, which gives much deeper blacks than the graphite. I do very much enjoy working on toned paper, as the highlights really 'jump' off the page. I think the back is a little bit more developed this time. Hoping to start another tomorrow, but a male figure this time.
Peter Tinkler
3yr
Really enjoyed the course, and although I've still a long way to go, I feel I've improved since doing it. This is my 'full figure with tone' effort, along with a few process pics. I find the muscles of the back very challenging, but love the process, and trying to figure it out is fun. I'm going to try another back pose soon, but in charcoal this time. Happy drawing folks!
squeen
3yr
Excellent. I love toned paper sketches!
Charcoal or graphite?
Sita Rabeling
3yr
For this assignment I chose graphite, the staedler mars 4b because I like the sharp point. Used a ruler for the lay-in, because I wanted to get as right as possible. Maybe it should have been larger, but from foot to top of the drawing is 34cm. I’m not good at shading so this is what I could manage until now. Will definitely repeat this course often whilst following other courses here.
Special thanks @Jesper Axelsson
•
3yr
( 😊😊😊 "Special thanks" 😊😊😊 )
Hi @Sita Rabeling, I think this is a really nice drawing! I like how you managed to capture nuances in the contour while maintaining gesture, and I think the core shadow shows the form well (especially in the thigh of the supporting leg).
To get some quick tips on shading, I think you would appreciate watching Top 5 Shading Mistakes or Mind-Blowing Realistic Shading Tricks
The main thing I would focus on to improve your shading is values. Dorian Iten have some excellent videos on values in his shading course, but he also did a free livestream that you could watch How to Organize Values with Dorian Iten (LIVESTREAM)
Simply by darkening the value of the figure in shadow, the form reads more clearly.
Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
Brian Rogers
3yr
Struggled with the background a bit without using charcoal powder. Had a great time in this class! Critiques or comments are welcomed!
@flugmodus1
3yr
Had a "WOW" Moment while scrolling through my timeline. Awesome! I only feel like the upper body has really balanced light and the legs get really dark all of a sudden. But this could be only me :-)
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About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
