How to Draw Abs – Form and Motion

Anatomy of the Human Body

How to Draw Abs – Form and Motion

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How to Draw Abs – Form and Motion

191K
Mark as Completed

Assignment

Your assignment for this week is to do some quick sketches of models in various poses. Make sure to focus on the motion and form of the abs. Sometimes to show the forms, it might make sense to indicate some tone. But don't go overboard. The assignment is not to spend hours rendering a single pose. It's to do a lot of quick studies. Sometimes an indication of a core shadow with the right shape and edge will be enough to indicate the form. If you're new to shading, skip it for this exercise since it will be a distraction.

Newest
Shelvs Fleurima
Shelvs Fleurima
Steve Lenze
Your drawings are nice, but they are missing the design of the pose. You have added so much information on the contour, that you cannot feel the stretch and the pinch of the pose. I did some quick sketches to show you what I mean :)
Waner Hoogleiter
Alejandro
9mo
Gian Amir Calibuso
Peter Tinkler
These were fun to do, although I think I've made the torso too long on the last figure. I've gone more for tonal structure rather than line, which might get criticized. I'm learning so much on this course.
@viny
2yr
the studies are both about the ABS and the Obliques, so I'll post it on both
@abrahan13
2yr
Any feedback is appreciated
John Harper
So, Stan has a section on anatomy. The abs are much more complex. You may find some inspiration from his lessons.
Camellito
2yr
Here are my abs assignment. Hope I didn’t focus to much on shading.
@axel21
2yr
Hi Camellito, these are very well constructed abs. The shading is fine too, because you focused on the form of the abs. 1st image: You drew two curved lines for the shadow, in order to show the form of the pecs and the top three abs on the right (our left), but the forms would show better if you added more zigzags and variety of lines. You can draw a boxy shadow for the pecs, in order to differentiate the front and bottom plane, and adding different shadows for the rest of the abs ( make sure every shadow is slightly different than the others, making them at different angles, curved, angular shaped etc., so as not to seem repetitive). That will create a nice zigzag pattern that will fully show the changes of the planes of pecs and abs. 2nd image: There is no room for the "40 oz" on the bottom of the abs, and there should be one more ab on the top left (our right), mostly covered by the breast. You could add a little more gesture by making the body follow a curved line all the way through. 4rth image: Very nice. The only thing I noticed is that you drew the linea semilunaris very curved on both sides, making the abs appear very inflated (remember that the space between the linea semilunaris should be a little narrower than the width of the space between the two nipples). 5th image: The pelvis is too small. 6th image: There is not enough gesture between the rib cage and pelvis (the body looks too straight). The shadow on the ribs is a little repetitive (if you look closely, the shadow falls on a 45 degree angle, whereas the ribs are more horizontal, so those shadows should indicate the obliques muscle). We learn this muscle on the next lesson, so it couldn't be helped, but maybe adding this information will solve some confusion. 7th image: Same as the 1st image. Some difference in the line of the right linea semilunaris (our left) would look better than a straight line. Also, if you erased those pointy shadows on the linea semilunaris that connect it to the abs, the square patterns on the abs would disappear too, making them seem more natural. Lastly, the proportions of the arms and legs are a little wrong ( one arm/leg seems bigger than the other), so make sure to have those proportions right before continuing with the details from now on. Good luck with your anatomy studies :)
@younchen
2yr
Here is my assignments. need critiques.thx
@hiflow
3yr
Here's my assignment. Dunno why the images were on the 2nd video this time, I ended up doing the assignment twice (which is good I guess).
Derek Trudelle
These look great!
Tony Vu
3yr
Here's another few ab studies. The motion and variety of shapes could definitely use more work. Feedback is welcomed thanks!
Luke Ng
3yr
More ab assignment studies struggled with the proportions of the Ribcage and pelvis
Bradwynn Jones
Nice work! The fourth and fifth image have some proportional issues I think. Like the last one looks like his shoulders are a bit too wide for the hips. Your shadow mapping is outstanding! The first three images look right in proportion and lay-in is beautiful.
squeen
3yr
You really got the flow of the figures distilled. Nice job!
Luke Ng
3yr
Ab assignment drawings. Feedback and critiques are welcome!
Alec Brubaker
These look excellent!
Callum Kendrick
These are my first attempts, I know I'm making a lot of mistakes but I'm not sure if there's anything in particular that stands out to anyone which needs more work on.
@rashmi
3yr
It's not very clean work, but i would appreciate some critiques.
Bradwynn Jones
Nice studies! I'd say try to shadow map a bit clearer the core shadows showing form of the abs on the male model especially. The female model's abs will be much softer but really try to map in the forms more on the male.
@sharkhead
3yr
Calling them my fist attempts always feels dishonest, let's say first attempts I deemed decent enough to show. I always do a ton of shitty sketches first but this assignment was especially tricky to me.
Filip Mladenovic
Here's my first set of abs assignments. Maybe I should not have shaded them so much. I may have ended up focusing more on shading than the structure... Please let me know if you see anything I can fix.
Filip Mladenovic
Heres the second bunch. I tried to avoid over rendering the shadow at first but then I ended up doing it anyway.... It almost seems like more work to keep the forms in their simplest forms...
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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